{"id":4699,"date":"2018-06-26T23:34:18","date_gmt":"2018-06-26T22:34:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?p=4699"},"modified":"2018-06-26T23:34:18","modified_gmt":"2018-06-26T22:34:18","slug":"the-history-of-scarecrows","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?p=4699","title":{"rendered":"THE HISTORY OF SCARECROWS"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tFor thousands of years scarecrows have helped save crops from birds and other animals and provided an outlet for human creativity. Scarecrow genealogy is rooted in a rural lifestyle. The Egyptians used the first scarecrows in recorded history to protect wheat fields along the river Nile from quail flocks. Farmers installed wooden frames in their fields and covered them with nets. Then they hid in the fields, scared the quail into the nets and took the bird’s home to eat.<\/span>\n<\/p>\n

\n\t\"\"Greek farmers in 2,500 BC carved wooden scarecrows to look like Priapus (the son of the god Dionysus and the goddess Aphrodite) who was supposedly ugly enough to scare birds away from the vineyards and ensure good harvests. The scarecrows were painted purple with one hand holding a club to scare the birds and a sickle in the other for good harvests. As the Romans marched across Europe they followed the Greeks and introduced Priapus scarecrows. Simultaneously the Japanese had scarecrows called kakashis shaped like people. They dressed them in raincoats and a straw hat and often added bows and arrows to look more threatening. Kojiki the oldest surviving Japanese book from 712 features a scarecrow known as Kuebiko who appears as a deity who cannot walk but knows everything about the world.<\/span>\n<\/p>\n

\n\tIn Germany scarecrows were made to look like witches whilst in medieval Britain children were used to patrol the crops and wave their arms and throw stones. Later on farmers stuffed sacks of straw, made faces from gourds and leaned the straw man against a pole.<\/span>\n<\/p>\n

\n\tDuring the Great Depression in America scarecrows could be found across the whole country until after the Second World War when farming began to use chemicals to protect their crops. For thousands of years scarecrows have helped save crops from birds and other animals and provided an outlet for human creativity. Scarecrow genealogy is rooted in a rural lifestyle. The Egyptians used the first scarecrows in recorded history to protect wheat fields along the river Nile from quail flocks. Farmers installed wooden frames in their fields and covered them with nets. Then they hid in the fields, scared the quail into the nets and took the bird’s home to eat.<\/span>\"\"\n<\/p>\n

\n\tGreek farmers in 2,500 BC carved wooden scarecrows to look like Priapus (the son of the god Dionysus and the goddess Aphrodite) who was supposedly ugly enough to scare birds away<\/span> <\/span>from the vineyards and ensure good harvests. The scarecrows were painted purple with one hand holding a club to scare the birds and a sickle in the other for good harvests. As the Romans marched across Europe they followed the Greeks and introduced Priapus scarecrows. Simultaneously the Japanese had scarecrows called kakashis shaped like people. They dressed them in raincoats and a straw hat and often added bows and arrows to look more threatening. Kojiki the oldest surviving Japanese book from 712 features a scarecrow known as Kuebiko who appears as a deity who cannot walk but knows everything about the world.<\/span>\n<\/p>\n

\n\tIn Germany scarecrows were made to look like witches whilst in medieval Britain children were used to patrol the crops and wave their arms and throw stones. Later on farmers stuffed sacks of straw, made faces from gourds and leaned the straw man against a pole.<\/span>\n<\/p>\n

\n\tDuring the Great Depression in America scarecrows could be found across the whole country until after the Second World War when farming began to use chemicals to protect their crops.<\/span>\n<\/p>\n

\n\t \n<\/p>\n

\n\t \n<\/p>\n

\n
\n

\n\t <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For thousands of years scarecrows have helped save crops from birds and other animals and provided an outlet for human creativity. Scarecrow genealogy is rooted in a rural lifestyle. The Egyptians used the first scarecrows in recorded history to protect wheat fields along the river Nile from quail flocks. Farmers installed wooden frames in their fields and covered them with […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[127,40],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6cWjO-1dN","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":6688,"url":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?p=6688","url_meta":{"origin":4699,"position":0},"title":"The Scarecrow Festival","author":"Alan Williams","date":"29th October 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"The Scarecrow Festival Saturday afternoon the 21st of September brought crowds of people to view the different \u201cscarecrows\u201d sited in the churchyard, and to judge between one and another was a very difficult job. The cleverness and ingenuity in putting together a \u201cScarecrow\u201d with a theme really tests the imagination\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Event Notices"","block_context":{"text":"Event Notices","link":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?cat=237"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":6467,"url":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?p=6467","url_meta":{"origin":4699,"position":1},"title":"SCARECROW FESTIVAL THIS MONTH","author":"Alan Williams","date":"28th August 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"\u00a0 THE \u2018ENHANCED\u2019 SCARECROW FESTIVAL IS IN WENVOE THIS MONTH The scarecrows are coming to Wenvoe! The Wenvoe Scarecrow Festival has now become an established part of the village events calendar and this year will be the fifth year the Scarecrow Festival has taken place. There are also additional attractions\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Coming Up"","block_context":{"text":"Coming Up","link":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?cat=7"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wenvoe.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/scarecr.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":11252,"url":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?p=11252","url_meta":{"origin":4699,"position":2},"title":"February Notes","author":"Alan Williams","date":"7th March 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"\u00a0 \u00a0 Gwenfo School News February Notes We have had a lovely half term at Gwenfo exploring our topics and learning a lot. Our action for happiness for February was Direction. We have been learning how to set achievable goals, challenging ourselves to do something a bit difficult. This has\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Gwenfo Primary School"","block_context":{"text":"Gwenfo Primary School","link":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?cat=58"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":122,"url":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?p=122","url_meta":{"origin":4699,"position":3},"title":"Footsteps – Rockfield and St. Maughans","author":"Alan Williams","date":"26th July 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Rockfield, a country village just outside Monmouth was our starting point. From the church we walked a short way on road and transferred almost immediately into a field with the occasional pale lilac of Lady\u2019s Smock flowers and white flowers on spikes of Annual Nettle. We turned west and went\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Footsteps"","block_context":{"text":"Footsteps","link":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?cat=38"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wenvoe.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/JULY-cow.jpg1_.png?fit=475%2C677&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":3614,"url":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?p=3614","url_meta":{"origin":4699,"position":4},"title":"August Events","author":"Alan Williams","date":"25th August 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"\u00a0 \u00a0 A year has gone by since we combined our Parish Magazine with that of the Parish of Sully. During this time we have tried to contribute the news of what is happening in Wenvoe and St. Lythan\u2019s, so that combined with the events in Sully, we have an\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "St Mary's Parish Church News"","block_context":{"text":"St Mary's Parish Church News","link":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?cat=3"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":10102,"url":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?p=10102","url_meta":{"origin":4699,"position":5},"title":"Forest of Dean","author":"Alan Williams","date":"23rd August 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"Forest of Dean \u00a0 We ventured into England (just) for this walk in the Forest of Dean on the Wales\/England border, parking in a large layby opposite Broadstone Park, Staunton. Returning down the hill we picked up a track leading to the Kymin, a National Trust property with stunning views\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Footsteps"","block_context":{"text":"Footsteps","link":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?cat=38"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wenvoe.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/Picture4.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4699"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4699"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4699\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4710,"href":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4699\/revisions\/4710"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4699"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4699"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4699"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}