Within days, we will sit down to our decorated tables inside our comfortable homes and consume a scrumptious feast. We will probably eat too much. We may enjoy the fellowship of family and friends. We might even ‘veg out’ in front of the latest wide-screen, digital-display TV to cheer our favorite football teams to victory. Ah, Thanksgiving Day with all its modern-day festivities has become embedded within the American culture.
Heritage is important. Traditions matter. They bond a society together and ensure that the generations will remember. They produce a cultural and generational synergy that not only creates ethnic identity but also engenders national loyalty. They usually begin because an exceptional event has transpired or because a person or a people group has accomplished extraordinary achievements. For example, our nation’s independence is celebrated on the Fourth of July while Jesus’ birth is commemorated at Christmas. Accurately remembering the reason for the tradition guarantees the propagation and safeguarding of the heritage.
Thanksgiving was first celebrated by the Pilgrims in 1621. Its roots are firmly planted in biblical faith. In 1620, one hundred and three pilgrims departed England for America because religious persecution had brought harm to their persons, families, reputations, and livelihoods. The Pilgrims described their mission in their Mayflower Compact in the following words: “having undertaken for the glory of God and advancement of Christian faith a voyage to plant the first colony in the northern parts of Virginia.”
Throughout the first hard winter, fifty-one people died. In March of 1621, a Native American named Squanto joined the pilgrims. William Bradford, who was the governor of Plymouth Colony, wrote in his famous work, Of Plymouth Plantation, “[Squanto] was a special instrument sent of God for their good beyond their expectation. He showed them how to plant corn, where to take fish and other commodities, and guided them to unknown places, and never left them till he died.”
On November 23, 1623, three years after the Pilgrims landed and two years after their first Thanksgiving celebration, Governor Bradford declared the day an official holiday. “In as much as the great Father has given us this year an abundant harvest of Indian corn, wheat peas, beans, squashes, and garden vegetable, and has made the forest to abound with game and the sea with fish and clams, and inasmuch as he has protected us from the ravages of the savages, has spared us from pestilence and disease, has granted us freedom to worship God according to the dictates of our own conscience; now I, your magistrate, do proclaim that all ye Pilgrims, with your wives and ye little ones, do gather at ye meeting house . . . there to listen to ye pastor and render thanksgiving to ye Almighty God for all His blessings.”
For 390 years, Americans have feasted on God’s bounty and enjoyed His goodness as we have celebrated Thanksgiving. Some citizens have given thanks to God. Some have just given thanks while not identifying the one to whom the thankfulness should be directed. In order for our nation to fully commemorate this national holiday, we should be mindful of the biblical faith of the Pilgrims who, while suffering hardships, trusted in an Almighty God. “But these things did not dismay them (though they did sometimes trouble them) for their desires were set on the ways of God and to enjoy His ordinances; but they rested in His providence and knew whom they had believed.” (Bradford’s farewell address)
May your Thanksgiving Day be filled with abundant blessings and overflow with the goodness of God, and may you return your thankfulness back to the One from whom all blessings flow. In the spirit of the Pilgrims, Happy Thanksgiving!