The theme in the blog this month is obviously Thanksgiving. I'm an amateur historian. It's what I like to do. Why? I think it is important to seek out the truth in history and appreciate the people, the sacrifices, and the determination to follow through and demonstrate the desires to pursue the dreams within you...men, women, and child.
When I think of celebrating Thanksgiving this year, I must discern the thoughts of Thanksgiving from harvest celebrations. For centuries, numerous cultures have given a fall time to celebrating the crops and livestock that has been amassed during the spring and summer. These times of celebration are for having enough food and drink to survive through the winter until the next planting season. Harvest celebrations are not a time given to prayer and seeking God. Rather, it is a time for people to relax from all the hard work they had given throughout the summer months and rejoice with one another. In America, our county and state fairs find their origins in harvest celebrations.
Thanksgiving is a separate occasion. During the time of the pilgrims, Thanksgiving was an entirely different train of thought. It was a time or day given to prayer and fasting. There were multiple days throughout the year given to a "day of Thanksgiving." Their focus was on our dependence upon God and to seek Him. Throughout the day there were church services, prayer, and the reading and meditating of the Sacred Scriptures. People would refrain from eating to seek His Presence.
As with many of our American holidays today, we have blended many of our holidays without the understanding of their origin. We have equally added holiday traditions that are not always accurate to what really happen. Is this wrong? No, not necessarily. Mankind throughout time have passed down special days, adding or subtracting different ideas to make these celebrations fit into modern culture. Yet it is of equal responsibility to understand the origins of our holiday celebrations and appreciate the sacrifices that have been made.
Historical writings the "First Thanksgiving" may have happen long before the pilgrims on the Mayflower ever arrived. It may have happen...in Texas! There is a town called San Elizario, near El Paso that celebrates an event dating back to 1598. A Spanish explorer named Juan de Onate had led hundreds of settlers across 350 miles of Mexican desert to the fresh waters of the Rio Grande.
Another possibility is found in the state of Virginia. On the James river lies the Berkeley Plantation. They celebrate a Thanksgiving event dating back to December 4th, 1619, two years before the Thanksgiving feast in Plymouth. Could this be true? Well, in 1963 President Kennedy officially recognized this claim.
So what is the Thanksgiving we celebrate really about? Here are a few thoughts I would like to pass on:
1. Is Thanksgiving about families getting together? My answer: "No, not really." It was a harvest celebration. The pilgrims at Plymouth Rock were numbered around 51 people...including men, women, and children. Of the original 102 that came over on the Mayflower, half of them had died within the first year, many from respiratory infection. After a successful season of growing crops
( thanks to Squanto and the friendly Wampanoug tribe), they celebrated the occasion including shooting of their guns and some reports indicate there was cannon fire. What seems to be a question over time is, "Did they tell the Wampanougs they were going to have a fall celebration?"
We are taught in our history classes the Wampanoug came to the celebration from invitation. Yet, historical writings also indicate they came dressed for battle. Hmmm? Is it possible they came to the event because they thought a battle was about to erupt. There was tension between the Wampanoug and pilgrims as they approached the English settlement. Also, the pilgrims were outnumbered 2 to 1. Had they come to celebrate with the English pilgrims or did they come to crash the party?
2. The celebration of Thanksgiving we are familiar with today actually came from the days of Abraham Lincoln. The Civil War had torn the U.S. in two, and finding a way to peace between the North and South was of a high priority. Along with this, there was a bill being pushed that would make the fourthThursday of November a national holiday known to us as Thanksgiving.
During this time paintings and stories began to emerge showing the Wampanoug and the pilgrims having a great time of peace as they celebrated the "First Thanksgiving." The idea behind all this was if the pilgrims and the Wampanoug were able to establish peace, then perhaps the North and South could do the same. Numerous paintings began to appear showing the friendliness between the two sides. Later Rockwell paintings, buckled hats and shoes with pilgrims dressed in black, and often many more English pilgrims than Native Americans began to be included in paintings of the first Thanksgiving. One 5th grade girl in an elementary school in Ohio wrote about the first Thanksgiving with this phrase: "Native Americans and the Pilgrims were 'besties'." Yet, history tells us a different story.
3. Was there apprehension between the Wampanoug tribe and the English pilgrims? One thing to note is the Plymouth colony established by the pilgrims was not an original settlement. The Wampanoug tribe had established a settlement there previously named Patuxet. This village had been abandoned four years before the pilgrims arrived. European traders had visited the Wampanoug and brought with them diseases Native Americans were not immune to. It is recorded as many as 50,000 Wampanaoug died from this plague, some reported even higher numbers. This sickness turned into a plague might have killed 2/3 of the Wampanoug tribe. What made matters worse is some of the remaining members of the Wampanoug were captured by the European traders and sold as slaves.
4. Are Puritans and Pilgrims...the same thing? Pilgrims coming over on the Mayflower identified themselves as "Saints". Their belief was it was necessary to separate themselves from the Church of England because it had become corrupt...so corrupt the Church was beyond hope.
The Puritans had arrived in the Boston area approximately a decade after the pilgrims had arrived. They too had separated themselves from the Church of England because of corruption. But, they did not think the Church of England was beyond hope. They were in hope the church would return to a more scriptural alignment and rid itself of corruption. If you were living in this time period and mistakenly called a pilgrim a puritan, or visa-versa, you might have a serious confrontation.
