Thanks, and Giving

Thanks, and Giving

    There is a holiday coming up in the United States, a holiday usually relegated to eating turkey with cornbread stuffing, some sweet potatoes or yams, mashed potatoes, even some cranberry relish, all ended with a dessert of pumpkin pie or mincemeat pie.  It's a holiday meant to give thanks for freedom to practice a different sort of religion, for settling in a new land, a land full of bounty and friendly neighbors (i.e., the native Americans already there).  It is a holiday appropriately titled, Thanksgiving.  Here's how The History Channel put it: In September 1620, a small ship called the Mayflower left Plymouth, England, carrying 102 passengers—an assortment of religious separatists seeking a new home where they could freely practice their faith and other individuals lured by the promise of prosperity and land ownership in the New World.  After a treacherous and uncomfortable crossing that lasted 66 days, they dropped anchor near the tip of Cape Cod, far north of their intended destination at the mouth of the Hudson River.  One month later, the Mayflower crossed Massachusetts Bay, where the Pilgrims, as they are now commonly known, began the work of establishing a village at Plymouth...Throughout that first brutal winter, most of the colonists remained on board the ship, where they suffered from exposure, scurvy and outbreaks of contagious disease.  Only half of the Mayflower’s original passengers and crew lived to see their first New England spring.  Lobster, seal and swans were on the Pilgrims' menu.  In March, the remaining settlers moved ashore, where they received an astonishing visit from an Abenaki Indian who greeted them in English.  Several days later, he returned with another Native American, Squanto, a member of the Pawtuxet tribe who had been kidnapped by an English sea captain and sold into slavery before escaping to London and returning to his homeland on an exploratory expedition.  Squanto taught the Pilgrims, weakened by malnutrition and illness, how to cultivate corn, extract sap from maple trees, catch fish in the rivers and avoid poisonous plants.  He also helped the settlers forge an alliance with the Wampanoag, a local tribe, which would endure for more than 50 years and tragically remains one of the sole examples of harmony between European colonists and Native Americans...In November 1621, after the Pilgrims’ first corn harvest proved successful, Governor William Bradford organized a celebratory feast and invited a group of the fledgling colony’s Native American allies, including the Wampanoag chief Massasoit.  Now remembered as American’s “first Thanksgiving”—although the Pilgrims themselves may not have used the term at the time—the festival lasted for three days.  While no record exists of the historic banquet’s exact menu, the Pilgrim chronicler Edward Winslow wrote in his journal that Governor Bradford sent four men on a “fowling” mission in preparation for the event, and that the Wampanoag guests arrived bearing five deer.  Historians have suggested that many of the dishes were likely prepared using traditional Native American spices and cooking methods.  Because the Pilgrims had no oven and the Mayflower’s sugar supply had dwindled by the fall of 1621, the meal did not feature pies, cakes or other desserts, which have become a hallmark of contemporary celebrations.

    Not to put a damper on the subject, but as with all things, there are other sides to the story.  Here's one version by Susan Bates of the Manataka American Indian Council: Most of us associate the holiday with happy Pilgrims and Indians sitting down to a big feast.  And that did happen - once... The story began in 1614 when a band of English explorers sailed home to  England with a ship full of Patuxet Indians bound for slavery.  They left behind smallpox which virtually wiped out those who had escaped.  By the time the Pilgrims arrived in Massachusetts Bay they found only one living Patuxet Indian, a man named Squanto who had survived slavery in England and knew their language.  He taught them to grow corn and to fish, and negotiated a peace treaty between the Pilgrims and the Wampanoag Nation. At the end of their first year, the Pilgrims held a great feast honoring Squanto and the Wampanoags...But as word spread in England about the paradise to be found in the new world, religious zealots called Puritans began arriving by the boat load.  Finding no fences around the land, they considered it to be in the public domain.  Joined by other British settlers, they seized land, capturing strong young Natives for slaves and killing the rest.  But the Pequot Nation had not agreed to the peace treaty Squanto had negotiated and they fought back.  The Pequot War was one of the bloodiest Indian wars ever fought...In 1637 near present day  Groton, Connecticut, over 700 men, women and children of the Pequot Tribe had gathered for their annual Green Corn Festival which is our Thanksgiving celebration.  In the predawn hours the sleeping Indians were surrounded by English and Dutch mercenaries who ordered them to come outside.  Those who came out were shot or clubbed to death while the terrified women and children who huddled inside the longhouse were burned alive.  The next day the governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony declared "A Day Of Thanksgiving" because 700 unarmed men, women and children had been murdered...This story doesn't have quite the same fuzzy feelings associated with it as the one where the Indians and Pilgrims are all sitting down together at the big feast.  But we need to learn our true history so it won't ever be repeated.  Next  Thanksgiving, when you gather with your loved ones to Thank God for all your blessings, think about those people who only wanted to live their lives and raise their families.  They, also took time out to say "thank you" to Creator for all their blessings.

    It's a bit like all of history, isn't it.  No matter your country, each classroom tends to paint a somewhat biased picture of history.  So conspiracy theories and marketing histories emerge (some, such as the creation of Santa Claus and of Thanksgiving Day being moved to the fourth Thursday of the month, all due to pressure from professional retail lobbies, are true) and eventually, history is rewritten.  But overall, the holiday is a time of getting together (and often in the U.S., a time to watch college ball while falling asleep with a full stomach).

    It is also a time when many recognize how thankful and lucky they are, not only to be with family and friends but also for whatever they have.  Weather is usually cold and a warm home is a luxury some don't have.  The oven emitting wonderful smells and the laughter often give way to occasional thoughts of those who have far less.  So the holiday often becomes a time of gracious volunteering, of giving back in both time and food.  My wife is planning to give a turkey with all the trimmings to a woman she often sees walking in an apartment complex (my wife feeds several feral cats in different parts of our city, many returned from a successful catch-and-release program where the cats are trapped, fixed, and returned to their catch location, thus keeping the wild population down); she's stopped to chat with the woman and discovered that overall, she's barely making it with her family, just making rent and craving a bottle of Coke as a treat (ironically, she smokes so her spending priorities might need a little adjusting).  But nobody is judging.  It is a time when people feel happy to give.

    One magazine, Woman's Day, is actively partnering with Feeding America to bring awareness to the estimated 46 million still going hungry in the U.S.  On their sites, each single dollar donated amounts to 11 meals for the hungry (the group partners with food banks and food manufacturers around the country).  Of course, there are several such organizations, some providing housing and medical care, some providing legal counsel and family advice...and of course, the endless amount of people simply giving back by volunteering or donating food or money or knowledge.  For many, despite the appearance of gaiety (which is indeed there), there is usually a genuine undercurrent of empathy for those less fortunate, a genuine concern to help.  It is one of the grandest holidays in the U.S., a celebration on many fronts, but more importantly, a holiday reversed in title, but one that might be more appropriately called Giving Thanks.

    To all of you about to celebrate this day, give thanks.  We all have much to be thankful for...