{"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_seo_schema_type":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_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":511,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=511","url_meta":{"origin":14280,"position":0},"title":"The Dodman's CraftBefore there was\u2026","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"September 11, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"The Dodman's CraftBefore there was an Internet--back around 1980--Mike Nichols of Kansas City published a lively Pagan 'zine. He has been writing and teaching classes on the Craft for decades.Nowadays, as Wren Walker of The Witches' Voice says in her foreword, if you do a Web search on \"Samhain\" or\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":751,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=751","url_meta":{"origin":14280,"position":1},"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":[]},{"id":563,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=563","url_meta":{"origin":14280,"position":2},"title":"The White GoddessLee Gilmore writes\u2026","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"November 25, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"The White GoddessLee Gilmore writes of synchronistic experiences involving Robert Graves' \"historical grammar of poetic myth,\" The White Goddess.First published in 1948, it was for many people a \"gateway book\" to Goddess religion--it certainly was that for me. (Maybe we should devote a Pagan Studies session to it.)Lee also reports\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":3},"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":584,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=584","url_meta":{"origin":14280,"position":4},"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":8593,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=8593","url_meta":{"origin":14280,"position":5},"title":"Heartland Festival Presentations, Take 2","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"May 24, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Once again, I am packed, ready, and excited to be going to the Heartland Pagan Festival.\u00a0 With any luck, that will be me stepping off the Southwest Chief in Lawrence, Kansas, on Friday morning. (Usually I snooze through Lawrence when traveling east and wake up for the long stop in\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"festivals\"","block_context":{"text":"festivals","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=festivals"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"\/\/ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com\/e\/ir?t=soutrocknatub-20&l=am2&o=1&a=0759102023","width":350,"height":200},"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}]}}