As a 21 Century city-dweller, where do I come into contact with the traditional rhythms of the year that are celebrated in the Harvest Festival that most UK churches (and many others across the globe) will celebrate in early autumn each year?

One place is my garden. That definitely gives me a sense of season; at the moment, there are still a number of plants in flower and some tomatoes left (will they ripen before the weather gets too cold?) but summer’s riches are giving way to winter’s austerity down the golden-red passage of autumn. I find my garden a very peaceful and healing place to be (in no doubt partly due to the sweat of my brow that has been invested in shaping and maintaining it) but that’s a private space.

The other place, a cornucopia of plenty albeit with only a very muted sense of rhythm are the local shops, stalls and supermarkets. However, they are the places in our communities where we “bring the harvest home”. I read today of one person who decided to take harvest celebrations to the local supermarket:

What a brilliant idea! We’ve already done our harvest celebration at church this year but I’ll file this one under possibilities for next year!

Tags: harvest, celebration, urban