Stock Photo
Once again, the rolling calendar snags a 30lb. turkey. Yes, it’s Thanksgiving! When the Pilgrims scraped hull on the sands of the ‘New World’ on December 11, 1620, they picked a pretty poor time to arrive in what would one day be Massachusetts. Winter was blowing its frosty breath across the landscape and the Pilgrims couldn’t, of course, plant crops and harvest them in time, so they had to survive on the stores they’d brought.
Padre (Major) Howard Rittenhouse – File Photo
By the next fall, it appeared they were little better off: forty-six had died due mainly to scurvy and pneumonia.
Nonetheless, the survivors did have something for which to be thankful: a bountiful harvest. They were alive, in large part thanks to the assistance of local Indigenous peoples.
So, that fall they harvested corn and barley, and their new governor, William Bradford, proclaimed a day of thanksgiving in their small town.
The governor sent “four men fowling,” and the ducks and geese they brought back were added to the venison, lobsters, clams, bass, corn, green vegetables, and dried fruit in a celebration that lasted three days (no, there was no pumpkin pie, cranberry sauce, or turkey – later additions to our larder. A little-known fact – turkey is actually the sterile offspring of geese and guinea fowl – a real Frankenstein of a bird. Surly, mean-tempered, and just generally foul – hey, that’s funny “fowl,” “foul” – the turkey is not to be trusted and can crack a safe in under three minutes….
The editors wish to apologize for the preceding rant regarding turkeys. Of course, domestic turkeys are descended from the wild fowl which can be observed in cheap paintings.
The menu also did not include any dairy products since the Pilgrims were strict non-dairy vegans….
No, no, this will not do! The editors demand the writer be factual. Factual, sir!
Ahem, yes, the menu did not include dairy because the Pilgrims hadn’t brought any cattle aboard the Mayflower. They also didn’t enjoy the aroma of freshly baked bread or crusty rolls … mmmmm, crusty rolls slathered in fresh butter, steaming as they’re broken open, sending waves of gastronomic delight coursing through one’s veins…… [sounds of scuffle ensue]
The editors [straightening ties] have tossed the previous writer out on his ear. With apologies, we have hired a new writer at great expense and at the last minute.
There was no bread because their supply of flour had long since been exhausted and years would pass before significant quantities of wheat were successfully cultivated.
Still, they were thankful. A few years later, in 1636, amid the darkness of the Thirty Years’ War, a German pastor, Martin Rinkart, is said to have buried 5000 of his parishioners in one year, an average of fifteen a day. And yet, in the heart of darkness, he sat down and wrote this grace for his children:
Now thank we all our God Who, from our mother’s arms,
With heart and hands and voices; Hath led us on our way
Who wondrous things hath done, With countless gifts of love
In whom this world rejoices. And still is ours today.
Here was someone who understood true thanksgiving – in the face of death, darkness, and war, he could still find hope and healing. May you too experience hope and healing, and not only at Thanksgiving.
