When summer comes to an end, it’s time to harvest the seeds that the people of your world sowed in spring. Does your world have any dark rituals related to food and harvests? A sinister or spooky harvest tradition? Use the tradition, settlement, or ethnicity template to write an article about it, and join us in this flash challenge!

With every deed you are sowing a seed, though the harvest you may not see.
―Ella Wheeler Wilcox

A portal behind a man picking fruit, dark harvest.

Photo by Mickael Tournier

In our own world, several cultures celebrate their ancestors with traditions like Día de los Muertos in Mexico, Halloween in the USA, or the Obon festival in Japan during the fall. These celebrations don’t necessarily have to do with a harvest… But they could!

Choose a culture in your world and tell us about their dark harvest festival! What makes it dark? Do they harvest souls together with the hay? Did they sow zombies in spring, and now they are rising? Do they pelt houses of their enemies with leftover vegetables? Which vegetables or fruits is your culture farming? Are the vegetables may be used for poison or a dark ritual? Are they celebrating the death of their enemies?
You can find a list of harvest festivals for inspiration over here.

RULES

Always do your best. What you plant now, you will harvest later.
―Og Mandino

Harvested vegetables, dark harvest

Photo by Eiliv-Sonas Aceron

– First, you need a World Anvil account.

– Write about a Dark Harvest using the tradition, settlement, or ethnicity template.

– Minimum of 300 words and a maximum of 1500 words.

– One article per account, one person per account.

– The article needs to be public.

– Submit the article before the 28th of October, at 11:59PM GMT (the site time, look at the bottom of almost all pages of WorldAnvil.)

– Post a link to your article in a comment to this blog post. Do not fret if your post isn’t visible right away. I will have to approve of it before it shows and I will be doing that around twice a day.

 

PRIZES

Don’t judge each day by the harvest you reap, but by the seeds that you plant.
―Robert Louis Stevenson

Food in bowls, dark harvest

Photo by Eiliv-Sonas Aceron

-The pride of having finished an article.

-Fun with friends! If you haven’t joined the discord, do so and join in on the fun on the #challenge-discussion channel. (#sync-your-roles to see it)

-Janet and Dimitris will show off a couple of the entries on a stream over at the WorldAnvil Twitch channel when there is time. If you aren’t already following it, jump on over there and give it a follow, that way you won’t miss out on any of the WorldAnvil streams!

-Some articles might even be featured on the site over on the community tab.

 

OTHER CHALLENGES

Striving for success without hard work is like trying to harvest where you haven’t planted.
―David Bly

Looking for more challenges? You can find our 2020 challenge time table over here;  Worldbuilding challenges on WorldAnvil in 2020.

You can also check out our old Flash challenges for more prompt inspiration check out our Cheers! flash challenge from earlier this month, about beverages. Or why not check out our Pollinators challenge from earlier in the year? A perfect way to get you inspired for the harvest!