Each year we celebrate the special holiday of Thanksgiving on the last Thursday of the month of November. It’s a day of family fathering together for a time of feasting on a special dinner and enjoying each other’s company in harmony and good will. But, I wonder how many of us take the time to think about why we enjoy this holiday each year?
I’m not sure if the schools really tell the students the origin and details of why our country celebrates this day of Thanksgiving. Both our first President George Washington gave a special Thanksgiving Proclamation in 1789 to the people of the United States as a day of public thanksgiving and prayer acknowledging with grateful hearts the many favors of Almighty Gd. President Abraham Lincoln also proclaimed the last Thursday in November a holiday of “thanksgiving and praise.”
When we think of what the Pilgrims had to endure to come to this land and start a new life, we can understand why it is so important to remember. About 370 years ago in England, King Charles told the people, “The only church is the Church of England, and you have to worship where I say or be hounded out of the realm.” Christians who tried to have private meetings were put into chains and hauled off to prison, and some were even hanged. Some of them managed to escape and began to plan to seek their fortune in the New World.
Financed by merchant-adventurers, they loaded two sailing ships with food, seeds, and tools for building and farming. They also carried firearms and armor to protect themselves against any vicious animals and people of the New World they called “savages.”
Finally one ship, the Mayflower was fit to cross the ocean. On September 6, 1620, one hundred and two men, women and children and their furniture, chickens, pigs, dogs and cats crowded aboard the small cargo ship. Trusting in God and their own courage, the Pilgrims set sail for the New World knowing winter was coming. Their journey was difficult and besides being crowded, they suffered seasickness. They prayed, sang, and read their Bibles.
They endured storms and tumultuous waves, but one morning they heard the call “Land Ho!” Wishing to go no farther the Pilgrims agreed that New England would be their new home. On December 11, 1620, the Pilgrim men landed on Plymouth Harbor beach. The Pilgrims had a home at last.
Because Winter struck with such cruel intensity that Governor John Carver permitted the families to stay on the Mayflower. However, despite the weather men began hammering their own homes together, and in less than a week the Common House was erected.
Food supplies dwindles, and the people knew little about hunting and fishing. Disease soon followed hunger, and death followed disease. By March, 38 people had died, and they buried them in the darkness of night, as they were afraid the “savages” might learn how many had died for fear of attack, so they marked the graves only with prayer. For a time it looked as if no one would survive. But God was with them, and because of their reliance on the Bible, which was an important part of the Pilgrim’s life was hard work, determination and sincerity. Their faith in God kept them going and God strengthened them.
In the spring, only fifty-seven Pilgrims and half the crew had survived, and seventeen were children. But with determination, the women seeded English herbs and vegetables in their kitchen gardens. The men planted peas, wheat, and barley. They split wood, sawed boards, and scouted for Indians, however they had yet to meet any.
Yet, that Spring, the Pilgrims were visited by two Indians who spoke English they had learned. They were Samoset and Squanto and were able to interpret while Governor Carver and Massosoit worded a peace treaty that would last more than fifty years.
The Indians taught them to plant a new crop, corn and other vegetables, and new words from the Indians..squash, succotash and hominy that became part of the English language we have today. Squanto taught the Pilgrim men how to fish for their colony, and where and how to fish with weirs and news. He also took them to waters where cod and salmon were abundant.
Months passed, spring crops grew, summer came and later the harvest. Extra food was stored for the long cold winter ahead. A year after their landing Governor Bradford of the group had written in his diary to plan a feast to give thanks to God. “Our harvest in, four men were send “fowling” that we might have a special feast and rejoice together. The men returned with enough fowl to last a week, ducks, geese and wild turkey. The people of Plymouth had good reasons to celebrate. Now they had eleven houses to live in, a building to store food, and a building to meet and to worship God.
The day of the feast had arrived. Governor Bradford asked Squanto to invite Massasoit and other Indians to the feast as well. The women baked, and boards were set on barrels covered with precious linens, and placed in the middle of their only street. Massasoit arrived the day of the feast with five deer and many turkeys. With him were not just a few guests, as expected, but ninety. For three days the Pilgrims and Indians feasted, played games, and shot guns and arrows. This was not a day of Pilgrim thanksgiving, which was every Thursday from dawn to dusk. This was a day of celebration. Everyone was thankful and happy and thoroughly enjoyed the feast. And now years later, we still enjoy Thanksgiving as a day to give thanks for all that God has given us.
Today we are living in a time of stress and uncertainty too, and many have had to experience the loss of their homes, their jobs, and their livelihood, however the American people have had to endure hardship before, and they have risen above adversity and carried on. We can do it again, and we will. If the Pilgrims could keep persevering against the obstacles they faced, we can reflect on all that we have to be thankful for and still celebrate Thanksgiving. Some many others have it more difficult than we do, we should be thankful for what we have and also share if we can with others not so fortunate.
Helen L. Price
Excerpts from the book “The First Thanksgiving”
by Jean Craighead George
Tags: Helen Price
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