OCR Text |
Show Thanksgiving is an All-American holiday Our harvest being gotten in, our Governor sente four men out fowling that so we might, after a more special manner, re-joyce re-joyce together after we had gathered the fruit of our labours... And amongst the rest, their greatest King, Massasoit, with some ninety men, whome for three days, we entertained and feasted. . . And although it be not always so plentifull as it was at this time with us, yet, by the goodness of God, we are so fan from wante that we often wish you partakers of our plentie. Edward Winslow Plymouth, Massachusetts, 1621 A letter to England x I Like most American customs and traditions, the concept of setting aside a day of thankfulness was borrowed from other cultures. Ancient Greeks had a day of thankful feasting called "Thesmophoria." Another Greek celebration honored Demeter, the goddess of cornfields and harvest. The Roman harvest feast was called "Cerelia" in honor of the harvest goddess Ceres. This customarily took place in early October and started with a fast and then the sacrifice of a sow and the first harvest cuttings. The Hebrews kept the Feast of Thanksgiving, directed by God through Moses. Deuteronomy records, "Thou shalt keep the feast of tabernacles of seven days, after that thou has I gathered in from thy threshing-floor and thy winepress and thou shalt rejoice in thy feast. ' In early England, Harvest Home rituals began when the last sheaf of corn was set on end. An image made of wheat, corn ears and ribbons was raised aloft on a pole and carried, procession-style to the barns, escorting the last load of the harvest. This feast became rowdy and was frowned upon by the Pilgrims who preferred fasting to feasting. The tradition that Thanksgiving started with the Plymouth colony is misleading, but it is an appropriate part of our folk culture. The survivors who inhabited Plymouth Colony didn't have much except their lives and they were certainly thankful for this precious gift. The Mayflower left Plymouth, England on Sept. 6, 1620, carrying 102 passengers. These were two deaths at sea and two babies were born during the stormy voyage of 63 days. Of the 102 who arrived safely at Plymouth, Mass., only 55 I survived for the harvest-festival in October. I This survival can be credited to good luck in finding well-preserved well-preserved corn that had been secretly buried by Indians and in I securing the friendship of two English-speaking Indians I Samoset and Squanto (Tisquantum). I Before the Pilgrims arrived in Massachusetts, the I Jamestown, Virginia colonist who reached America in 1607, I had ' 'knelt to thank God for their safe arrival. ' ' J The Jamestown colonists celebrated another I "Thanksgiving" in 1610 when supplies arrived from England I after a 4 starving time." A third Jamestown Thanksgiving was described by Captain John Woodleaf on Dec. 4, 1619, one year before the traditional Plymouth celebration. He wrote, "Wee ordaine that the day of our ships arrival... shall be yearly and perpetualy kept holy as a day of Thanksgiving to Almighty God. Another colony, led by Captain George Popham, that settled near present-day Phippsburg, Maine in the late summer of 1607 celebrated a Thanksgiving feast with the peaceful Abnaki Indians. After surviving a chilling winter, the Popham group returned to England, thankful that they could leave America. Thanksgiving observances continued on a sporadic basis through the colonial period. After the establishment of the United States of America, President George Washington issued a Thanksgiving proclamation procla-mation assigning Thursday, the 26th day of November as a day "to be devoted by the People of these States, to the service of that great and glorious Being, who is the beneficient Author of all the good that was, that is or that will be." By 1817, New York State adopted Thanksgiving Day as an I annual custom and this observance spread to other states. It was Sarah Josepha Hale, the author of "Mary Had a Little Lamb," and editor of the Ladies Magazine and Goodey's I Lady's Book, who worked 40 years, urging four different presidents to establish a uniform, annual, nationwide day of thankfulness. President Lincoln heeded her request and proclaimed the I last Thursday in November 1863 as Thanksgiving Day. President Franklin D. Roosevelt changed the day to the fourth Thursday as the day to celebrate Thanksgiving. The I reason was that occasionally Thanksgiving would fall very near the end of November. This would shorten the shopping I days between Thanksgiving and Christmas. The credit for starting the Thanksgiving celebration isn't important. It is appropriate that Thanksgiving is a combination of the beliefs and customs of many people because this makes it 'American. " It is equally important to remember the hard-I hard-I ships the colonists endured and to apply the words of Edward Winslow to our thinking--" And although it be not always so plentifull as it was at this time with us, yet, by the goodness of God, we are so farr from wante that we often wish you partakers par-takers of our plentie." |