The Jones County news., 1922-11-28
FESTIVAL 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 Joliification.

People who do not chloroform their
sense Of fun before starting to read
histo1ytT~e had many a chuckle over
the Pilgrim >Vnd Puritan festival Of
Thanksgiving Nhese early settlers of
New England Wire SO militantly Chris
tian that they coald not bear any sug-
gestion OF al esftier creed. They
objected to Crisphas as "heathenish.' .
because 1t ,ntgined--as it still con
tains-so ,.nxfreics of pre-Christian
days done ne. this, his, they lsg.t,,rIS,, turned
pagan IF all celebrations. that of the
GATHERED harvest, and made 1t an insti-
tuition that has grown and spread for
three centuries, is the Indictment
drawn by a 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; I;
but they made of ii something peculiar
ly modern, Christian, and, at the last,
American.
They gave a religious character to
celebration which for ages had been
a purely material jollifcation, aud
made II part Of the communitys 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 ses-
sential character of the Pilgrim
Thanksgiving. !. How fHany inventions
of today viii last so long?
The first Thanksgiving feast, held
in the fall Of 1921, was not ordaIped
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 Bradford's history In a way
well worthy of quotation: w
"They (the colonists) begane now to
gather in the small harvest they had,
and to fitte up their houses and. dwell
ings against winter, being all well re-
covered in health & strength, & had
all things In good plenty; for as some
were thus imployed In affaires abroad,
others were exercised in fishing, aboute
codd, & bass, 4 other fish, of which
they tooke good store. of which every
family had their portion. 80. And
now begane to come in store of foule,
as winter approached, Of which thfs
place did abound when they came
first, but afterwards decreased by de-
grees.' And besides water foule, ther
was great store of wild Turkies, Of
which they took many, besides venslon.
&c. Besids they had aboute a peck
a nseare weeke to a person, or
now, since harvest s4ndean .corne to
that proport}6n Which made many
afterwards write SO largely OF their
plenty hear to their friends In Eng
land, which were not famed. but true
reports"
Excepting small boys, one can hard
ly imagine the folk Of modern com
mcrify boasting aborx their plenty
under the stimulus % q peck meale
woke to a person" rIus such garze
% a3Id be trapped. - shot with fiIt<.
lock frearrns. Bnt such things depend
mainly on the point Of view, and that
may not have improved so much In
the fast three centuries as we think
We Of today know more Of thousand
things than did Governor Bradford and
his companions, but II is not so certain
that we know more Of the basic bust
ness OF living.
Excellent hearts had our fathers Of
DID," and for steady, cheerful cour-
age, the Pilgrim colonists never have
been surpassed.
Twelve years later, the colony had
grown so much that a formal procia-