THANKSGIVING--A Special American HolidayThanksgiving Day
THANKSGIVING--A Special American Holiday
Thanksgiving did not become a regular national holiday until 1863. Abraham Lincoln proclaimed it with the purpose of reinforcing the hope and sense of community of a war-torn nation. Instinctively, Americans located the origins of their observance in that 1621 Plymouth harvest banquet about which almost nothing is known, but somehow its elements focused the American imagination in such a way that now the descendants of every major immigrant group, even despite themselves, find it possible to recognize in those English Separatists their own ancestors and to see in Plymouth, that paradigm of Yankee New England, a home toward which to look if not to go.
Plymouth Rock, the Mayflower II, Plimoth Plantation, the town itself and the story that gives them meaning remain bases of our union, and Thanksgiving is the yearly feast that makes our vast nation a family once again.
It is the healthiest, most humane impulse we have as a people -- to compare ourselves each year to those mythic 'goodly creatures,' in William Gibson's phrase, rededicating ourselves to their noble dream and rededicating ourselves to their noble dream and giving thanks in their memory to each other and to God not for what we have or what we are but for what we might yet become.
At Thanksgiving, we do go home again and the journey to this hometown -- "Plimoth" -- is like going back to the old house and finding it the way it was when we were 10. The fog of nostalgia and sentiment lifts and we can see clearly for a change how things were at the start. The "reality" of Plymouth teaches that the Pilgrims were like we are -- troubled by disagreements, worried for the future and unsure how traditional abstract values apply in present circumstances.
We revere those first settlers not because they were virtuous in a way that we are not, but because, unlike so many others who had come before them to the shores of this continent -- the explorers, adventurers, exploiters -- the Pilgrims stayed. They endured. They dared to continue what they began. They became themselves the rock on which their children and grandchildren could begin to build a society unprecedented in human history in which each person's claim to life and essential freedom is absolute.
If we have mythologized the Pilgrims by emphasizing their courage, their friendliness to the Indians, their respect for one another, their gratitude for the abundant harvest, isn't it because we are a people who recommit ourselves in every generation to those same ideals? We want to be brave, but we want also to be peacemakers. We want to claim our rights to the fruits of the earth. But we want to share them. We fear adversity, like everyone, but we are determined to bring something positive from it. We value diligence, steadfastness and work, but we acknowledge that as a people we are given far more of the world's goods and the spirit's gifts than we deserve.
-- from JAMES CARROLL, "Pilgrimage to Plymouth," NEW YORK TIMES, November 4, 1987.
The Iroquois' Address of Thanksgiving to the Great Spirit
We return thanks to our mother, the earth, which sustains us. We return thanks to the rivers and streams, which supply us with water. We return thanks to all herbs, which furnish medicines for the cure of our diseases. We return thanks to the corn, and to her sisters, the beans, and squashes, which give us life. We return thanks to the bushes and trees, which provide us with fruit. We return thanks to the wind, which, moving the air, has banished diseases. We return thanks to the moon and stars, which have given to us their light when the sun was gone. We return thanks to our grandfather He'-no, that he has protected his grandchildren from witches and reptiles, and has given to us his rain. We return thanks to the sun, that he has looked upon the earth with a beneficent eye. Lastly, we return thanks to the Great Spirit, in whom is embodied all goodness, and who directs all things for the good of his children.
Dear Abby--Abigail Van Buren. Thanksgiving 1997
DEAR READERS: Today is Thanksgiving Day, so here's my traditional column. Take a few minutes to think about what you have to be thankful for. How's your health? Not so good? Well, thank God you've lived this long. A lot of people haven't. You're hurting? Thousands - maybe millions - are hurting more. If you awakened this morning and were able to hear the birds sing, use your vocal cords to utter human sounds, walk to the breakfast table and read the newspaper, praise the Lord! A lot of people couldn't. How's your pocketbook? Thin? Well, most of the world is a lot poorer. No pensions. No welfare. No food stamps. No Social Security. In fact, one-third of the people in the world will go to bed hungry tonight.
Are you lonely? The way to have a friend is to be one. If nobody calls you, call someone. Go out of your way to do something nice for somebody. It's a sure cure for the blues.
Are you concerned about your country's future? Hooray! Our system has been saved by such concern -- concern for fair play under the law. Your country may not be a rose garden, but it also is not a patch of weeds.
Freedom rings! Look and listen. You can still worship at the church of your choice, cast a secret ballot, and even criticize your government without fearing a knock on the head or a knock on the door at midnight. And if you want to live under a different system, you are free to go.
As a final thought, I'll repeat my Thanksgiving prayer; perhaps you will want to use it at your table today:
0, heavenly Father,
We thank thee for food and remember the hungry.
We thank thee for friends and remember the friendless.
We thank thee for freedom and remember the enslaved.
May these remembrances stir us to service.
That thy gifts to us may be used for others. Amen.
Have a wonderful Thanksgiving, and may God bless you and yours. --LOVE, ABBY.
©Universal Press Syndicate