Middletown transcript., 1922-11-25
NOW
ALL AMERICAN
Though Its Origin Was Pagan,
Thanksgiving Is Peculiarly
of This Country.
Pilgrim Fathers Gave Religious Char
acter to Celebration Which for
Centuries Had Been Occasion Only
for Material JblIification.

People who do not chloroform their
sense of fun before starting to read
history have had many chuckle over
the Pilgrim and Puritan. festival of
Thanksgiving. These early settlers Of
New England were so militantly Chris
tan that they could not bear any sug-
gestion of an earlier creed. They
objected to Christmas as "heathenish,"
because 1t contained-as 1t still con-
tains-so many relies of pre-Christian
days. Having done this, they turned
round, seized on the most thoroughly
pagan of all celebrations, that of the
gathered harvest, and made 1t an inst-
tuition that has grown and spread for
three centuries, Is the Indictment
drawn. by writer In an eastern maga-
zine.
But the joke is not all on the Pill
grims. True, they went back to fes-
tival which has been held ever since
man began to plant and gather crops !;
but they made of it something peculiar
ly modern, Christian, and, at the last,
American.
They gave religious character to
a celebration which for ages had been
purely material jollifcation, and
made 1t a part Of the community's pub
lie policy; an occasion for coming to-
gether in common aspirations, hopes
and gratitude. All the changes and
developments Of the last 300 years
have not been able to change the es-
sential character Of the Pilgrim
Thanksgiving. How many inventions
Of today Will last SO long?
The first Thanksgiving feast, held
in the fall Of 1921, was not ordained
by formal proclamation. The\ colony
was too small to need such a notice.
But the circumstances under which
the celebration was held are told In
Governor Bradfords history In a way
well worthy Of quotation:
"They (the eolonists) BECAME now to
gather in the small harvest they had.
and to fitte up their houses and dwell
ings against winter, being\ell well re-
covered in health & strength, & had
all things In good plenty: fsr as some
were thus imployed In affaires abroad.
others were exercised in fishing. aboute
codd, & bass, & other fish, Of which
they tooke good store, of which eve1
family had their portion. And
| now begane to come In store of foule,
as winter approached, OF which this
place did abound when they came
| first, but afterwards decreased by de
| grees. And besides water foule, ther
| was great store of wild Tnrkies, OF
which they took many, besides vension
&c. Besids they had aboute peck
now, since harvest, Indean corne tc
that proportion. Which made many
afterwards write so largely of thefl
plenty hear to their friends In Eng
land, which were not fained, but true
reports" &s =
Excepting small boys, one can hard
ly imagine the folk Of modern com
munity boasting about their plenty
under the stimulus Of peck mealt
a weeke to a person." plus such game
as could be trapped. or shot with flint
lock firearms. But such things depent
mainly on the point Of view. and tina
may not have improved SO much IL
the last three centuries as we think
1--WE Of today know more Of Thousand
things than did Governor Bradford ant
his companions, but 1t is not 80 certain
klhat we know more Of the basic busi
n less Of living.
Excellent hearts had our fathers o
Id" and for steady, cheerful cour
&c, the Pilgrim colonIsts- never h6v'
cen surpassed. .
Twelve years later. the scolouy ha,
4 .rown = mach t,ief Z formal psoela