After the "First Thanksgiving" at Plymouth, did the English and Native Americans find a way to peace and get along? ....uh, no! It became much worse.!
More to come....
When I think of celebrating Thanksgiving this year, I must discern the thoughts of Thanksgiving from harvest celebrations. For centuries, numerous cultures have given a fall time to celebrating the crops and livestock that has been amassed during the spring and summer. These times of celebration are for having enough food and drink to survive through the winter until the next planting season. Harvest celebrations are not a time given to prayer and seeking God. Rather, it is a time for people to relax from all the hard work they had given throughout the summer months and rejoice with one another. In America, our county and state fairs find their origins in harvest celebrations.Thanksgiving is a separate occasion. During the time of the pilgrims, Thanksgiving was an entirely different train of thought. It was a time or day given to prayer and fasting. There were multiple days throughout the year given to a "day of Thanksgiving." Their focus was on our dependence upon God and to seek Him. Throughout the day there were church services, prayer, and the reading and meditating of the Sacred Scriptures. People would refrain from eating to seek His Presence.
As with many of our American holidays today, we have blended many of our holidays without the understanding of their origin. We have equally added holiday traditions that are not always accurate to what really happen. Is this wrong? No, not necessarily. Mankind throughout time have passed down special days, adding or subtracting different ideas to make these celebrations fit into modern culture. Yet it is of equal responsibility to understand the origins of our holiday celebrations and appreciate the sacrifices that have been made.
Historical writings the "First Thanksgiving" may have happen long before the pilgrims on the Mayflower ever arrived. It may have happen...in Texas! There is a town called San Elizario, near El Paso that celebrates an event dating back to 1598. A Spanish explorer named Juan de Onate had led hundreds of settlers across 350 miles of Mexican desert to the fresh waters of the Rio Grande.
Another possibility is found in the state of Virginia. On the James river lies the Berkeley Plantation. They celebrate a Thanksgiving event dating back to December 4th, 1619, two years before the Thanksgiving feast in Plymouth. Could this be true? Well, in 1963 President Kennedy officially recognized this claim.
So what is the Thanksgiving we celebrate really about? Here are a few thoughts I would like to pass on:
1. Is Thanksgiving about families getting together? My answer: "No, not really." It was a harvest celebration. The pilgrims at Plymouth Rock were numbered around 51 people...including men, women, and children. Of the original 102 that came over on the Mayflower, half of them had died within the first year, many from respiratory infection. After a successful season of growing crops
( thanks to Squanto and the friendly Wampanoug tribe), they celebrated the occasion including shooting of their guns and some reports indicate there was cannon fire. What seems to be a question over time is, "Did they tell the Wampanougs they were going to have a fall celebration?"
We are taught in our history classes the Wampanoug came to the celebration from invitation. Yet, historical writings also indicate they came dressed for battle. Hmmm? Is it possible they came to the event because they thought a battle was about to erupt. There was tension between the Wampanoug and pilgrims as they approached the English settlement. Also, the pilgrims were outnumbered 2 to 1. Had they come to celebrate with the English pilgrims or did they come to crash the party?
2. The celebration of Thanksgiving we are familiar with today actually came from the days of Abraham Lincoln. The Civil War had torn the U.S. in two, and finding a way to peace between the North and South was of a high priority. Along with this, there was a bill being pushed that would make the fourthThursday of November a national holiday known to us as Thanksgiving.
During this time paintings and stories began to emerge showing the Wampanoug and the pilgrims having a great time of peace as they celebrated the "First Thanksgiving." The idea behind all this was if the pilgrims and the Wampanoug were able to establish peace, then perhaps the North and South could do the same. Numerous paintings began to appear showing the friendliness between the two sides. Later Rockwell paintings, buckled hats and shoes with pilgrims dressed in black, and often many more English pilgrims than Native Americans began to be included in paintings of the first Thanksgiving. One 5th grade girl in an elementary school in Ohio wrote about the first Thanksgiving with this phrase: "Native Americans and the Pilgrims were 'besties'." Yet, history tells us a different story.3. Was there apprehension between the Wampanoug tribe and the English pilgrims? One thing to note is the Plymouth colony established by the pilgrims was not an original settlement. The Wampanoug tribe had established a settlement there previously named Patuxet. This village had been abandoned four years before the pilgrims arrived. European traders had visited the Wampanoug and brought with them diseases Native Americans were not immune to. It is recorded as many as 50,000 Wampanaoug died from this plague, some reported even higher numbers. This sickness turned into a plague might have killed 2/3 of the Wampanoug tribe. What made matters worse is some of the remaining members of the Wampanoug were captured by the European traders and sold as slaves.
4. Are Puritans and Pilgrims...the same thing? Pilgrims coming over on the Mayflower identified themselves as "Saints". Their belief was it was necessary to separate themselves from the Church of England because it had become corrupt...so corrupt the Church was beyond hope.
The Puritans had arrived in the Boston area approximately a decade after the pilgrims had arrived. They too had separated themselves from the Church of England because of corruption. But, they did not think the Church of England was beyond hope. They were in hope the church would return to a more scriptural alignment and rid itself of corruption. If you were living in this time period and mistakenly called a pilgrim a puritan, or visa-versa, you might have a serious confrontation.After the "First Thanksgiving" at Plymouth, did the English and Native Americans find a way to peace and get along? ....uh, no! It became much worse.!
More to come....
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