Bellows Falls times. [volume] (Bellows Falls, Vt.) 1856-1965, 1870-11-25
The Origin of Thanksgiving.

public obse vances Of u religious charae-
ter, finds its prototype among the de-
vout customs Of all nations lifted above
the savage state, even of those appear.
ing on the more remote borders of pre-.
historic times. In Abel's sacrifice of the
fruits of the earth we have simple
thank-offering after harvest And in
their autumnal festival of JOY for har-
vest blessings Of the elder historic na-
tons Hindoos, Arabiaus, Egyptians,
Grecians, Romans, Germans, Scandina-
vians, Mascovites-we find the same
thing in the form Of the worship of the
feminine deity Of Fruitfulness. She was
lsa in India and Arabia, Isis in Egypt
Demeter in Greece, Ceres in Rome and
Hertha (earth) and Suevi among the
Germans and Scandinavians. She was
symbolized as woman with cows
head in Egypt and elsewhere, stately
matron in more refined Greece, and in
old Muscovy, as in in the Arabian will
derness d ring the absence of Moses by
golden heifer. In October was the
Thanksgiving festival everywhere, when
all was joy and hilarity; in November
the devotees mourned the departure of
the Goddess of Fruitfulness.
When the Christian church was we'd
ded to the state BY Constantine, heather
festivals were added to its simple relig-
ious memorials, and from that period un-
til now its liturgies have contained forms
of thanksgiving after gathering the har-
vests of grain and fruit. In the church
es of our English ancestors day was
set apart for that purpose; and in the
autumn of 1921 the remnant of the En-
glish Pilgrims who had landed from the
Mayhower in December SHOWS the year
before on the bleak coast of Massachu-
sets Bay, being a devout company of
men and women, perpetuated the pious
custom.
You know the sad story of the suffer-
ings Of those pilgrims for months after
their arrival Before midsummer half
of them had died. But the remainder
had blessings to be thankful for. Squan-
to, their Indian friend, had taught them
how to cultivate maize, or Indian corn.
They planted twenty acres with it, and
fertilized the soil with fishes from the
salt sea. As the season advanced they
found berries and grapes in abundance !;
and they were delighted with the per-
fumes of wild flowers.
All the summer long there was no want
among the Pilgrims, although the hot
sun, as in the season we have just passed
through, parched and spoiled their grow
ing peas and some other vegetables
They had good crop of barley, and
their corn yielded sufficient to allow a
peck of meal a week for each person.
Cod and bass fishing won ample stores Of
such food Land and water fowls were
there in large focks. "There was great
store of wild turkeys, of which they took
many, besides venison," wrote chron-
icler. In single day four men killed
enough game to feed the settlement for a
week.
Finally the governor, as public act,
sent out huntsmen for fowls, SO "that
they might" wrote the chronicler, /" "after
a special manner rejoice together after
they had gathered the fruit of their la
bors." They then had substantial log
buildings for the public use, and suffi-
cient dwellings of the same kind, light
ed by windows of oiled paper. In these.
early in November, was the first celebra-
tion of the great New England festival
of thanksgiving, over which Governor
Bradford presided, while Elder Brews-
ter led in the religious services of the oc-
casion, and Doctor Fuller, the Treasurer
of the colony, acted as master of the GER
emonies. On that joyous occasion the
men exercised their arms; and for three
days the colonists entertained and feast
ed Massasoit, the famous Wampanoag
sachem, and about ninety of his people,
who made contribution of FIVE deer to
the tables.
Whether the maids and matrons of
New Plymouth made pumpkin-pies with
their barley -four for the occasion the
chronclers of the day do not inform us.
That these were not long wanting we
may readily believe, for the Indians of
Virginia were cultivating pumpkins
when Raleigh's navigators we're there
two generations before. We know that
roasted turkey was grand Wand at that
first New England Thanksgiving dinner
any very thankful hearts were there for
summer sickness had ended, pleasant
hearth-fres were blazing, and there was
an abundance of food and fuel for their
own use during the rigorous winter be-
fore them, and some to spare for the