# Harvesting and Harvesting Customs

Apart from weeding, the growing grain requires little care. At most the birds need to be frightened away with scarecrows when the grain begins to turn yellow. The growing phases of the wheat are determined as follows: the grain begins to grow into the stalk on Saint George’s day (April 24); the ears appear in May; it stops growing on the day of Guy (June 15); and its root breaks on the day of Peter and Paul (June 29). From here on it just ripens and the harvest can begin.

Harvest day was carefully chosen. Harvesting was not begun during new moon, and the day of Elias was also thought to be unlucky, because lighting might strike. If the first day of harvest was to fall on a Friday, enough had to be cut down on Thursday for a sheaf, so that the main work of harvesting should not begin on a day thought to be unlucky.

100. Reaping with a sickle
Szentgál, Veszprém County

Fig. 72. Scythe-sickle.
Nagyborzova, former Abaúj County. 1950s

Fig. 73. Sickles.
1–3. “Magyar” sickles. Cigánd, former Zemplén County. 4. “Tót” (Slovakian) sickle, from the same place. 5. Upper Tisza region. 6. Jászberény, Szolnok County. 7. Former Gömör County. Late 19th century

One of the tools of the harvest is the sickle (sarló), which is a pre-Conquest {206.} word in the Hungarian language, adopted from the Turkic. We differentiate two basic types: the toothed sickle and the smooth bladed kaszasarló. Two types of the latter were known in the Carpathian Basin, distinguished by the curvature and the way of attachment to the handle. One is the curved form, the blade of which, starting out from the handle, continues straight for a good while and bends only toward the end. It seems to be a general European type, its equivalents were already found in Hungary by the Magyars. The other widens out just above the handle, becomes arched and only then continues upward. This generally is stronger and in many cases also thicker than the other one. Up-to-date research considers these to be more likely Eastern in origin, because similar ones have been found in Hun and Avar graves as well as in graves dating from the Conquest. This form eclipsed the previous form. These tools were used only for cutting down grain. The smooth-bladed sickle, on the other hand, was earlier used for cutting grass, and later, especially beginning with the last century, it was used in many places for harvesting. After the scythe gained ground, the sickle was used for gathering together the sheaves.

Fig. 74. A scythe with a slasher.
Great Plain. First half of 20th century. General

Harvesting with the sickle is mostly woman’s work, and men seldom participated in it, apart from the youngest and the oldest. The harvester grasped as many stalks as would fit in his hand, cut it with an upward movement, and put it on strawbands already laid out. The sheaves were always tied by the men, whose task it also was to pile them into stacks of various sizes. Harvesting with the sickle has become less important, especially since the 19th century, until today it occurs only sporadically, in peripheral and in mountain regions.

The other grain-cutting tool is the scythe. But while the toothed sickle is a tool used exclusively for cutting cereal crops, the scythe originally was used mowing grass. The Hungarian scythe is a slightly curving steel blade, 70–110 cm long, with a ridged back along its outer edge. Its shaft is 170–220 cm long, depending on the height of the person using it. It has one handle in the mountainous regions, two in the steppes. With the twin handles the scythe can be lowered closer to the ground and a shorter stubble cut. The blade is fastened to the shaft with a ring and set at an angle suitable for the work to be done. At harvest times, especially in the Great Plain, they fasten on it a cradle called a csapó, slasher, made out of 2 or 3 twigs, in order to spread the cut stalks better (cf. Fig. 74). The Palotses cover it with linen to further reduce the dropping of seeds. For {207.} the same reason they tie a rake or fork on the scythe in certain parts of Transdanubia and Upper Hungary. The blade of the scythe is hammered on an iron anvil, and, if it becomes blunt, sharpened with a whetstone.

We possess data regarding the use of the scythe for harvesting cereal crops only from the 16th and 17th centuries. The agricultural literature of the late 18th century and of the 19th century recommends it as a better and more progressive working tool. From this time on it completely eclipsed the sickle. Only men worked with the scythe, whereas women gathered the sheaves. Binding and gathering the sheaves was again considered masculine work.

