JEWISH FESTIVAL

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 05, Issue 85, 31 July 1942, Page 5

JEWISH FESTIVAL

TROOPS AT ANNUAL CEREMONY

BAND VERY POPULAR

The day of lirst fruits, the annual festiA'al with Avhich JeAA'ish farming communities in Syria heralds the advent of the harvest, was in at least one settlement largely attended this year by Ncav Zealand soldiers.

The people of this co-opcrativq settlement AA'hich borders on a New Zealand camp in Palestine, had especially requested the troops to be present. They turned out in large numbers thronging the grounds of the village school. The drab khaki of their uniforms mingled strangely with the coloured dresses of villagers and their children.

In a simple rustic setting .the village folk performed the charming and legendary ritual that has its origin in the very roots of JcAvisli religious history, a colourful reminder of the times when the peoples of Israel every year brought the first fruits of their season to the temple. Regarded in those faroff days as a tithe in kind, obligate ory on every family for the upkeep of the church, the custom has uoav become an annual festiAal, the proceeds of gifts going to the Jewish National Fund. This body is the fund of the Zionist movement Avhich sponsors the settlement of Jcavs on

the land in Palestine

The day is a special event for the children. New Zealanders watched scores of these healthy youngsters, some of them mere tiny tots., gay and smiling in their best clothes and with garlands of Hewers or wheat in their hair, bring their token gilts in re-ribboned baskets to the "Rabbi." These latter were 12 girls, each dressed to represent the priest of one of the tribes of Israel. The children walked down ilower bordered pathways through entrances representing gates of Jerusalem.

A New Zealand band played Jewish hvmns, much to the delight ol the villagers. One New Zealand bandsman stood on tlie roof of a nearby building to play the trumpet call that brought the settlers flocking to the scene of the festival. In the evening the band staged a con-' cert in the village hall, and this was warmly approved by the great crowd of settlers who thronged "stairways balconies and aisles.