Thanksgiving, from the Pilgrims to President Obama

They may carry loyalty to different tribes, but they are all Americans, the living expression of the national motto: E Pluribus Unum – Out of Many, One.

Thanksgiving Day, which is being celebrated in America today, is a time when families traditionally come together and celebrate all they have to be thankful for.

Rush quoted from the piece entitled, “This Thanksgiving, Remember America’s Pilgrims Were Refugees, Too”, which said, “Some of the first pilgrims to settle on America’s shores were Europeans who fled persecution in their home countries”.

Drink up, eat a lot and don’t hesitate to tell everyone around you how thankful you are for them. Pilgrims and Native Americans ate pumpkins, but they didn’t have the butter or wheat flour necessary for making the crust.

Nope. There are two mentions of “Thanksgiving” in documents from the time.

On December 4, 1619, when the Margaret, a ship sailing from Bristol, England, reached her destination 20 miles upstream from Jamestown at Berkeley Hundred – now Berkeley Plantation – Capt. John Woodliffe opened the sealed orders he was given in London.

After 65 days of tossing on the sea through ferocious storms, with over 50-foot waves and seasickness, bad food and no sanitation, they landed more than 200 miles north of their original destination. Young included a footnote describing the event as “the first Thanksgiving”. So there was no pumpkin pie at the first Thanksgiving. Potatoes hadn’t really become mainstream in the English diet yet. He invited the colonists to a three-day feast, and the Native Americans also participated in this festival. They also likely supplemented the meal with fish caught in the Chesapeake like lobster and clams.

A big old turkey and time to spend with your family is great – once a year.

When we think about the Thanksgiving story, we think about the Pilgrims and the Wampanoag sitting down to a feast to celebrate a successful harvest.

President Lincoln issued a proclamation in 1863 that cemented Thanksgiving as the last Thursday in November, a tradition that held until 1939, when President Franklin Roosevelt moved the celebration to one week earlier to extend the holiday shopping season.

As we gather in our communities and in our homes, around the table or near the hearth, we give thanks to each other and to God for the many kindnesses and comforts that grace our lives. After conducting a prayer service and signing the “Mayflower Compact” – the first document to introduce self-government to the New World – they prepared for the harsh New England winter. He was sold into slavery and rescued, learning to speak English along the way.

Maybe it was those fashionable black pilgrim hats? To immigrants today, like our ancestors who came before them, family is the tie that binds, and these ties reinforce America’s unique ability to embrace diversity in pursuit of our shared beliefs in life, liberty and happiness.

Myth 7. Native Americans wore loincloths and feathers.

During the first year in the New World, the colonists did not fare well.

In 1623, Plymouth Colony Governor William Bradford proclaimed the first Thanksgiving.