Celebration of Bounty
Has everyone got their ribbons?... Once the music starts, dance with all the excitement you can muster up for the bounty of the coming harvest, and all the gratitude you feel that we don't have to worry about going hungry, then, when you feel that it's time, tie your ribbon around Grandmother Apple Tree here. Be gentle, she's getting up there in years!
History
The Harvest Festival was started by The Lockport Apple Orchard Society as a way for its members, primarily families of Glamourie Apple Dryads, to conduct the rituals and blessings of their orchards in plain sight, without being accused of witchcraft, or arousing the suspicions of those who had ties to the supernatural that it was anything other than a quaint harvest celebration. They did not want to be found by either the Seelie or Unseelie Court, and forced to side with one or the other in the wars between the two.
The Celebration of Bounty has taken many forms over the last three hundred years, from a solemn group prayer led by an ordained minister followed by a hymn, to various styles of dance. The only thing that has remained unchanged is that at some point during the ritual, each individual participating ties an embroidered ribbon around a branch of the oldest apple tree in the area.
Originally, each of the families associated with The Lockport Apple Orchard Society had their own Harvest Festival, complete with their own Celebration of Bounty, but over time, they have learned to work together to bless the apples of all the orchards and share in the bounty equally.
Components and tools
The Lockport Apple Orchard Society provides the ribbons to be used in this ceremony. The ribbons come in all colors, but are embroidered with vaguely floral looking symbols. In sunlight, the embroidery appears to glow.
Each Glamourie Apple Dryad in the clan embroiders three to five ribbons starting in early spring when the first crocus burst through the snow, and finishing when the apples are just shy of being ripe enough to harvest. The embroidery is designed to convert excitement and gratitude into glamour that will attach itself to the apple trees the Dryad doing the embroidery is bonded with when it is tied to an apple tree as part of the ritual.
Observance
The Celebration of Bounty is observed during the Lockport Harvest Festival, which takes place towards the end of August, based on when apples and other crops are ready to be harvested. It is always held before a single apple is harvested within the county, but when they are ready to be harvested in the next few days.
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