The Bread Feast featuring a young Morpheus (center left)
The Bread Feast was a bi-annual feast held in Zion in celebration and honor of Geoffrey.
A table with plates of bread during the Bread Feast
Twice a year, Zion took a portion of the stockpiled grain to bake the bread. And then, during the feast, the bread was distributed to each citizen who patiently and eagerly awaited to partake. Only after the storyteller completed relaying the tale of Geoffrey (also known as The Miller's Tale) would each citizen start enjoying the bread. But even then, and to display how good the bread was, it was supposed to be savored without hurry. Altogether, the feast, from preparation to conclusion, showcased the discipline of each citizen of Zion, both old and young alike.
History[]
Bread
In the early days of Zion, before Geoffrey's time, they only knew and were only allowed to sustain themselves with protein-rich porridge, citing the lack of manpower to spare for anything else but the production of soldiers and arms for the ongoing Machine War. And Geoffrey, who had eaten bread before in the Matrix before his liberation, did not remember what bread tasted like. And he theorized that the Machines lacked data to replicate its real taste.
But after braving the surface, in a mission involving four others where he was the only survivor, Geoffrey brought back genetically-modified wheat seeds and, alone, worked on propagating and milling the wheat. He achieved success and was able to give Zion its first real taste of bread. This success, in turn, won Geoffrey more supporters and allowed him to grow and improve the enterprise.
A farm, situated far from any city, was setup. And for some years afterwards, bread became abundant in Zion to the point where children grew up eating bread. Likewise, bread awaited any crew who came back alive from their dangerous missions.
Battle of the Wheat Fields
Through time, and since the wheat could only survive on the surface, albeit with more than a few complicated requirements involving stealing power from the Machine's power lines, the enterprise was eventually discovered by the Machines who sent surface seekers to the farmers' location. This lead to the massacre known as the Battle of the Wheat Fields. The tradition was afterwards created to commemorate the sacrifice made by Geoffrey and his compatriots.