A Harvest Celebration

By Susan Fisher

When my own son was smaller, we went through a time of tension as each October came around.  I loved the change of the seasons, and longed to carve pumpkins, remembering the wonderful aroma and feel of that childhood experience.  He would spot Halloween costumes in the stores and (true Leo rising personality that he was) would long to be able to dress up in them, and go trick or treating.  The tension really came from the fact that I was not comfortable celebrating a holiday that seemed to celebrate fear, and the darker side of life.  This, of course was not what my son saw.  He only saw the fun of the costumes and the treats, the celebration side of it.  In the end, we made our peace, and agreed that costumes and treats were not the problem, and that we would, each year carve our pumpkins (I always go for abstract lantern shapes), and he could enjoy dressing up, and that we would not make it a celebration of fear and evil, but a fall family seasonal celebration.

My son has grown and is now in college.  Yet each October, I still gaze longingly at the pumpkins when they appear at the roadside fruit stands and grocery stores.  Each year I still enjoy celebrating the season – and this year, once again, as we held our community Harvest Celebration at the end of October, I was warmed to the heart to see how we have created for our children in Stelle a celebration that they will remember with love and warmth for the rest of their lives. 

This year, as in previous years, our celebration began in the afternoon.  It was a glorious fall day, and gradually parents and children trickled into the community center, their pumpkins in hand.  We spread vinyl tablecloths on the ground and set up carving and scooping stations for the pumpkins.  We also set up 2 or 3 other craft areas:  a place to make edible necklaces out of dried Stelle apples, raisins, carrots and celery, a table to do leaf rubbings, and a cooperative art project where each child would be able to dip their hands in paint and make hand prints on the form of a tree, creating  many brightly colored  human-like leaves, on the tree and falling to the ground.  For about 2 hours we played together,  fathers and mothers and small children, and a few extra adults like me, who just wanted to join in.

By about 3:00 we had a wonderful collection of pumpkins of all shapes.  This year, most of them had been grown by the children in the Agricultural Co-op garden, and the children had all been able to choose their own, home-grown pumpkin, right out in the field, on the day of the harvest.  As usual, we lined them all up in the courtyard, with candles inside – a beautiful array of expressive faces and shapes (one pumpkin had 3 faces to choose from – one child’s perceptive contribution), to light when the sun went down. 

Before the children left to go home, Gwen Carr shared with us the story of Stone Soup.  How a small village (very much like Stelle) learned how to make the most delicious soup of all by each person sharing a few precious foods  with a few hungry soldiers.  The soldiers brought their own soup pot, and of course,their magic stone, for the stone soup.  As each child brought forth the missing ingredients, the soldiers thanked them, inviting them to please come back, and share the delicious stone soup with them.  To our wonder, the children were rapt, completely enveloped by the story, and the lesson of trust and sharing it taught, and were eager to come back in the evening to taste their delicious Stone Soup.

From 5:30 to 6:30 small groups of children in costume (with parents) went door to door (to the homes that had previously signed up – wanting to be on the route) showing off their costumes and getting treats.  There was a snowman, a tiger, a mouse, a glamour girl, a couple of cowboys, a superhero or two, but no vampires, ghosts or ghouls.  And the treats were a refreshing blend of traditional sweets combined with pretzels, peanuts, and rubber animals. 

At 6:30 we met once again in the community center – the mothers of the children in the Learning Center Co-op had all contributed breads, salad, and dessert to fill out the stone soup dinner.  The room was filled with people from the community, eating a candlelight dinner, and enjoying the now-lit pumpkin display in the Courtyard. 

Finally, we all wandered out to the bonfire by the barns, where we lit the remains of the summer’s prunings and enjoyed the blaze of the autumn fire.  I had promised a game of sardines to anyone who wanted to play it, if the weather cooperated.  The night was perfect – not windy, not too cold and not wet.

A group of us headed out to play sardines in the old park – 3 teenagers, 4 adults and 2 preschoolers, all running around in the dark, thrilling in the chase of the hidden sardine, and giggling as we tried desperately to hide all 9 people together.    At one point, when I was lying under a large pine tree with 6 other people, watching the stars peek out behind the clouds and listening to Hayden (now 5) telling me how he was not going to be seen because his clothes matched the tree branches, (although his voice could be heard clearly in the still night air), I thought  this is what I love about Stelle - our ability to play together, to create wonderful memories involving everyone.