On Sunday, September 8, diocesan and voivodeship harvest festival celebrations were held in Nowogrodziec.
Delegations from the Jelenia Góra, Legnica and Wałbrzych voivodeships attended the celebrations, led by voivodes: Janusz Pezda, Ryszard Maraszek and Henryk Gołębiowski, together with the bishop of the Diocese of Legnica, Tadeusz Rybak.
The host of the harvest festival welcomed the guests who had come to the harvest celebration, recalling that since the dawn of history, the turn of August and September has traditionally been a period when the Polish countryside celebrates thanksgiving for the crops harvested from our fields, gardens and orchards—for the harvest gift of grain and, subsequently, wonderful, fragrant bread.
“Today we have gathered in Nowogrodziec, the heart of the municipality, where approximately 1,200 farms operate on two-thirds of the total agricultural land, to express our recognition and thank the farmers of the Legnica, Wałbrzych and Jelenia Góra voivodeships for their year-round effort, worthy of the highest respect.
I would like to convey to you my appreciation for your diligence, determination and attachment to the land, as well as your everyday hospitality and kindness. These are precisely the qualities of the Polish peasant that inspire us to respect these people, but also encourage us to work every day to improve their living conditions.
Today’s harvest festival celebration is an opportunity to thank you for your hard work and your worthy, bread-giving effort. The value of bread is best understood by those who work in the sweat of their brow, sowing grain in the earth—grain that dies so that it may later yield a hundredfold harvest. Anyone who has been hungry even once in life will never pass by bread without showing it the proper respect. This respect must be instilled in the younger generation, which, raised in abundance, does not fully appreciate its value.
May today’s celebration strengthen the hope and optimism that continually characterize farmers and enable the harvest to come to a successful conclusion.
I sincerely wish this for all farmers.
I would also like, dear farmers, to wish you all good health and prosperity in your personal and family lives.