Dear China
Friends,
THANKSGIVING HISTORY
This year
Thanksgiving is celebrated on Thursday the 24th of November.
Thanksgiving had its
beginning with the Separatists who wanted to worship their own way rather than
the way the state Church of England demanded.
To escape persecution they fled to Holland seeking religious
freedom. But when their children grew up
speaking Dutch rather than English, they determined to sail for the New
World. They came to be known as Pilgrims
because of their much traveling to find religious freedom. But 41 Pilgrims were not enough to hire a
ship so they found 61 others who were willing to go in the year of 1620 although
they were members of the state church.
The words on their
sail were “In God We Trust” and “God With Us.”
While still on board the Mayflower, the leaders of both groups drew up an
agreement called the Mayflower Compact.
In it they wrote: “Having
undertaken for the glory of God and the advancement of the Christian faith and
honour of our king and country to plant ye the first colony in ye Northern
parts.” This was the first time that
North America had a system of self-government by majority rule.
It was their plan to
join the Virginia Jamestown colony but a storm blew them 150 miles north to New
England. According to tradition they
came ashore in a small boat landing on a large rock now called Plymouth
Rock. Since they had expected to winter
in much warmer Virginia they were not prepared for the long hard New England
winter. They hadn’t brought enough food
with them on the Mayflower. So
forty-three people died from the cold, starvation, and disease.
Then one Spring
morning in 1621 an Indian appeared who spoke some English because he had earlier
been captured by some Englishmen and then released. The Pilgrims felt like he had been sent to
them by God. This was because Squanto
showed them how to catch fish and to put three little fish into the ground as
fertilizer with each group of corn seed they planted. He also taught them how to
get sap from maple trees to make sugar as well as which berries and fruits could
be eaten. Also they learned how to catch
beaver for their fur and how to hunt for wild turkeys, geese, ducks and other
birds.
Since springtime no
one had sick and they had built seven private houses and four other buildings
for community use. And their crops had
been good enough to double the amount food grain for each person. It was late in October when the crops were
safely stored that 3 days were set aside for “rejoicing.” Governor William Bradford proclaimed a day of
thanksgiving and prayer to God. The
outdoor feast included corn, geese, turkeys, ducks eel, clams, leeks, plums,
cod, bass, barley, venison and corn bread.
The Pilgrims and Indians ran races and demonstrated the accuracy of their
respective weapons. At first they had a
common storehouse for their food.
However, that did not work well since the temptation was to let others do
the work. So they allotted each family a
plot to raise their own food which developed their work ethic. You might say that this was the start of
capitalism.
Thanksgiving is a
family affair. My daughter Carolyn will
fly in from New York to help me celebrate Thanksgiving. We will enjoy two feasts, one at my nursing
home and another at our close friends’ house.
It is a time for
people to remember what they have to be thankful for. What are you thankful for??
Your friend,
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