TEACHERS AT WORK - Maike Matthews

Recently Amity recieved a note from Maike Matthews, an Exchange Teacher from Germany, who is currently teaching at Santa Fe Montessori School, in Solana Beach, California. She sent us news about her presentation on Erntedankfest, a German harvest festival. The information and pictures were wonderful and we thank Maike and her school for the story. Maike's presentation speaks for itself so we will let it do just that.

Fall is the time of year to harvest vegetables and fruits from gardens and farmers fields. When people in the US celebrate Thanksgiving, they thank God for the food they grew that season. People in Germany celebrate their kind of Thanksgiving on the first Sunday in October and say “thank you” to God for a good harvest. Everything on the table is a fruit or vegetable picked in fall. This is the kind of food they are saying “Thank you” for. Today you can buy these things in grocery stores the whole year around. The people who lived a long time ago didn’t have refrigerators to keep their food fresh and there weren’t any grocery stores either. So they couldn’t eat vegetables or fruits every day like we can today. The people got their vegetables and fruits from the fields. The farmers put seeds in the ground for potatoes, carrots, squash, grain and corn.

These seeds slowly grew into plants. Soon vegetable grew on these plants and by fall they were ready to pick and to eat. If during the year the plants did not get enough rain, then the farmers would not be able to grow as much food. People would then be hungry because they didn’t have enough to eat. So, when there was enough rain and the plants grew lots of fruits and vegetables the people were very thankful because they had enough to eat during winter. Today, people in Germany gather fruits, vegetables, wheat and bread bring them to church and put everything on a table next to the altar. That is the way they thank God, that they have enough to eat today. The church is decorated with flowers from the garden and after the church service all the food that was gathered is given to needy people who don’t have as much food as everybody else

All this food is put on top of a wagon which is pulled by decorated cows. People are dressed up in special clothing and they walk behind the wagon through the streets. There is a music playing and everybody is going to the places where needy and poor people wait for the food. The needy people are thankful that there are nice people who are willing to help and to share their food with them. This is our kind of Thanksgiving it is called “Erntedankfest”, harvest thanks.

Back to Teachers in Action