The custom of holding a festival at harvestime goes back over two thousand years. The last day of the year on the old pagan calendar, October 31, served the triple purpose of bidding goodbye to summer, welcoming winter, and remembering the dead.
Harvest festivals were traditionally accompanied by rituals the world over that linked the cycle of death and life together. Linked with death, for the corn came from under the earth where the dead resided, but even more with fertility and new life, ears of corn were left standing in the field because people were afraid of exhausting the strength of the crop.
This was said to be an offering for OdinŐs horse or those who dwell under the earth. In Germany, peasants used to break the first straws of hay brought into the barns saying, "This is food for the dead."
Many people throughout the world hold annual festivals honoring the departed at this time of year. The exact time varies from region to region but there is a tendency to associate it with the harvest. Even in our own country, our ancestors from England who had this tradition in their background, created Thanksgiving as a new holiday to give thanks for the crops and all our bounty.
It was the autumn of 1621, in Plymouth Colony, when Governor Bradford set a time for giving thanks for the yearŐs harvest. And so the tradition of the harvest festival continues.