With dictionary look up. Double click on any word for its definition.
This section is in advanced English and is only intended to be a guide, not to be taken too seriously!
Autumn is the time of year for celebrating the harvest and for customs to make sure that next year's harvest will also be good.
In churches all over Britain there are services to give thanks for the Harvest and to pray for a good harvest for the following year. As part of these services local people bring baskets of fruit and vegetables to decorate the church. This produce is then distributed to people in need.
Superstitions associated with Harvest time
Corn Dollies
The last sheaf of corn to be harvested is made into a corn dolly, this is created by plaiting the wheat stalks to create a straw figure. The corn dolly is kept until the Spring. This is because people believed that the corn spirit lived in the wheat and as the wheat was harvested, the spirit fled to the wheat which remained. By creating the corn dolly the spirit is kept alive for the next year and the new crop. Sometimes the corn dolly is hung up in the barn, sometimes in the farmhouse, and sometimes in the church. In Spring the corn dolly would be ploughed back into the soil.
The story of John Barleycorn
A similar story to the corn dolly is to be found in the folksong John Barleycorn. Three men swear that John Barleycorn must die. They take a plough and bury him alive. But the Spring comes and John rises through the soil. After a while he grows big and strong, even growing a beard, so the three men cut him down at the knee, tie him on to a cart, beat him, strip the flesh off his bones and grind him between two stones. But at the end it is John Barleycorn who defeats his opponents, proving the stronger man, by turning into beer.