Harvest Festival was, traditionally celebrated at the beginning of August, the start of the Harvest season. This was called Lammas, meaning ‘loaf Mass’. The farmers used wheat from the new wheat crop to make loaves of bread. They gave the bread to their local Church, which was then used as Communion bread during a harvest thanksgiving service, thanking God for the harvest.
These days, not much has changed. Churches still celebrate harvest annually and many have harvest sales, or collections for local food banks to give back to their local communities. Horton Heath has always had a strong connection to the local farming community. In fact, the original Church was built on a local farm. Harvest has always been an important festival to Horton Heath, and the congregation always decorates the Church beautifully.
This year our Harvest Service will be held on 3rd October 10:45am and led by Revd. David Le Poidevin.
There will be no sale on the Monday, however we are asking for donations of non-perishable food for the food bank, to add to the display on the Sunday, which will be donated to the Trussell Trust after the service.
Items that can be donated are tins, cans, porridge, rice, pasta, sugar, nappies, toiletries, pet food. Please check out www.trusselltrust.org for more ideas.