Q 01/05

The English word 'harvest' comes from an Old English word that originally meant what?

A) Bread

B) Field

C) Feast

D) Autumn

Answer · why

D) Autumn

Old English hærfest simply meant 'Autumn', the season, as its German cognate Herbst does today; the sense of gathering the crops came later.

Q 02/05

The harvest moon is defined as the full moon closest to what?

A) The autumn equinox

B) The winter solstice

C) The Halloween night

D) The very first frost

Answer · why

A) The autumn equinox

The autumn equinox falls around 22–23 September, and the harvest moon is the full moon nearest it, so it can land in September or October; the next on...

Q 03/05

Why does a harvest moon low on the horizon look golden or red?

A) Reflected crop light

B) Atmospheric scattering

C) Dust from combines

D) Its slightly closer orbit

Answer · why

B) Atmospheric scattering

Atmospheric scattering is the cause: near the horizon moonlight crosses far more air, which scatters away blue and violet and leaves reds and yellows ...

Q 04/05

The modern British Harvest Festival is traced to Rev. Robert Hawker's 1843 service in which county?

A) Yorkshire

B) Kent

C) Cornwall

D) Norfolk

Answer · why

C) Cornwall

His idea spread with hymns like 'Come, ye thankful people, come' and the custom of decorating churches with home-grown produce.

Q 05/05

Lammas, the early English harvest festival on 1 August, takes its name from what?

A) Lamb feast

B) Last meadow

C) Lord's mercy

D) Loaf mass

Answer · why

D) Loaf mass

Lammas is Old English hlafmæsse, 'Loaf mass': farmers baked loaves from the first grain of the harvest and brought them to church to be blessed.