Beginning Our Tradition

The Harvest Festival is a celebration that we hope will become a tradition every year. There are some new traditions that we will be introducing this year for our 'debut' festival! These are meant to be 'optional' activities and anyone wishing to participate is very welcome.

We will also provide a 'handout' summarizing the weekend's intentions and festivities, and these ideas will be included in that.

Here is a glimpse into some of the ways we hope to honour and nurture the blending our our 'thanksgiving' traditions:

1. Recording Our Thanks: We will lay a white tablecloth during our Harvest Festival and this will be available for anyone wishing to write their thoughts about gratitude and thanksgiving (either privately or with ownership). This tablecloth will be preserved and presented each year so that our families can add their thoughts, images, words about how they embrace gratitude and Thanksgiving in their hearts.

2. Chain of Gratitude: We will provide strips of colourful paper for guests to write their thoughts about gratitude. Each strip will be stapled and added to our Chain of Gratitude. This will be on display during our Harvest Festival, and we can add to it each year that families gather.

3. Balloon Release: The legend behind the Mid-Autumn Harvest Festival in China is that it is a time to remember those who are important in our lives, near or far, alive or deceased. One way that we can help our children to make a 'connection' with their birth families, is to have them think of something they would like their birth family to know, either about them, their families or just a general sentiment. This thought could be placed (emotionally) into an Eco-friendly balloon, which can then be released and carried to China. It is a symbolic exercise and the balloons we will provide are ecologically friendly.

4. Children's Activities: In addition to participating in any of the above activities, we intend to provide the following amusement for the children:

a. A Scarecrow decorating event.
b. A pumpkin decorating event.
c. Harvesting the Pumpkin Patch.
d. Making an Autumn Wreath from leaves.
e. Making masks from nature's Autumn materials.
f. Making collages from nature's Autumn materials.
g. Plenty of Autumn & Harvest Festival colouring pages and puzzle pages.
h. Making Autumn Harvest Lanterns and other chinese traditional items.
I. Plenty of outdoor exploring and general good fun.

If you have any suggestions that have not been mentioned here, please do get in touch with Ellen: bower_ellen@yahoo.com or visit her blog at http://www.threemotherlands.blogspot.com/