The same idea in 18 places, grouped by region. Each entry is a short portrait; follow the link for the full tradition.
Pongal in Tamil Nadu, Makar Sankranti in the north, Bihu in Assam and Lohri in Punjab all mark the winter harvest in mid-January. At Pongal, new rice is boiled in milk until it overflows, and a cry of "Pongalo Pongal" is raised.
Read: PongalTet Trung Thu is a children's festival with lanterns, lion dances and mooncakes at the autumn moon. Rice farmers also hold offerings after the harvest in many northern villages.
Read: Mid-Autumn FestivalRice goddess Dewi Sri is honoured at harvest on Java and Bali, with offerings of the first sheaves, and the seren taun in Sundanese villages brings processions, dancing and rice pounding. The festival is a way of thanking the goddess for the harvest, and the first rice is shared among all the families of the village.
Dewi Sri, being writtenChuseok falls on the full moon of the eighth lunar month, and families return home to honour ancestors, eat songpyeon rice cakes and share the first rice of the year. It is one of the largest travel periods in the country.
Read: ChuseokThe Mid-Autumn Festival is the harvest moon festival, when families gather to admire the full moon and share mooncakes. Lanterns are lit, and stories of the moon goddess Chang'e are told.
Read: Mid-Autumn FestivalRtveli is the grape harvest in autumn, when families and friends pick grapes, press them in clay qvevri and feast. The wine makers' tradition is on UNESCO's list.
Read: RtveliSukkot is the autumn harvest festival, when families build a temporary hut, a sukkah, and eat in it for a week, and shake the four species. Shavuot celebrates the wheat harvest and the giving of the Torah.
Read: SukkotWafaa el-Nil celebrates the annual flooding of the Nile, a festival that goes back to ancient Egypt, when the river's rise meant a good harvest. Families hold picnics on the banks, and cotton and cane harvests are also marked in the villages.
Flooding of the Nile, being writtenThe Homowo festival of the Ga people marks the end of famine with a meal of kpokpoi, a steamed corn dish, while the Yam festival of the Ashanti, Odwira, thanks the ancestors for the new yams. Both festivals include drumming, dancing and the wearing of cloth in the colours of the clan.
Read: HomowoThe New Yam Festival among the Igbo, Iri Ji, is a celebration when the first yam is offered to the gods and to the ancestors, with dances, masquerades and feasts. Elders say a prayer before the yam is cut, and no one may eat the new yam until the rite is done.
Read: New Yam FestivalThe Zulu first fruits ceremony, Umkhosi Wokweshwama, blesses the new harvest, and Incwala in Eswatini offers the first fruits to the king. Women in many villages dance for the first green maize.
Read: IncwalaHarvest festival services, with loaves, vegetables and tins to give to the poor, are held in churches on the Sunday near the harvest moon. Lammas, 1 August, was the loaf mass of the first wheat.
Read: Harvest festivalErntedankfest is celebrated in early October with a harvest crown, altars of fruit and a church service, and wine festivals celebrate the grape harvest along the Rhine and Mosel. Munich's Oktoberfest started as a royal wedding and is now a beer harvest celebration.
Read: Harvest festivalThanksgiving, on the fourth Thursday of November, brings families together for roast turkey, cranberries and pumpkin pie. Native Americans celebrate the Green Corn Ceremony and other first-fruits rites.
Read: ThanksgivingThanksgiving falls on the second Monday of October, with a similar feast, and the sugar shack season marks the maple harvest in Quebec in early spring. Families gather for a dinner of roast turkey, squash and pie, often after a long walk or a game.
Read: ThanksgivingAndean communities hold offerings to Pachamama, Mother Earth, at the time of planting and harvest, with coca leaves, chicha and dancing. Potatoes are dried and blessed at a harvest feast.
Pachamama, being writtenThe yam is the pride of the island, and communities hold a first fruits ceremony, the i sevu, offering the first yams to the chief with kava and song. The rite is led by village elders, and the yam is then shared among the clans in a feast with kava.
Yam, being writtenThe Kaningara yam festival in the Sepik region celebrates the year's yam harvest, with the display of giant yams, dancing and feasting. The size of the yam is a matter of prestige.
Read: Igbo New Yam FestivalWritten by the EveryParampara desk with AI assistance. Customs differ from place to place and family to family. If this is your tradition and we have it wrong, tell us.
Every week: one tradition from somewhere new, what is being celebrated around the world this week, and one idea explained.