WORLD'S HARVEST FESTIVALS

HARVEST FESTIVALS

AROUND THE WORLD

www.boldsky.com - We became humans from apes only when we learned to grow our own food. When we started planting crops and harvesting them, we became farmers from hunters and gatherers. That was the beginning of human civilisation. Even today, after so many scientific advancement, the system of sowing crops and harvesting them still exists. Human beings are basically agrarian by nature, that is why, most of the religious rites and festivals have grown around the system of farming. These are some of the biggest harvest festivals of the world. 
Thanksgiving: One of the most celebrated American holidays, Thanksgiving, is originally a harvest festival. It dates back to 1642 when the Puritans displaced from England and landed on the American soil. So, Thanksgiving is not just about a juicy roast turkey. It is a harvest festival in its roots.

Indian Harvest Festivals: As we all know, India is very diverse country with many different languages cultures and traditions. Almost every state in India has its own harvest festival. Tamil Naduu has Pongal, Kerala has Vishu and Maharashtra has Gudiparva to name a few. 
Sukkot: This Jewish festival is celebrated with much splendor in Israel. Sukkot is a festival that lasts for 7 days during which the faithful pray at the Temple of Jerusalem (now the Wailing Wall). Crop Over: The Caribbean islands are not just famous for their beer and the beaches. They also have something very unique to offer the world and that is sugarcane. The harvest of the sugarcane crops are celebrated grandly in the island of Barbados. Timoleague: Nobody values a good harvest more than the Celts. Ireland has seen some of the worst famines in history, so Timoleague as a harvest festival has a very special significance for them.

Almost every culture in the world has some sort of harvest festival. Anwesha - the author of the article - mentions only some of the biggest festivals of the world's crop. Regarding Thanksgiving, she says that the Puritans adopted the tradition of Native Americans to thank the gods for a bountiful harvest. The Sukkot - "Feast of the meeting" in Hebrew - is an agricultural festival mentioned in the Old Testament of the Bible. The end of the harvest is also very famous for its music, song and dance. The festival of Timoleague is celebrated in the month of August each year. The Vedas tell us about the simple agrarian society of the Indus-Saraswati civilization, in which Mother Earth was the symbol of fertility.

WHAT DO THE VEDIC TEACHINGS TELL US? 

Hindu scripture does acknowledge evolution, both the evolution of consciousness and the evolution of matter in conjunction with the evolution of consciousness. ... Those who consider kindness a fundamental virtue of cultural progress realize vegetarianism as the diet of the most evolved human species. Kindness also implies greater complexity, for one has to think not only of how to survive, but how to survive while avoiding harm, both physical and emotional, indicating that when a human being shifts from hunting and gathering to a nonviolent agrarian culture, he or she is evolving positively. Intellect governed by true spirituality fosters divine kindness through which humanity can realize its highest potential. On the other hand, intelligence devoid of spirituality and ruled by sensual demands leads to a society governed by greed, which can be an even more violent society than that of hunter-gatherers.

Śrīla Bhakti Vedanta Tripurari Mahārāja :
“Beginningless Karma”
Sri Caitanya Sanga - October 21, 2007, Vol. IX, No. 8
http://www.swami.org
http://swamitripurari.com/
http://swamitripurari.com/2007/10/beginningless-karma/

Published by dasavatara das - "Vedic Views on World News"
http://www.vedicviews-worldnews.blogspot.com.ar/