Sacrifice for the sake of the harvest.?

Question

I have occasionally come across the fictional trope of the young man or woman sacrificed to ensure the good of the harvest. Sometimes at the end of the Summer to ensure that Spring will come again. Sometimes at the end of Winter.

Does/did this really exist and if so, can you suggest further sources for study? Thanks

Answer 1

Human sacrifice was practiced in many ancient cultures. Victims were ritually killed in a manner that was supposed to please or appease gods or spirits. On rare occasions human sacrifices still occur today, most notably in India.

Human sacrifices were made in the Bronze Age Celtic religions in Europe, and in rituals related to worship of Norse gods (most modern Ásatrú and Druid groups do not condone such practices). However, because most of the information comes from outside sources (Greeks and Romans for Celts and medieval Christians for Norsemen) who may have had ulterior propaganda motives, contemporary historians consider them suspect.

The reason for human sacrifice is suggested in its definition: ritual sacrifice involves offering human lives to dieties to as payment for favorable interventions in an event of special importance, to forestall unfavorable events, or to purchase disclosures about the physical world. Human sacrifice has been practiced on a number of different occasions and in many different cultures. These include:

Sacrifice by Indian adherents of Tantrism who believe that human sacrifices to the gods can change their fortune.
Sacrifice to accompany the dedication of a new building like a temple or bridge. Chinese legends hold that thousands of people were entombed in the Great Wall of China, though they were not.
Sacrifice in Aztec and Mayan cultures to the god of fertility to assure good corn harvest.
Sacrifice of his daughter by a victorious Biblical general Jephthah who considered it a quid pro quo for a monumental victory.
Sacrifice upon the death of a king, high priest or great leader; the sacrifices were to serve or accompany the deceased leader in the next life. Mongols, Scythians and various Mesoamerican chiefs could take most of their household, including servants and concubines, with them to the next world. This is sometimes called a "retainer sacrifice," as the leader's retainers would be sacrificed along with their master.
Sacrifice by ritual combat. Etruscans organized gladiator fights in funerals because they believed that "important men required a blood sacrifice in order to survive in the afterlife." Aztecs also killed prisoners in ritual combats.
Sacrifice for divination; a priest would try to predict the future from the body parts of a slain prisoner or slave. According to Strabo, Celts stabbed a victim with a sword and divined the future from his death spasms.
Sacrifice in times of natural disaster. Droughts, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, etc. were seen as a sign of anger or displeasure of gods and sacrifices were made to appease the divine ire. Cretans tried to stop the destruction of their island this way

Answer 2

The druidic culture would routinely perform human sacrafice to ensure a plentiful harvest, they also would sacrafice someone before going to war (which is actually where the Magician's Trick of putting someone in a large basket & shoving knives/swords in comes from).

Search the internet for Druid websites, or anything on the ancient pagens - Neo-pagen websites (i.e. Wicca) will be of little use however

Answer 3

Around 850 AD the Romanians routinely sacrificed little people i.e. midgets because they believed them to possess a power to bring
in a good harvest. This went on for a little over 300 years and this is one of the reasons that you see so few midgets in that part of the
world today.

Answer 4

Supposedly this was a druidic practice. I don't know much about the specifics, but I have heard that it was more of a fertility ritual. A male and a female priestess would couple together to create sex magick which would invoke the fertility of the earth through human fertility. Supposedly.

Answer 5

Can't give you scholarly sources, but in case you've missed this example, I suggest the novel Harvest Home, by Thomas Tryon.