Celebrating Food LEVELED BOOK • N

and Family
A Reading A–Z Level N Leveled Book Celebrating
Food and Family
Word Count: 639

Written by Vera Ogden Bakker

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Celebrating
Photo Credits:
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Food and Family

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Written by Vera Ogden Bakker Celebrating Food and Family

Level N Leveled Book Correlation
© Learning A–Z LEVEL N
Written by Vera Ogden Bakker
Fountas & Pinnell L
All rights reserved. Reading Recovery 20
www.readinga-z.com www.readinga-z.com
DRA 28
 A farmer gathers a corn crop.

Table of Contents
Introduction
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
People around the world celebrate
Yam Festival . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
the harvest season. That’s when the
Chuseok . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 crops are ready to be gathered and
eaten or stored for the year ahead.
Sukkoth . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
Long ago, the Native people in what
Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
is now the United States held
Glossary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 harvest celebrations in the fall.

Celebrating Food and Family • Level N 3 4

People in the United States still
celebrate the harvest season in
November. This holiday is called
Thanksgiving. A traditional
Thanksgiving meal includes turkey
and side dishes like mashed
potatoes.
A family prepares Thanksgiving dinner.
Celebrating Food and Family • Level N
Yams are gathered during the Yam Festival in Papua New Guinea.
Yam Festival
People in West Africa and the South
Pacific Islands celebrate the Yam
Festival. In early August, families
gather yams. It is the end of the
rainy season there. Yams are the
most common food in these regions,
and the first crop to be harvested in
Nigeria.
5 6
The night before the festival begins,
the children help throw out any
yams left over from last year. They
scrub all the pots, especially the
wooden bowls in which cooked
yams are mashed.
Nigerian women mash yams.
Celebrating Food and Family • Level N
The next morning, they offer the
freshly harvested yams to the gods
and their ancestors in special
ceremonies. This is the way they
thank the spirits for a good crop.
No one eats any new
yams until this is done.
After the ceremonies, people divide the
yams among themselves. Everyone
cooks dishes made with yams and
other vegetables. The harvest festival
will last for many days.
At the harvest in countries in West Africa, people dance to celebrate
the yam crop.
7 8
 Families bow and greet their
ancestors. They ask if the ancestors
A mother sits
are pleased and let them know how
with her
daughters,
they are doing.
who wear
traditional
costumes.
Then there is a feast of fresh rice
cakes, persimmons, mushrooms,
Chuseok and chestnuts. They give thanks for
The Harvest Moon Festival in Korea the harvest. Children listen to
is called Chuseok (CHOO-suhk), stories about their ancestors.
and it is a time to honor ancestors.
Like the Yam Festival, it is celebrated
in August.

The night before the festival begins,

women dress in costume and join in
a circle dance.

The next morning everyone dresses

in their best clothes. They visit the
graves of their ancestors, carrying
rice cakes stuffed with sesame seeds. An offering of food is placed at the grave of a family’s ancestor.

Celebrating Food and Family • Level N 9 10

 Children also Sukkoth
play and are
In Israel, people have a different way
entertained by
of celebrating the harvest and
men who dress
honoring their ancestors. The
as tortoises.
celebration is called Sukkoth,
The men dance
(SOOK-us), and it’s held in September
around the
or October. Families build a three-
village and
sided hut in
sing for food
A family celebrates with a meal at the their garden.
grave of an ancestor. and drink.
They make the
Traditionally, women and girls cook roof from corn
and men and boys take part in the stalks. They
tortoise dance. Some families build huts on their leave holes
balconies.
where they can
In recent years, the way people
see the sky. Children help decorate
celebrate Chuseok has changed.
the hut with squash and corn.
Anyone can participate in cooking
or dancing. Some people go on The family eats their meals in the
vacation to celebrate instead of hut for the next week. Some people
returning to their hometown. may sleep in it at night.

Celebrating Food and Family • Level N 11 12

 There are seven days of feasting
and religious services. Children
may help
prepare lulavs
(loo-LAWVs)
by cutting a
palm branch,
two willow
branches, and
three myrtle
branches.
A family enjoys a Sukkoth meal in a hut.
Then they tie
them together.
They build huts to remember
Families walk
ancestors who built huts in the fields
together to the
at harvest time. The ancestors slept in
synagogue.
huts so they wouldn’t have to walk so A boy carries a lulav and etrog.
They wave the
far to reach the fields each day.
lulav in their right hands and carry
Building huts during the Sukkoth
an etrog (et-ROG), a citrus fruit, in
celebration helps remind people of
their left.
their ancestors’ experiences.

Celebrating Food and Family • Level N 13 14

 Glossary

ancestors (n.) people who came

before your
generation (p. 8)

Chuseok (n.) Korean harvest

festival (p. 9)
Conclusion
etrog (n.) a large, lemon-like
Many cultures have celebrations in
fruit (p. 14)
which families and communities
share food. When people around the persimmons (n.) orange-red tropical
world leave their homes to find new fruits (p. 10)
ones, they often take
Sukkoth (n.) Jewish harvest
their celebrations
festival (p. 12)
with them.
Sometimes they find ways to mix synagogue (n.) a Jewish place of
old traditions with new ones. worship (p. 14)

 But no matter where they are, tortoises (n.) land turtles (p. 11)
families give thanks when yams (n.) root plants similar to
they can gather together. sweet potatoes (p. 6)

Celebrating Food and Family • Level N 15 16