Ploughing and harvest: the breeds
The first ploughing of the year, threshing with oxen and the harvest feasts that thank them.
For most of farming history, the ox was the engine of the field. Oxen ploughed, harrowed, carted the harvest home and trod out the grain on the threshing floor. Many festivals still mark the start of ploughing or the end of harvest with the animals that do the work. The Royal Ploughing Ceremony of Thailand and Cambodia opens the rice season with a pair of sacred oxen, and bullock festivals across India thank the animals after the hard months of ploughing and sowing.
The Royal Ploughing Ceremony
In Thailand and Cambodia, a royal ploughing ceremony marks the start of the rice-growing season, usually in May. A pair of oxen pulls a plough in a ceremonial field, and rice seed is sown in the furrows. Afterwards the oxen are offered several foods, such as rice, maize, beans, grass, water and rice spirit, and what they choose is read as a sign of the coming season's harvest. Onlookers gather the seed to sow in their own fields for luck.
Oxen in Indian fields
In much of India, ploughing with a pair of bullocks was the rule until tractors spread from the 1960s, and it remains common on small farms. Breeds such as the Hallikar and Amrit Mahal of Karnataka, the Kangayam of Tamil Nadu, the Khillari of Maharashtra and the Hariana of the north were shaped above all for field work and carting. Pola and Mattu Pongal give these working animals a day of rest, food and honour.
Threshing and the ox
Before machines, grain was often threshed by driving oxen over the cut sheaves on a hard floor until the grain came loose. The Hebrew Bible says that an ox treading out the grain should not be muzzled, so that it can eat as it works. In Mediterranean countries and the Middle East, oxen also pulled threshing sledges studded with stones or flints. The same method was used in parts of India and in Ethiopia, where it continues on some farms.
Harvest customs in Europe
In England, Plough Monday, the first Monday after Twelfth Night, marked the return to work in the fields, and a plough was dragged round the village. In parts of Europe, the last sheaf of the harvest was sometimes tied to the horns of the ox that drew the final cart home. Harvest thanksgiving services in churches and village shows of crops and livestock carry on this link between harvest and herd.
Worth knowing
- Royal Ploughing Ceremony: Thailand and Cambodia, start of the rice season
- Pola: Rest day for bullocks after ploughing
- Mattu Pongal: Thanks to the cattle at harvest
- Hallikar: Draught breed of Karnataka
- Khillari: Fast draught bullocks of Maharashtra
- Plough Monday: First Monday after Twelfth Night in England
Sources and further reading
Original text by the EveryCow desk, written with AI assistance and checked against the sources above. Customs are described as tradition, not as advice. If we have something wrong, tell us.
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