The Harvest Festival

As we slide into Autumn I am reminded of the Harvest Festival Mom and Dad took us to back when Halloween was evil.

Looking back, there were far more similarities between Halloween and a Harvest Festival than there were differences. Both involved copious amounts of candy, of course, and fall-themed decorations like bales of hay and pumpkins. Both were holidays for children. Both even featured grown-ups who dressed like witches and demons- although at a Harvest Festival this was only done to warn us little ones about the perils of....actually, I'm not sure what they were warning us against.

The skit that featured witches and demons was about some kids who went trick-or-treating at the home of a witch. I no longer remember what terrible fortune awaited them, only that the witch had an annoying tendency to talk to the audience (and to the "invisible," cackling demons that the children in the skit seemed unable to ever see or hear or bump into) about her malevolent plans for our young heroes every ten minutes or so.

So, perhaps the skit was meant to warn us against visiting the houses of people who talk to invisible audiences or allow demons who are visible to everyone other than gullible young Christians to cackle in their front rooms.

What it actually should have warned us about, though, was how much gender influences what sort of treat one gets at Harvest Festival games.

There was a fishing game that involved children holding onto plastic or wooden rods while the grown-up volunteers threw our fishing lines over a tall, wooden partition. They would then call out, "a girl is fishing," or "a boy is fishing." Thirty seconds later, someone would tug on our fishing line. That was our cue to pull the lines back over the wall to see what one had caught.

Boys always got a plastic sandwich bag full of candy. Girls always ended up with a bag half-full of candy and half-full of a flimsy, plastic necklace that looked like it would snap in half if you breathed upon it.

At first, I thought that who received what prize was random, that if I played long enough I'd be able to avoid the flimsy necklace. I was wrong. No matter how many times I went back to that game, they labeled me a girl and gave me jewelry instead of extra candy. I was not impressed.

If only the skit had skipped all those silly warnings about witches and gone straight to the heart of the issue instead! ;)