For farmers, fall is busy. The fruits (and veggies!) of their efforts are ready for harvest and, more importantly, for market. The hard work of the entire year culminates and pays off, and our culture uses countless metaphors from the sowing-to-reaping lexicon to talk about how cultivation and effort generates future abundance.
We celebrate that abundance during harvest season with pumpkin picking, bumpy hayrides, corn mazes, and hot cider. But the history of harvest celebrations predates our own modern North American Thanksgiving celebration. Even our cornucopia, that ubiquitous horn of plenty overflowing with produce, is actually a symbol from Greek mythology. When Zeus was an infant, he had a magical goat nursemaid named Almaltheia. Apparently, they were playing and Zeus knocked one of her horns off, and the horn became a source of everlasting sustenance.
And harvest celebrations are nearly universal in human culture. In Nigeria, the Igbo people hold the annual New Yam Festival in August to mark the end of the harvest and the beginning of the new season. In the Ukraine, they celebrate the Apple Feast of the Savior, marking the beginning of the autumn season, the transformation of nature, and the ripening of the fruits. The Crop Over festivities in Barbados originally designated the harvest of the sugar cane crops. In Cornwall, Great Britain, they hold the Goel Dheys festival at the end of the wheat harvest with a vast feast around the time of the autumnal equinox.
What happens, though, when the harvest has been compromised? And it happens. Blight, pests, drought and other natural disasters can be devastating to crops. Celebrations might be subdued or even cancelled, sure. But more importantly, the farmer still begins the work of preparing for next year: maybe drought-proofing next year’s crop with different soil preparation. Maybe investing in innovative pest control technology. Maybe researching a more fungus-resistant seed stock. Or, maybe deciding to pivot and plant something entirely new for the coming season.
For many of us, this fall season might feel a little like our harvest has been blighted. Fortunately, most of us are not literally farming, and therefore we don’t have to wait until the new year to ramp up our efforts for success! We can still have a productive, successful year and let our efforts of Q4 give us a running start (and a competitive advantage) into 2021.
If your business has faced exceptional challenges in 2020, Hayman Studio’s creative professionals are here to partner with you and help your business finish the year strong. Our skilled team and our process-led, solution-oriented methods can help you land new clients, meet sales goals, build visibility for your brand, and solve problems with our 50,000-foot view. We’re not just experienced photographers; we are masterful designers, business- and market-minded problem-solvers, talented videographers and animators, and expert writers.
Finding yourself in a drought? Hayman Studio can produce the music, choreograph the moves, and perform a rain dance that can take your business from this year’s harvest into next year’s bounty.
Reach out to us at 717-843-8338 or email Ryan at ryan@haymanstudio.com
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