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Also known as the Moon Festival because it is timed to coincide with the full moon on the 15th day of the eighth lunar month, this harvest festival is a major date on cultural calendars in China, Taiwan, and Vietnam.
A four-day festival celebrated by Tamil-speaking people across Southeast Asia, Pongal is a celebration of the rice harvest. The lively celebrations take place after winter solstice, to mark the return of longer, sunnier days.
Celebrating the fruits of the harvest is a tradition that has been carried out all over the world for generations. Here, a young woman samples the grapes at a 1933 harvest festival in Rome.
The American Thanksgiving holiday began in the fall of 1621, when pilgrims gave thanks for their wheat crop with three-day feast. Visitors to Plimoth Plantation, Massachusetts, can relive the events with fall re-enactments.
Crimea's answer to the Bavarian Oktoberfest, this harvest and wine festival is a relatively new addition to the calendar. Russia's finest wine and food producers gather to showcase their wares to enthusiastic crowds, who can take part in grape-crushing and plenty of wine tastings.
The annual grape harvest is a major celebration across wine-producing regions of the world, and many have their own unique festivities. In Toro, Spain, horse-drawn carts pass through the streets offering wine and food to onlookers.
With roots tracing back as far as Pagan times, the Polish harvest festival of Dożynki has been celebrated in its current form since the 16th-century. After the crops had been harvested, laborers were rewarded with a merriment-filled holiday. Today, it is a mainly religious festival, offering thanks for a rich harvest.
A smaller-scale version of the event takes place in the town of Rind, in a lively festival that sees cooking demonstrations using fruits of the harvest, and everybody gets to join in the traditional grape crushing.
The English word ‘sherry’ is thought to come from a mispronunciation of the name Jerez, and this Andalusian town celebrates its fortified wine heritage with great enthusiasm.
Chilean wine is famous across the world, and the wine valleys of Central Chile celebrate the grape harvest with lively festivals in March and April (early fall in South America). Grape-stomping is a popular part of the tradition.
One of the most important events in the country, Incwala celebrates the connections between deities and the harvest. A six-day festival based around deep-rooted traditions, it sees the first fruits of the season offered to the king. When he eats the fruit, the festivities can begin.
The grape harvest is celebrated in fine style in the Mendoza wine region of Argentina. On the last Sunday of February, the Archbishop of Mendoza sprinkles the first of the season’s grapes with holy water, marking the start of a month-long party that includes spectacular shows and beauty pageant hopefuls competing to be elected Harvest Queen.
One of the oldest grape harvest festivals in the country, the festivities take place in early autumn, with visitors from across the country joining in the lively calendar of wine-fueled events.
The practice celebrates harvest bounty and honors a time when Israelites lived in such shelters as they wandered the deserts. Fronds of willow, palm, citron and myrtle are shaken each day in thanks for the gifts of the land.
The Jewish harvest festival of Sukkot sees families build makeshift shelters, or sukkah, in which they eat–and sometimes sleep–for seven days.
One of the most spectacular of the Mid-Autumn Festivals is the version held in Hong Kong. Based on a local legend of a straw dragon banishing evil spirits, a 'fire dragon' dance parades through the streets.
Greek Orthodox communities mark the new year with a pre-harvest tradition that sees the local bishop throw a crucifix into the sea to bless the waters. The swimmer who catches it can expect a year of good luck, and locals wash their produce in the blessed water in the hope of a bumper harvest.
Held around one month after new year, this Hindu Rice festival is dedicated to the rice goddess, and sees locals come together in a colorful celebration of all that she provides.
Celebrating the beautiful flowers that bloom year-round on the Portuguese island of Madeira, the spring Flower Festival is a colorful riot of singing, dancing, and parades led by beautifully-decorated floats.
British harvest festivals have been held in their current form since the 1800s, and see locals gather collections of provisions for charitable distribution, followed by lively events and traditional activities such as maypole dancing.
Locals place effigies of the goddess in their rice fields, towns are strung with bright flags, and traditional activities, such as bull races and dancing, draw huge crowds.
An evolution of the Catholic June festivals that arrived with Portuguese colonizers, these June harvest festivals take place during fall in Brazil. Partiers dress up as country folk, with painted-on freckles, straw hats, and even blackened teeth, for lively social gatherings held up and down the country.
Fall means American Thanksgiving, and the enthusiastically-celebrated November national holiday is traditionally a time of great feasting and family gatherings. People come together to eat, drink, and make merry as they give thanks for blessings throughout the year. Elsewhere around the globe, communities come together to give thanks for their year's crops in all manner of colorful celebrations, timed to mark the harvest of their region.
The customs, costumes, and festivities vary around the world, but all include the glorious combination of eating, drinking, music, and celebrating all the good things in life. Intrigued? Then click through this gallery to discover some colorful harvest festivals from around the world.
Madeira holds a second harvest festival in early autumn, this time honoring the island's wine-producing traditions. Held during the wine harvest in late August and early September, it's a celebration of folklore and viticulture that has been held since the 1970s.
Dating back to 1810, the Bavarian festival of Oktoberfest is synonymous with eating, drinking, and making merry. It began life as an agricultural celebration, marking the last harvest before summer. Beer laid down in casks during spring is aged over the summer and ready to be drunk with gusto in Munich in October.
The 2011 discovery of what is thought to be the world’s oldest winery in Areni, Armenia, prompted locals to host a lively harvest and heritage festival each October. Folk dancing, grape-crushing, and a whole lot of wine and food have made this one of Armenia’s most popular festivals.
In a tradition dating back over 100 years, Londoners dressed in distinctive pearled suits and hats gather donations year-round, before getting together for a fall harvest festival featuring a parade and lots of traditional singing and dancing.
The female-focused festival of Gangaur is a vibrant celebration in Rajasthan. A celebration of spring, fertility, and the harvest, it honors Guari, the wife of Lord Shiva, throughout March and April.
Grape harvest festivals are a time-honored tradition in the hilltop Montmartre neighborhood of Paris. Traditional music, local food, and lots of local wine have been part and parcel of the celebrations since 1934.
And celebrating the end result of all those hard-picked grapes is nothing new, either. These young ladies were raising a glass to a successful season at a 1930s wine harvest festival in Anjou, France.
Sources: (National Geographic) (CNN) (Britannica)
See also: Movies to get you in the mood for fall
Colorful harvest festivals from across the globe
Thanksgiving takes different forms all over the world
LIFESTYLE Celebrations
Fall means American Thanksgiving, and the enthusiastically-celebrated November national holiday is traditionally a time of great feasting and family gatherings. People come together to eat, drink, and make merry as they give thanks for blessings throughout the year. Elsewhere around the globe, communities come together to give thanks for their year's crops in all manner of colorful celebrations, timed to mark the harvest of their region.
The customs, costumes, and festivities vary around the world, but all include the glorious combination of eating, drinking, music, and celebrating all the good things in life. Intrigued? Then click through this gallery to discover some colorful harvest festivals from around the world.