When the earth rests for winter

As October draws to a close, the farming year gradually approaches its natural conclusion. The last crops are gathered from the fields, and agricultural machinery returns to the sheds. In two distant parts of the world — Ukraine and Japan — autumn brings a special time when people symbolically allow the land to rest for winter.

In Ukrainian tradition, this turning point is associated with Saint Demetrius Day, observed on 26 October according to the Revised Julian calendar. According to folk belief, Saint Demetrius locks the earth with a key and keeps it until spring. The period after his feast day thus represents the land's gradual entry into winter rest and the end of autumn fieldwork. Wheat and rye, central to Ukraine's bread-making culture, have long since been harvested, while October still brings late crops such as sunflower seeds, maize and Ukrainian-grown rice, traditionally cultivated in the south, particularly in the Odesa region.

Today, this long-standing respect for the land endures under exceptionally difficult conditions. The full-scale invasion launched by russia has turned fertile Ukrainian black-soil farmland into battlefields and mine-contaminated areas. Destroyed irrigation systems and mined fields have caused serious harm to Ukrainian agriculture, restricting access to land, water and essential infrastructure. Farmers working under shelling demonstrate extraordinary courage, and every grain they harvest has become a symbol of resilience and the struggle for life.

Japanese culture also holds a deep respect for the rhythms of nature. Autumn is rice-harvesting season in many parts of Japan, where rice has occupied a special place in livelihoods and beliefs for centuries. In Shinto-influenced folk traditions, the rice-field deity (田の神) watches over young crops through spring and summer. After the autumn harvest, villagers thank the deity and symbolically see it off to the mountains, where it is revered as the mountain deity (山の神) until spring. In certain communities, this seasonal passage is marked by offerings of rice, rice cakes and other gifts from the new harvest.

The land is left to rest. Dried rice straw may be returned to the soil or used to shield garden trees from frost. For farmers in both countries, the close of autumn fieldwork expresses gratitude to the land: to welcome another harvest next autumn, the earth must first be allowed to rest.