As we prepare for the Harvest Fest, my mind skips back to the history lessons learned as a child concerning Thanksgiving and the Pilgrims and the first Americans who shared their food supplies. Then to the 1850s, where our stage is set for celebration of the cultural connections between Indians and Spanish and Pioneers.
We are having PUMPKINS – painting for the young ones, carving for the older ones. PUMPKINS come to us from Native American cultivation and are eons old, useful in many ways, colorful and delicious. HAY RIDES spring from bringing cut hay from the fields to the barns and the field hands riding on the wagon. As the wagon pulls, riders often break out into song. Cooking and storytelling around CAMPFIRES is a much old custom than 1850s, however quiet camraderie and congenial conversation seems to be required from deep within.
As a child, I loved to go into the attic of an auntie and find clothing from 50 years past, sometimes even 100 years. DRESSING IN 1850s COSTUMES is fun no matter how old you are. It is fairly easy to find inexpensive accessories and even the basics. You can sew a costume as did the grandmother of two girls last year. Prairie girl costumes. You can find cowboy hats and vests and bandanas – do you have jeans in your closet? How about a schoolmarm, lady rancher, priest, vaquero, brave warrior, gambler, saloon girl, soldier, miner, barber or cook?
In California in the 1850s gold had just been discovered, the Spanish haciendas were being disbanded, Native Americans pushed to reservations, population exploding with pioneers and farmers. There was much adventure and much tragedy. It was a dramatic time of change.
Let us celebrate our Old West Harvest Fest today by remembering our ancestors as the hardy survivors they were, and by giving thanks for our lives today. And let us all play like pioneers!
- Sacred Rocks Style Hayride 2008
