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St. Stephen’s to celebrate annual Harvest Home Festival

St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church, 220 W. 4th Street, will celebrate its 123rd annual Harvest Home Festival during the 10 a.m. worship service Sunday, Oct. 7. (Submitted photo)

EAST LIVERPOOL — St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church, 220 W. 4th Street, will celebrate its 123rd annual Harvest Home Festival during the 10 a.m. worship service Sunday, Oct. 7.

A Harvest Home dinner served 5-7 p.m. Monday, Oct. 8 in the parish hall. Menu includes roast beef, mashed potatoes, gravy, green beans, coleslaw, rolls, butter, beverages and desserts. Tickets are $10 for adults 13-older, $7 for children 6-12 and free for children five-under. Carry-out available. Call 330-385-3828. Details can be found on Facebook under the public group “St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church, ELO.”

Harvest Home is celebrated on the Sunday closest to Sept. 29, which is the Feast of St. Michael and All Angels. This is also known as Michaelmas.

The celebration is a forerunner of the American Thanksgiving holiday. It has been celebrated in various forms in England since the 13th century. In Scotland, the holiday was known as Kirn and in northern England, it was called Mell-Supper.

The origins of the celebration have to do with the culmination of the final harvest. Farmers and field laborers could pause in their work and express gratitude for the year’s bounty. St. Stephen’s, with its strong English heritage, has long had a great affinity for this festival.

St. Stephen’s parish records from 1895 show that the Vestry provided a sum of money “to be used for the purpose of providing a Harvest Dinner to be held in the parish hall.”

At the Sunday church service, St. Stephen’s is decorated with symbols of the year’s harvest: corn stalks and ears of corn, pumpkins, gourds, squash, wheat and loaves of bread. Hydrangea, dahlias and colorful autumn leaves add color to the church decorations.

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