Fall is in the air and it’s time for celebrations and gratitude for what Mother Nature has provided during the summer. There are different traditions throughout the world regarding this phenomenon. Most known I guess is Thanksgiving in America. My blogger friend Mother of Invention has provided me with the following information: The origins of Canadian Thanksgiving are more closely connected to the traditions of Europe than of the United States. Long before Europeans settled in North America, festivals of thanks and celebrations of harvest took place in Europe in the month of October. The very first Thanksgiving celebration in North America took place in Canada when Martin Frobisher, an explorer from England, arrived in Newfoundland in 1578. He wanted to give thanks for his safe arrival to the New World. That means the first Thanksgiving in Canada was celebrated 43 years before the pilgrims landed in Plymouth, Massachusetts!
October festivals are perhaps more known in the mid Europe and maybe in Germany. The grains were harvested and it was time to make beer. Similar in other countries as grapes were made into wine. Grapes don’t grow so well in Norway, but the Vikings made their grains into beer thousands of years ago.
What I would like to tell you about today, is the harvest festival in Mariestad, Sweden. My regular readers know we have a vacation home there and visit quite often. So the 22th of September the whole community was in a festive mood. They call it the Harvest and culture Festival (see the logo above). The atmosphere was great, the audience was thrilled and excited and I went crazy with my Nokia mobile phone camera. I hope you enjoy this experience shown trough my eyes as much as my wife and I did!
On the town square they set up a stage and The Black Benny’s Band was playing New Orleans Jazz. The Circus Carling was juggling and The Black Brother’s gave a thrilling performance. I also find it interesting that the decorations in front of the stage contain pumpkins. I think it’s influenced by the Halloween tradition which is defiantly not Nordic, but of course it’s an apparent sign of the harvest season. The colour is typical fall as well of course:-)
One of the Black Brother’s acrobatic tricks fascinated me and I just had to try capturing it live and in motion. My Nokia can take video too you know, so here you go:
My regular readers know I like to provide you with details and fact about my stories. This time Mariestad Tourist bureau and Culture and have provide me with detailed information. Visit their homepage and learn more about Mariestad – Vänern’s Pearl (Click for the British flag for information in English!).
Some of regular readers, especially Sidney and Expat Travels, have asked to see the fall collars in Norway. So far the fall has been rather mild, but soon there will be frost nights and then you know! So stay tuned:-)
That’s a festive celebration! I haven’t taken a good picture of autumn’s colors yet because our autumn came late and it’s been raining a lot lately! have a great weekend!
looks like a fun time! I’ve been out and we went to the pumpkin patch. I was in heaven and yes the visit was soo good.
Working on the post now, but it might take a while as I’m trying to be away from the internet.
There seems to be so much happening in your part of the world! I’m envious!
Fall isn’t really here in CA. We did have some rain and chilly mornings though. I loved the clouds in your pictures, so pretty!
the pic with the man above the chairs is just soooo cool.
i mean, that was THE stunt!
have a nice day! *Hugs* & cool pics btw. ;)
cheers,
aiRah
Our Fall colors haven’t quite arrived yet, either, but should in the next few weeks. I’m supposed to go camping again in a few days, so I hope to get some nice photos for my blog.
Nice post, Renny! I hope to see much more of your country from your photos, especially the promised Autumn pictures. :-)
That is so nice, I like the video and it seems to be a very festive festival. I’d like to experience something like that soon
@Mark: Well, the really great fall collars are still to be waiting for, but they will be here you know!
@ExpatTraveler: Glad the meeting was great! Take your time, I know how it is and of course are looking forward to read about it.
@Missy: Well, as long as I have my mobile phone camera ready, it’s always easy to capture what’s on my way:-)
@Sue: Looks like we have mostly the same weather conditions then.
@aiRah: Thanks for the visit and comment. Have a lovely week ahead *hugs* :-)
@Diane: Have a lovely camping trip and we are looking forward to the post and pics! The autumn pics will soon come, so stay tuned.
@Charles: Thanks for your compliments and good luck with your experience!
I just love local festivals. Thanks for sharing – looking forward to some autumn photos once the weather cooperates. My autumn won’t begin until November so I’m living vicariously.
wow! it’s a great time having fun Renny, with all those acrobatic shows.. and thanks for the info you feed as well…
sorry I couldn’t view the video..*sigh*…
am, looking forward for more autumn pictures..promise? lol!
Nice post…
I didn’t know that earlier history story of Thanksgiving.
Harvest festivals are always fun.
Great, Renny! It makes sense that we have some similar ties to Europen Thanksgiving as ours has evolved into mostly a Harvest Festival like you. The pioneers were sure thankful for those friendly Native people who shared their food and survival methods over that first winter.
Do you grow pumpkins there? Why are our colours changing now and yours are not as much when you’re farther north? We have already had frost a few times. Today was beautiful at 24 degrees Celsius…very unusual. We sat outside for the first time ever for pre-meal snacks and went in to eat our Thanksgiving dinner. It was so nice. And the turkey was excellent too!
