Harvest Fest

The community of Sólheimar congregated in Sesseljuhus at 6:00 in the evening for the annual Harvest Festival. As I walked up the sidewalk to Sesseljuhus I passed candles made in one of the workshops lighting the way to the party. Right by the door there was a display of the seasons produce alongside some tools for harvesting. When everyone had settled down inside, the community began singing a traditional party song. We then moved outside to play some games and to enjoy the remaining daylight. Outdoor games in Iceland tend to be quite similar to those in the United States. We played Simon says, danced the Hokey Pokey, had a potato sack race, and competed in a tug-o-war match for national pride. On one end of the rope was a team from Iceland and the other were members of the CELL group. The pull began and the CELL group charged, dragging the others with them. After the victory Jeffrey whispered into my ear “Bandaríkjunum!”, which is Icelandic for United States. The games ended soon thereafter and the community headed over to the Canteen for dinner.

After being in Sólheimar for a while we have learned that seating is everything when eating dinners in the Canteen. It is crucial because you don’t want to be the last one served, so you have to find the table that will be the first one dismissed to go get plates of food. Luckily this time I chose successfully and my table was the first to go. In between the meal and dessert the CELL group performed a song for Sólheimar. We played the folk tune Wagon Wheel by the band Old Crow Medicine Show for the community before serving the desert we made. We announced the song and desert in Icelandic which hopefully the crowd understood. We served apple crisp, brownies, and ice cream.

After dinner we moved back to Sesseljuhus to sing more songs. We performed one more song before the night was over. We played a traditional Icelandic song called Ríðum, Ríðum (pronounced reethim, reethim) which is about herders in the hill country being spooked by the shadows and sounds at night. After that the Sólheimar choir sang a few more songs before the evening officially ended. At the end of the event people were invited to hang around and play some of the musical instruments and to sit and chat. The CELL students flocked to the instruments and began playing them. There were xylophones, recorders, drums, a piano… A volunteer brought in a hang drum and a Cajon. We sat and played music with people from Sólheimar for two more hours before we all retired for the night.

The evening provided us an opportunity to give back to the community that has given us so much already as well as join in the celebration of the summers bounty. With the first snow falling just two days after the feast, the timing couldn’t have been better.

~Rodney

Photos by Meg