HARVEST, the season of the ingathering of crops (A.S. haerfest "autumn," O.H. Ger. herbist). Harvest has been a season of rejoicing from the remotest ages. The Romans had their Cerealia or feasts in honour of Ceres. The Druids celebrated their harvest on Nov. 1. In pre-Reformation England Lammas Day (Aug. I, 0.S.) was observed as the beginning of the harvest festival. Throughout the world harvest has always been the oc casion for many queer customs which all have their origin in the animistic belief in the corn-spirit or corn-mother. This per sonification of the crops has left its impress upon the harvest customs of modern Europe. In West Russia, for example, the figure made out of the last sheaf of corn is called the bastard, and a boy is wrapped up in it. The woman who binds this sheaf represents the "corn-mother," and an elaborate simulation of childbirth takes place, the boy in the sheaf squalling like a new born child, and being, on his liberation, wrapped in swaddling bands. Even in England vestiges of sympathetic magic can be detected. In Northumberland, an image formed of a wheatsheaf, and dressed in a white frock and coloured ribbons, is hoisted on a pole. This is the "kern-baby" or harvest-queen, and is set up in a prominent place during the harvest supper. In Scotland, the last sheaf, if cut before Hallowmas, is called the "maiden," and the youngest girl in the harvest-field is given the privilege of cutting it.
Throughout the world, as Sir J. G. Frazer shows, the semi worship of the last sheaf is or has been the great feature of the harvest-home. Among harvest customs none is more interesting than harvest cries ; the Devonshire reapers go through a ceremony which in its main features is a counterpart of pagan worship. "After the wheat is cut they . . . pick out a bundle of the best ears . . . ; this bundle is called `the neck' ; the harvest hands then stand round in a ring, an old man holding `the neck' in the centre. At a signal from him they take off their hats, then all together they utter in a prolonged cry `the neck !' three times, raising them selves upright with their hats held above their heads. Then they change their cry to `Wee yen ! way yen !' or, as some report, `we haven!' " On a fine, still autumn evening "crying the neck" has a wonderful effect at a distance.
For a very full discussion of harvest customs see Sir J. G. Frazer, The Golden Bough.