101. Reaping with scythes
Diósjenő, Nógrád County

Earlier, scythes were used to cut sheaves in a row. In the Great Plain the rows were then pulled together and small stacks, called vontató, were made out of them. Two or three forkfuls of crops were made to stand with ears upright in the centre and the rest stacked around them, with {208.} the ears outwards. At man’s height, the stack was shaped to a point and covered. A thick rope was fixed around the bottom, about half a metre from the ground, hitched to a horse or an ox and thus hauled to the threshing barn. During the first half of the 19th century, four-wheeled, low wagons appeared in the Great Plain, with which it was possible to carry the grain in the ear without much loss. This way of handling cereal grains like mowed hay was continued longest with spring cereals.

Fig. 75. A scythe with a rake as a slasher.
Transdanubia. First half of 20th century

Shearing the autumn cereals was usually done by cutting into the crop: that is, the cut stalks leaned toward the still-standing wall of grain. In this case a woman or a girl followed the cutter with her back to him and gathered the cut grain with a wooden hook or sickle. When enough of these were gathered, she laid them on strawbands already spread out for this purpose. The tied sheaves were stacked in the shape of a cross, just as in harvesting with a sickle. They placed the sheaves into the four sides of the cross in such a way that the ears lay inside on top of each other, while the cut ends pointed outward. They laid a sheaf on top of it, the name of which is pap (priest) in most of the linguistic area. The number of sheaves in the cross varies by regions. However, in the Middle Ages they counted with a system of sixty in most places, and so the félkalangya (half shock of corn) consisted of 15, the kalangya (shock of corn) of 30, and the kepe (double shock) of 60 sheaves. The counting system of sixty is probably ancient European in origin and came to the Hungarians most likely through Slavic mediation.

102. a. Wooden holder for whetstone Hungary b. Corn dolley Gégény, Szabolcs-Szatmár County c. Corn dolley Sárospatak

Fig. 76. The number of sheaves in each stock of harvested crops. 20th century.
1. 7 sheaves. 2. 9 sheaves. 3. 10 sheaves. 4. 13–15 sheaves. 5. 17–18 sheaves. 6. 20–21 sheaves. 7. 22 sheaves. 8. 26–30 sheaves

The conclusion of the harvest was a day of celebration, richly marked {209.} by customs and superstitions. The family that harvested for itself did not put on much of a celebration at the end of the work, and among the poorer folk this came about only if they had done the work with mutual help. At such times the duty of being host fell to the gazda of the house, during the work as well as at the time of its completion.

The more prosperous farmers would engage share harvesters. When he first went out to oversee the work, the women and girls tied his legs with strawropes, and only let him go free if he gave them money, or promised wine and food. There was a belief that, if this was not done, the wheat would yield poorly. A few stalks were left after they finished harvesting, so that storm and shower would not cause damage to the crop in the following year.

The share harvesters also purposely left some grain standing on the stalk on the day of completion, which they cut down the following morning. The girls made a bell-like arrangement of wild flowers and corn with its ears. In some places corn-dollies were woven in the shape of a spiral or a tablet, according to local custom (cf. Ills. 102 b-c). Hanging the garland on a stick, the lads or maidens carried it to the yard of the farmer, singing as they went, or accompanied by gypsy music (cf. Ill. 26). There the farmer’s wife sprinkled a few drops of water on the garland, to prevent blight on the next year’s crop, while the leader of the harvesters greeted the farmer with a poem. They hung the garland on the main beam over the table, and underneath it served lunch or dinner, always accompanied by wine. The harvest ball followed, lasting until midnight, or often even until dawn. In many places the harvest garland was preserved until Christmas and then given to the birds, while at other places, they hung up the most beautiful ones in the church or a chapel, or on a roadside cross.