The idea of a “Harvest Fair” seems a little silly in the 21st century. Sure, a few of us have community gardens plots or a backyard vegetable bounty, but the old tradition of gathering once a year in the fall to give thanks for a good harvest is a little unmoored from the realities of modern food production. We’ve all heard the phrase “supply chain” more than we’d like in the last three years, but there’s never been any real risk that the harvest filling our supermarket shelves would be anything less than abundant. These days, food insecurity is an economic problem, not an agricultural one; a matter of unequal access to food, not of famine and drought—at least in the United States.
Still, we take time each fall to celebrate an abundant harvest. We celebrate with our families on Thanksgiving Day. We celebrate with our church in the annual Harvest Fair.
The “harvest” we celebrate at the Harvest Fair may have become a metaphor. But it’s no less abundant.
This year’s Harvest Fair is, more than anything else, a celebration of community, and of the fields bearing abundant fruit in our community.
So here’s what I’ll be giving thanks for at this year’s Harvest Fair:
- The ability to sit down, face to face, and share a meal as a community, and with neighbors in our community, in relative safety, once more.
- The tireless and enthusiastic work of members of our church community who are spending their time baking, cooking, sewing, knitting, crafting, organizing, and planning.
- The artists and craftspeople from our surrounding community who will join us to sell their own work for the first time,* and for the support we’re able to give them by providing a place to do that.
Most of us may not be getting dirt under our fingernails this fall. But we can still give thanks to God for this abundant harvest.
Greg
Click here for more information about this year’s Harvest Fair.