The Lyman Orchard is an American fall festival that celebrates the harvest. Even though I have been in the US for three years, I have only heard about Lyman Orchard once, and that was around one month ago when my host dad asked me to come with him. But I didn’t want to go during that time, so this is the first time I attend this festive. The Lyman Orchard surprises me a lot because it has a lot of similarities with the Chinese Mid-Autumn Festival, which also celebrates harvests and family reunion. In both festivals, food plays a big role. In the Mid-Autumn festival, the family sits together and eats well-prepared dinner and moon cakes. After eating dinner and moon cake together, family members generally go outside to see the moon together. The word “round” of the moon in Chinese has the same pronunciation of “reunion”, which makes the connection between moon and family a significant part of the festival. Similarly in Lyman Orchard, people can buy a lot of freshly made food such as apple cider and cider doughnuts and eat outside with friends and families. There is also corn maze that provides more fun and interests to the festival. Although the moon isn’t a part of the Lyman Orchard, the gist of the two festivals is very similar.
When agriculture was the main part of most people’s lives, the harvest of food in the fall is the most important time of the year. Anywhere around the world, no matter when fall takes place, people will enjoy the happiness brought by the harvest. Because the harvest is a universal celebration for people around the world, that would possibly be one of the reasons that the countries with completely different cultures have similar forms of celebration.
During the event, my American friends recommend me special food that they have in the festival, and they also shared some corn with me. I tried some cider doughnuts and other deserts, but most of them are sweet so I didn’t eat much. In China, there are very few sweet foods, and if food is sweet they are much less sweet. This also shows the different flavors people like in different cultures.
I enjoy Lyman Orchard because I got the opportunity to understand a different culture a little bit more. I am also fascinated to see all the differences and similarities that my culture shares with the US.