That’s right. Onions! Onion bread, onion necklaces, onion toys, and onion songs.

It’s that time of year again: the Zwiebelfest (Onion Festival) in Weimar. There seems to be nothing that doesn’t benefit from an onion or two, or twenty. These little figures on the left would brighten any home and maybe inspire your children to develop a more adventurous palate.

Right now I’m in Budapest leading my Smithsonian Journey’s group through Eastern Europe. Here it’s “Paprika Fest” nearly every day of the year. Still, delicious as it is, their “hot” paprika is pretty wimpy. And as much as I love Budapest, part of me longs for the onions in Weimar. I love onions. As many as possible on almost any food that isn’t dessert. I’m kind of the Onion Queen.

Okay, maybe not the onion queen. The lovely lady in this picture is actually last year’s queen, complete with onion tiara. She will relinquish that tiara (or . . . maybe one like it) in a few days to the new Onion Queen. That could be me, but I guess you have to be a full-time resident of Weimar or something. Sigh.

Festivals like this are annual rituals in towns across Europe. In America, too. In Bowie, Texas, we have (for some reason) our biggest festival in the heat of the summer: “Chicken and Bread Days.” I know, that has a bland ring to it, but you can add all the jalapeños you want, plus some onions for good measure.

Not far from us is the annual springtime Rattlesnake Roundup in Sweetwater, Texas. People pour in for that one. At the very least, it’s a good way to impress Europeans with how wild and crazy it is to live in Texas.

But harvest festivals have the most appeal for me. And they have a marvelously rich history. You can start by studying, or better yet, experiencing the Jewish festival of Sukkot. Translated literally as the Feast of Booths, it is also called the Feast of the Tabernacles or Feast of the Ingathering. Preparations for Sukkot are set forth in several places in the Old Testament, including Leviticus 23:40.

And you shall take on the first day the fruit of splendid trees, branches of palm trees and boughs of leafy trees and willows of the brook, and you shall rejoice before the Lord your God seven days.

Seemingly a world apart, our State Fairs are inspired in part by ancient harvest fairs. Here, part of the fun comes from watching competitions devoted to a cornucopia of food products (from blackberry jam to giant pumpkins).

In the United States, we also point to Thanksgiving, a holiday that has national significance, as well as religious importance. It’s a good opportunity to use some of those prize-winning pumpkins, yes? And Thanksgiving is coming up faster than we realize.

Whether old or not, harvest festivals have three things in common: the reward of rest (unless you’re the cook), a chance to enjoy the fruits of a year’s labor, and a strengthening of community.

So this weekend, if you’re not in Weimar and you can’t find a local harvest festival nearby, eat an onion (or a pepper), and start making plans for Thanksgiving.