Harvest Festival 2018.

Harvest Festival 2018.

As the moon rises in the East we know that it is Harvest Festival time again and we wish all our viewers especially those in Asia, a joyful time of thanksgiving and celebration.  For China it is the Mid-Autumn Moon Festival and for the Koreans it is Chuseok. 

Also many Harvest Festivals are celebrated throughout the world around this time of the autumn equinox, at the very end of summer or in early autumn.  American Thanksgiving is held a little later on the fourth Thursday of November so we wait in anticipation for this season too.

In Korea, Chuseok: 추석 is a three-day holiday in North and South Korea, which is celebrated on the 15th day of the 8th month of the lunar calendar on the full moon. The North and South of Korea have a lot to celebrate these days as is obvious from the picture.

 It is Thanksgiving Day throughout Asia and as a celebration of the good harvest people visit their ancestral hometown and share a feast of traditional food and rice wines to pay respect to the spirits of their ancestors. People perform ancestral worship rituals early in the morning. Then, they visit the tombs of their immediate ancestors to trim plants and clean the area around the tomb, and offer food, drink, and crops to their ancestors.

Harvest crops are attributed to the blessing of ancestors. It is a family day and on the eve of the festival, family members gather illustrating the importance of family in Asian society.

Let us be all united with each other in giving thanks to the Lord of the Harvest for blessing us with a rich harvest and let’s remember those who have no harvest this year because of global warming, leaving us with either being immersed in floods, mudslides or desert. Destructive wildfires have invaded different parts of our planet leaving our land barren.

Almighty and gracious Father, 
we give you thanks 
for the fruits of the earth in their season 
and for the labors of those who harvest them. 
Make us, we pray, 
faithful stewards of your great bounty,
for the provision of our necessities                    
and the relief of all who are in need,                                                                                                          especially those suffering from the effects of global warming.  

We pray for patience to endure  such catastrophes                                                                             and look forward to the renewal of life and livelihoods,
to the glory of your Name;
through Jesus Christ our Lord, 
Amen.

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