Harvest
My mother walks into the room holding a bag of oranges.
"Oh! Please can I have an orange?"
"No, they are for God!"
Walks away, and returns holding a pineapple.
"Is that for God too?"
"Yes!"
"Is there anything I can have?"
"You can have a banana if you like"
"Doesn't God like bananas?"
"Yes, but we have enough"
I know its Eid and Rosh Hashanah this week, but here its Harvest Festival; so my parents need to decorate a church window for some forthcoming services. (As previously mentioned here).
They've just been on altar duty (as in decorate it) for the past month, so its like a continual supply of flowers going elsewhere. Anyway, I've really no idea why mum picked oranges and pineapples since they don't grow in these parts, to contribute to the Come, Ye Thankful People, Come theme. So much for local foodstuffs and being wary of ecological footprint. I expect they were after colour (there are more traditional root vegetables too, not to mention flowers by the dozen). This window is pretty big.
So here's a prepared basket, which incidentally I made (as in weaved the willow):
When I was a kid, both my sister and I used to have to take a basket of vegetables / fruit to school, and on church on Sunday. These foods were dispersed to old people in the district (who may even be more economically independent). Whilst with all good motives and teaches you to think beyond yourself, that's four baskets on top of a family's weekly shop. From a distance you can't help wonder of economic impact on families with perhaps less disposable income, to comply with this annual ritual. It used to be a social obligation, what about today? What if families can't afford to undertake such rituals, yet the community expects them to and doesn't give a second thought. Do people just go into debt, to keep up the pretense of honouring God?
This got me thinking, Harvest isn't celebrated in the States probably because of its close historical association with religion. Thanksgiving, the closest thing and a much more family centred affair, is much later in the year (perhaps taking into account the south, with autumn being later in terms of seasons)? Yes, I know not everyone honours Thanksgiving, Native Americans see it as a time of mourning.
Which has me wondering, is there any festival or celebration that we can share that cuts across all creeds? Or is precisely that diversity that is a celebration, and just leave be?