have grown throughout the year and the harvest festival is a celebration of the

food that we have cultivated in the land in this lesson you're going to learn

about what the harvest festival means to the UK the word harvest comes from the

old english word hair first what does hair fest mean we'll show you

the answer at the end of this video traditionally the harvest festival is

held on or near the sunday of the Harvest Moon the Harvest Moon is a full

moon that is closest to the autumn all equinox two times out of three this

falls within September but on those rare occasions it occurs in October in the UK

the main places that celebrate the Harvest Festival

are churches and schools churches decorate with baskets of fruit and other

produce and say prayers and sing hymns to give thanks for previous successful

harvests and hope for continued success in the future it is not a public holiday

but it's still an important date in the calendar in the UK schools may hold

assemblies such as similar to the church services but they also asked students to

bring food to the school the food is then parceled up so that it can be

distributed to those less fortunate as a harvest festival is also about helping

those in need as much as possible

although harvest celebrations can be traced back to pagan festivals the

modern harvest festival began in 1843 when parishioners in Cornwall were

invited to a Thanksgiving service by the Reverend at that time and now I'll give

you the answer to the earlier quiz the word harvest comes from the old english

word hair fest what does half-assed mean hair fest is the old english word for

autumn the meaning evolved however and it came to mean the season for reaping

and gathering grain how is this lesson did you learn something interesting do

you have any harvest festivals in your country leave us a comment at English

class 101.com and we'll see you in the next lesson

you