Harvest, farming and weather: practices that mark them

Harvest, farming and weather are the oldest occasions for magic. Where food and rain are uncertain, people hold rites for the first fruits, the planting, the rain and the storm. Examples include the Japanese niiname-sai, the Indian Pongal and Onam, the Andean offerings to Pachamama, the Native American Green Corn ceremony, the European corn dolly and Harvest Home, the Chinese rain dances and the African rainmaker. This page covers these customs and what they say about risk.

Planting and first fruits

Many societies offer the first of the crop to gods or ancestors before eating. In the Andes, offerings are made to Pachamama before planting and harvest. In Japan, the emperor performs the niiname-sai thanksgiving ritual each year. In Europe, the last sheaf was shaped into a corn dolly and kept until spring. Such customs link human labour with a wider order. The Chinese and Japanese calendars both mark farming seasons with set offerings.

Rain and weather

Rainmaking is recorded on every continent. Rainmakers in southern Africa were chiefs and priests, and the Modjadji queens of the Balobedu in South Africa were known for it. In parts of China, dragon rites and processions were held in drought. In Europe, processions with saints' relics were used against storms. When rain fails, rainmakers have sometimes been blamed or punished. Farmers in Europe and the Middle East kept saints' days for each task in the farming year, and set a loaf aside at the first cutting.

Pests, protection and crops

Farmers use charms to protect animals and fields: horseshoes on barn doors, protective figures, blessed seeds, and rites against pests. Some of these customs run alongside agricultural science, and some now clash with it. Modern weather modification and cloud seeding add a technical echo, and communities hold mixed views of both. Fear of crop failure has also produced blame, and there are cases of accusations of witchcraft following a poor harvest.

Change and loss

Industrial farming has weakened many rites, and climate change makes weather rites weigh heavily. Festivals survive as heritage, as with Pongal and Onam, which remain widely celebrated. Scholars see these rites as ways of managing uncertainty and building cooperation, whatever their effect on rain. Today, farmers use a mix of tradition and technology, and some festivals have moved from the field to the town, while others are held by those who farm organically and seek to link old customs with new practice.