Again a very interesting post! I like how you give us the origin of things.
I first thought it was YOU on top of those chairs! ;-)
Yes Renny, I want to see the cold,the ice and the snow while I get temperatures of more than +30C in Manila! ;-)
wow! that’s a great festival. i miss watching the circus
Looks like a fun outing! We don’t have any fall festivities planned close to us this year I might have to look around at neighboring towns…
Hello Renny! Once again, thanks for sharing your knowledge with us..yours is always a nice and interesting read.
Cheers to Fall and all the festivities that goes with it!
btw, your Fårikål looks goooood! and I want to say thanks for visiting my food blog ;)…I guess it high time that I add you on my link, as I only remember to visit you after you leave me messages.
May your week be a splendid one, Renny!
oh wow!! great pix!!
they must be thrilling LIVE!!
I thought Thanxgiving have the same dates everywhere,and its a nice info for me,I learned something from you today.
Thanx Renny!!
Renny, thanks for sharing all that’s going on in Mariestad. Looks like people there likes to have fun and they seems to grab all opportunities they can. And it looks so green in the city, I might have thought it is mid-summer. In the Oslo-area we’ve got the color of Fall.
Great experience Renny. At first I thought it was you, upside down, on top of the stool, after a couple of “good for courage” aquavite’s, but at closer look I figuered out I must be wrong. Great video and great sharing with us :-)
@Hexe: Your welcome and stay tuned!
@Nona: Hope you’ll come back and try again! More autumn pics is a promise.
@Pearl: Glad I could fill you in!
@MotherOfInvention: Thanks for your always rich and readable comments. I have heard some grow pumpkins, but most of what we use are imported. I have to get back to your question about why we have similar climate as yours (Norway is at the same latitude as Alaska) but to make it short: it’s because of the golf stream. Glad you had a nice Canadian Thanksgiving!
@Sidney: Glad you liked this post too. Good to know you found out it wasn’t me on top of the chairs! You will see more of all of that, just you stay tuned!
@Tin-tin: Com and visit and we can enjoy it together!
@Grish: Hope you have luck in finding some:-)
@Thess: Your welcome, I always like to give my readers something of important you know. Thanks for linking me; I will return the favour of course. Have a great week too!
@Ghee: It was a thrill yes and I’m glad you get something from my post too.
@TorAa: Your welcome and yea, it was almost like a late summer day.
@GunnarBraathen: Glad you found out it wasn’t me too – although you should have known in the first place as you know me pretty well:-) Glad you liked the vid too!
Great video! I love stuff like that. And the music that went with it was perfect!
wow, that balancing fellow was impressive. i’d probably break my one good arm if i tried that! i’m surprised your colors aren’t coming on already since you are so much farther north than i am. ours are just getting bright now. i just love it!
yup yup autumn is in the air ;) And Whew!That’s very impressive stunts indeed! I always admire these people for their unusual strength & skills Very daring!
btw,thanks for the message! really appreciated it! Regards to you & to your lovely wifey!! tc!
didn’t know that about thanksgiving – and I’m Canadian! cool post. will definitely be checking back for more great blogs about food(lamb and cabbage) and festivals!
Gotta Hand it to Mother of Invention. She is d’a bomb. Instead of teaching her elementary students she is teaching us!
I knew that our Thanksgiving origins came from Newfoundland. But I did not know the whole story either.
Your video is cool.
I think anywhere there are seasons there are festivals of harvest.
A few Canadian tid bits: In Canada we get two crops of hay. The first crop is reaped at the end of June. We have fruitlands in British Columbia that bloom fruit earlier than any other place in Canada. The Okanagan Valley is our pride. The foodland is Ontario. The land of grains and produce. The centre of our produce is the Holland Marsh. A black soiled delta with the riches soil in our land. Ontario is also Vineland, famous for our wine, especially our Ice Wine. Our ranges are on the Prairies. Our beef comes from there. The Island of PEI is #1 for potatoes. We have two coasts for ocean fishing.
Today the farmers are bringing in the last of the feed corn in our area. The frost will come soon.
I didn’t know that Canada’s Thanksgiving came 43 years before ours here in the U.S.! Very interesting stuff, Renny! This festival looks like SO much fun. I love the pictures, and the video made me laugh out loud here at work. :-)
Sounds like fun :)
We had a nice Thanksgiving!
This celebration reminded me of festivals we’ve seen at Hannover’s Herrenhauser Garten in Germany. I think I like that it’s European more than anything else and yet so universal. This weekend we take Nicholas to our county fair, and that, too, is festive and so autumn! Thanks for sharing these things in such great detail, Renny!
hello Renny!im droppin by again!!
have a lovely friday! :)
Seems like a lot of places were celebrating some sort of harvest / autumn festival that weekend.
Aside from Sweden and Canada, the Chinese were celebrating the Moon Harvest Festival that weekend as well.