In the little Midwest farming community where I grew up one of the highlights of the year was the annual Sweet Corn Festival. A major packing company sponsored this event at the end of the harvest season. There was plenty of sweet, juicy corn on the cob for everyone. The celebration included a parade and carnival with lots of fun for the whole family.

Fall is the season for harvest festivals. An online search for "harvest festival" produced over 50,000 listings. Celebrating the end of a successful harvest after a season of hard work seems like a natural thing to do. This custom dates back many centuries.

Thanksgiving, one of the most enjoyable holidays in the United States, began as a gesture of gratitude to God for the blessings of the bountiful harvest of the first full year in the New World.

The Pilgrims had arrived too late to grow many crops and, without fresh food, half the colony died from disease. The following spring the Iroquois Indians taught them how to grow corn and other crops in the unfamiliar soil and showed them how to hunt and fish.

In the autumn of 1621, bountiful crops of corn, barley, beans and pumpkins were harvested. The colonists had much to be thankful for, so a feast was planned. Many of the original colonists continued to celebrate the autumn harvest with a feast of thanks, which soon became a national holiday.

God instituted the Feast of Ingathering as a special fall harvest festival for the ancient nation of Israel (Exodus 23:16; 34:22). The Israelites were instructed to bring a tenth of their harvest along with firstborn animals of their herds and flocks to a central location to rejoice with other families by feasting and sharing their harvest bounty with the needy (Deuteronomy 14:22-27).

This annual weeklong celebration was also called "the Feast of Tabernacles" (Deuteronomy 16:13, Leviticus 23:34) as a reminder of the temporary dwelling places of the Israelites on their journey to the Promised Land of Canaan. So they were instructed to build temporary shelters to stay in as part of their celebration (Leviticus 23:40-43).

Jews still observe this Festival today as Sukkot, which derives its name from the sukkah or temporary dwelling. Rabbinic tradition infers a theme of the fragile mortality of human life as an additional meaning of the sukkah.

Jesus kept the Feast of Tabernacles (John 7:2-8, 37-40). The apostles and the early church also kept the Holy Days that were given originally to Israel. In fact the Church began on the Day of Pentecost (also known as the Feast of Weeks).

In addition to their historical legacy, these Holy Days offer "a shadow of things to come" in the plan of God (Colossians 2:16-17).

Both Paul and Peter referred to our physical human body as a "tabernacle" that we dwell in during our journey toward the promised Kingdom of God (2 Corinthians 5:1-8, 2 Peter 1:13-14). When Jesus Christ returns to earth to establish that Kingdom of God on earth, the dead in Christ will be resurrected to eternal life and will rule with him for a thousand years (1 Corinthians 15:50-52, 1 Thessalonians 4:13-17, Revelation 1:6; 2:26, 3:21; 5:10).

The Bible also speaks of a great spiritual harvest to take place at that time (Matthew 13:30). The millennial rule of Jesus Christ will result in a time of universal peace and prosperity. All nations will begin keeping the Feast of Tabernacles as their annual harvest festival of thanksgiving (Zechariah 14:16).

I have kept the Feast of Tabernacles for decades as a foretaste of that coming utopia. For the past few years I have had the privilege of serving as the coordinator of a regional celebration of the Feast of Tabernacles sponsored by the United Church of God. It is one of many sites where this Feast is observed not only in the United States but also in many other nations worldwide.