Autumn is the time to gather in the summer fruits. The apples are falling from the trees in gardens in England. When I was a child I could not see the point of the harvest festival with the tins of food piled in the school assembly and given to charity. Now I can understand it, relating it to history worldwide.
In England, France and Europe the grapes are being picked and the new wine, Beaujolais Nouveau will be sent from France across the Channel to England with great fanfare.
Chinese Mooncakes
In Chinatowns in England and the USA, as well as in China, Singapore, Taiwan and countries all over Asia get ready for the Autumn harvest festival or Chinese Autumn Festival to make or budget to buy sweet or savoury salted egg mooncakes in supermarkets,shops, delis, foyers and online. i love the sweet mooncakes. They are highly calorific. You can cut up one muffin size mooncake to give a teeny slice to a dozen people. That's not being mean. It's being sensible. It's the correct thing to do.
Jewish Sukkoth
Also following the lunar calendar, the Jewish festival of Sukkoth, celebrated at homes and synagogues in Israel, Jewish northwest London (where Anne Frank's father retired post WW2) and the USA. Some neighbours and synagogues will invite nearby communities to see and join in, welcoming all comers of all religions.
I went to a Sukkah ceremony held at the back of Northwood & Pinner synagogue in Northwood. They had invited members of the next door church.
I also visited a sukkah at the back of the home of neighbours in Hatch End, Pinner. Later i was invited to a dinner in the Sukkah of a house in Finchley.
The sukkah is just like the booths you see built in India where a guardian sleep to watch over the gathered in crops. In Israel you can see the balconies of apartment blocks have a sukkoth, the only regulation being that the temporary structure must be open to the sky. The sukkah is a lattice with suspended fruits and ferns and greenery and nowadays plastic baubles like a Christmas tree. Expect a drink of fruit juice or wine, some fruits and or food and a quick prayer or blessing as you stand around or an entire service over a dinner table.
The festival and the structure are called sukkah, sukkot (Hebrew), or sukkas (Yiddish which is North and East European, German with a few words of Hebrew or Russian or Polish or the ancestor's language.
Useful Websites
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mid-Autumn_Festival
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