Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1908-11-19

NJ 800 1917 NOh6
fore the timber for the Mayfower or the Anne was
planted. 1t had it's origin in antiquity when the
Romans and Greeks held a fast day in October
which they dedicated to the goddess of agriculture
and followed the day of fasting by one of feasting
and royal frolicking, a day on which the chase and
all sorts of rustic sports held sway.
Going even further back into the remote ages of
not our country, alas-but of the world, we find
the early Egyptians setting aside a day for general
thanksgiving and burning Of incense and offering
sacrifices to their divinity of the crops, the Goddess
Isis.
For seven or eight days the Jewish feast of
Tabernacles" was, centuries ago, held during the
seventh month, which Is November, and after the
completion of Solomon's temple the people that
year held a 14day festival which was a time Of
thanksgiving, and during which time they gave
thanks for the abundance of their land. Living in
booths they decorated their entire homes with
branches of the palm and of citron trees and then
showed that it was for the yield of the season as
well as for the completion of the temple that they
were giving thanks.
Coming forward a century or two we find Thanks
giving day being held in England under the name
of Harvest Home" This day was usually early in
November and 1t opened by a church service, which
was followed by a day Of gayety and ~feasting.
Thanks were given in the churches for the benefits
of the season and then the masses flocked to the
grounds of the classes" to which they were all
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~peasantry with free and easy dances in the barns,
wrestling matches and feats of archery, for which
prizes were given.
In the evening harvest songs were sung by the
light Of the moon, over, the beer and ale, which
flowed freely. A dinner, such as only the early Eng
lish knew how to prepare, was served to these great
crowds of thanksgivers, and the Harvest Home day
ended in ~repletion both of appetite and merrymak-
ing.
Before the Reformation a special day was set
apart in England for giving thanks, and after the
reformation the custom was continued with added
fervor, but after all, it Is not from our English an
%cestors, as we might suppose, that We received the
inspiration for our first Thanksgiving day.
Neither did the idea originate with the Pilgrims
themselves. They merely continued a custom with
which they had become familiar and Of which~their
natures approved, when they were living with their
Dutch cousins.
To digress just a little: 1t has been claimed by
some investigators who stopped just a little short
of the beginning in tracing backward that the first
real Thanksgiving day of true American meaning
was held by the Popham colonists of Monhegan,
but as they were Episcopalians and gave thanks
every week in their regular church ritual this must
be blackballed and cast out Of our calculation.
And now to return to the Pilgrims and the Gus
toms they absorbed while protected in Holland. The
pious Dutch, before the Pilgrims focked to their
peaceful land, had set apart October 3 on which to
give thanks for their harvest, but more especially
for their deliverance from Spanish authority. The