harvest queen
A name given a. to Ceres, the goddess of agriculture and crops; b. to a young woman chosen from the reapers (or an image or doll dressed up, cf. harvest-doll), to whom was given a post of honour at the harvest-home.
| 1579 Spenser Sheph. Cal. Aug. 36 Well mought it beseme any haruest Queene. 1597–8 Bp. Hall Sat. v. ii, He stole the daughter of the Harvest-Queen. 1667 Milton P.L. ix. 842 Adam..had wove Of choicest Flours a Garland to adorne Her Treses, and her rural labours crown, As Reapers oft are wont thir Harvest Queen. 1778 Hutchinson View Northumbld. II. Anc. Customs 17 In some places I have seen an image apparelled in great finery, crowned with flowers..This they call the Harvest Queen, and respresents the Roman Ceres. 1827 Hone Every-day Bk. II. 1161. |
c. = harvest-lady: see harvest 7. local.
| a 1825 Forby Voc. E. Anglia s.v. Harvest Lady, The Dictt. call this personage the Harvest-Queen; Dr. D. E. Clark says that, on inquiry in Cambridgeshire, he understood that to be the denomination. He would not have received such information in Norfolk. 1847–78 Halliwell s.v. Harvest-lady, The second reaper is also called the harvest-queen. |