Thanksgiving, Then, and Then, and Now, from Family Christmas Online™

Let's start with the parts of the story that seem to go together: turkeys, pilgrims, corn, and Native Americans. Most Americans remember that in November, 1620, 102 would-be colonists started Plymouth colony on Cape Cod. About half of the settlers were Puritans, Protestants who were looking for a place where they could practice their faith in peace. Unfortunately, disease and other hardships ravaged the new colony until they had lost half their number.

According to the earliest published account*, the next autumn, the survivors realized that, with God's grace and the help of the Native Americans, they had enough stores of corn and other food to survive the coming winter. They proclaimed a feast, went hunting for wild birds (including turkeys), and invited ninety Native American men from the tribe that had helped them survive their first year. The feast lasted nearly a week, during which the Native Americans contributed five deer as well. The Puritans, of course, would have included prayers of thanksgiving throughout the festival as well.

For over two centuries, most Americans outside Plymouth didn't even know that such a festival had happened, and there were no regular annual "Thanksgiving" celebrations anywhere. But in 1854, an early history of Plymouth colony** was rediscovered, rekindling interest in Plymouth's history.

Four years later, Longfellow told the story of an uncoventional courtship in early Plymouth. His poem "The Courtship of Miles Standish,"*** made the first year's settlers "come alive" in people's imagination.

In 1863, Abraham Lincoln established the last Thursday of November as a national day of thanksgiving and prayer.**** By then, many Americans thought of Thanksgiving feasts as inextricably linked to pilgrims, Native Americans, pumpkins, and turkeys. (Cranberries and football came later, in case you wondered.)

But Thanksgiving feasts have been occurring since the dawn of history. In fact, the ancient Hebrews celebrated not one, but three feasts tied to various harvests. The Feast of Unleavened Bread (Pesach) coincided with the barley harvest. The Festival of Weeks (Shavuot) celebrated the wheat harvest. And the Festival of Booths (Sukkot) coincided with the beginning of the fruit harvest. At each of these festivals, grain offerings, prayer, and huge gatherings occurred, and prayers of thanksgiving were offered.

Many practices during these festivals recall Israel's agrarian past, from building shelters made of tree branches, to incorporating sheafs of grain in worship services. During Sukkot today, one palm branch, two willow branches, and three myrtle branches are bound together. The celebrant then holds a citris fruit in one hand, while with the other he waves the branches north, south, east, west, up, and down, to symbolize that God is everywhere. Think about that the next time you bind corn stocks or "Indian corn" for decoration, or pile a table with decorative fruit.

Even Longfellow's unconventional romance between John Alden and Priscilla Mullins has a parallel in Jewish feasts. Every year during Shavuot, practicing Jews read about the unconventional romance of King David's grandmother Ruth.

But of course harvest festivals are as old as harvests, and using such occasions to thank God for His bounty is as old as history. Today's culture seems to love the pumpkins, turkey, and similar trappings, but forget the "thanksgiving" part of the festival. Many attempt to discredit the intentions of those early Plymouth survivors or to downplay the importance of their faith. It's appropriate, however, to remember a devout remnant who had come through great hardship and were still on good terms with their neighbors and thankful to God.

Better yet, make every day a day of Thanksgiving to our Father from whom every good gift comes.

God grant you and your loved ones grace and a spirit of generosity and service this season.

Paul D. Race, Family Christmas Online

If you have any corrections, comments, or additions you would like to make about this article, please contact me and I will be glad to hear from you. God bless - Paul

*The earliest recorded account of this feast is Edward Winslow's account, written in December, 1621, and published in 1622 as part of Mount's Relation: A Journal of the Pilgrims at Plymouth. To read Winslow's account, click here.

**The next record was in a memoir written about twenty years later: William Bradford's Of Plymouth Plantation. This document was rediscovered in Britain in 1854 and stirred much interest in Plymouth's early history, including the harvest festival that became known as Thanksgiving. To read Bradford's account, click here.

*** In Longfellow's poem, Plymouth's military leader, Myles Standish, asks Longfellow's own ancestor, John Alden, to court Priscilla Mullins on his behalf. According to the poem, Priscilla finds the messenger more attractive than the message and says "Why don't you speak for yourself, John?" But John doesn't want to betray his friend, so he is stymied in both his purpose and in his own heart's desire. The complete text of the Longfellow poem will be available here soon, so stay tuned.

**** To learn more about Lincoln's proclamation, click here.