{"id":14280,"date":"2026-05-26T09:18:24","date_gmt":"2026-05-26T15:18:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=14280"},"modified":"2026-05-26T11:19:43","modified_gmt":"2026-05-26T17:19:43","slug":"people-of-wheat-decoration-day-on-the-high-plains","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=14280","title":{"rendered":"People of Wheat: Decoration Day on the High Plains"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\/<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-video\"><video height=\"360\" style=\"aspect-ratio: 640 \/ 360;\" width=\"640\" controls src=\"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/wheat-on-decoration-day.mp4\"><\/video><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Twiiter user Clay Scott <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/scottwestacre\">@scottwestacre<\/a>) who raises wheat in southwestern Kansas, posted this video on Memorial Day &#8212; <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Memorial_Day#Origins\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">once known as Decoration Day,<\/a> from the custom of decorating graves on that day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">He wrote, &#8220;Decoration Day. We place wreaths of wheat each year on the graves of family and friends. We have done this for decades as our tribute to service and remembrance. It was a tough sort this year but everyone will be grateful for the crop no matter what it looks like. Always the best.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The religion scholar in me wants to know: what is their background? Mostly Catholic or mostly Protestant? Was this a custom in the Old Country? And where was that?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Prairie Kansas has &#8212; or had &#8212; many ethnic enclaves. For instance, further northeast, around <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Great_Bend,_Kansas\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Great Bend,<\/a> there is a heavy Catholic presence based on immigration from Poland,southern Germany, and the Austro-Hungarian empire. Little country crossroads churches with names like St. Xavier&#8217;s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But cycles of growing and reaping are forever, John Barleycorn holds hands with <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Dumuzid\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Dumuzid.<\/a> Seems &#8220;Pagan-ish&#8221; to me. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\/ Twiiter user Clay Scott @scottwestacre) who raises wheat in southwestern Kansas, posted this video on Memorial Day &#8212; once known as Decoration Day, from the custom of decorating graves on that day. He wrote, &#8220;Decoration Day. We place wreaths of wheat each year on the graves of family and friends. We have done this [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"Families in southwestern Kansas decorate graves with sheaves of wheat, a custom with ancient Pagan origins.","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[10,480,284,296],"class_list":["post-14280","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-american-religion","tag-graveyard","tag-kansas","tag-pagan-ish"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6xQTg-3Ik","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":584,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=584","url_meta":{"origin":14280,"position":0},"title":"Candles for PagansI like candles.\u2026","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"December 23, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"Candles for PagansI like candles. So did my mother, a life-long Episcopalian. To her, I suppose they suggested gracious living. She died ten years ago, and M. and I still have not used up all the candles that she left behind.Ever since our handfasting, we have been pretty well \"out\"\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":908,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=908","url_meta":{"origin":14280,"position":1},"title":"Oss Tales: Creating the Archaic","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"July 20, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"To watch Oss Tales is to see the difference between a community and a network and the contrast between self-conscious ritual and tradition.If you are interested in the construction of ritual and of community--and in the history of the Pagan movement--you should buy the DVD, which contains three short films:1.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Beltane\"","block_context":{"text":"Beltane","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=beltane"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5833,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=5833","url_meta":{"origin":14280,"position":2},"title":"Circles and Rectangles: Does Your House Shape You?","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"July 14, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"My first year as an undergraduate, I lived a in four-person dormitory suit. One day I entered the (rectangular) room of my suite-mate Bill and found that he had placed his bed, desk, etc. at diagonal angles to the walls. \"I got tired of everything being so rectilinear,\" he said.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"archaeology\"","block_context":{"text":"archaeology","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=archaeology"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/press.princeton.edu\/images\/j9831.gif?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":7677,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=7677","url_meta":{"origin":14280,"position":3},"title":"Massive 2015 Year-End Link Dump! Something for Everyone!","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"December 28, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Some of the links that I saved that never turned into blog posts . . . \u2022 The Internet loves quizes, so \"What Kind of Witch Would You Be?\" (answer: hearth witch). I always suspect that the answer is based on just one question, while the others are there just\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"animism\"","block_context":{"text":"animism","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=animism"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.theoutdoorwire.com\/image_archive\/2210514.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":123,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=123","url_meta":{"origin":14280,"position":4},"title":"A Cigar for Ken Hanson","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"February 19, 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"The Reed College alumni magazine came today, announcing the passing of several faculty members of my time there, including my thesis advisor, the poet Kenneth O. Hanson. (I like the way the article calls Greece \"the country that he discovered in 1963.\" Land ho!) Regrets: that I never gave his\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"academia\"","block_context":{"text":"academia","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=academia"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":751,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=751","url_meta":{"origin":14280,"position":5},"title":"Who&#8217;s a Celt now ? &#8211; 5","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"October 29, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4While they wanted to present Wicca as the indigenous religion of Britain, the founders of contemporary Witchcraft were not so much caught up in the \"Celtic\" mythos. Some, in fact, favored the Saxon. By the 1970s, however, \"cardiac Celts\" were everywhere. Writers such\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14280","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14280"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14280\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14286,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14280\/revisions\/14286"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14280"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14280"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14280"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}