The Prince George's enquirer and southern Maryland advertiser., 1922-11-24
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 JoIlifcation.

People who do not chloroform their
sense of fun before starting to read
history have had many q chuckle over
the Pilgrim and Puritan festival of
Thanksgiving. These early settlers OF
New England were SO militantly Chris
han that they could not bear any sug
gestion of an earlier creed. They
objected to Christmas as "heathenish,' y
because 1t contained-as it still con-
tains-so many relics 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 it an insti.
tuition that has grown and spread for
three centuries, is the indictment
drawn by q 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 q religious character to
q celebration which for ages had been
q purely material jollification, 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 notice
But the circumstances under which
the celebration was held are told In
Governor Bradford's history in way
well worthy Of quotation:
'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, & other fish, of which
they tooke good store, Of which every
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, thel
was great store Of wild Turkies, OF
which they took many, besides vension
&C. Besids they had aboute peck
meale a weeke to a person, OF
now, since harvest, Indean corne tc
that proportion. Which made many
afterwards write so largely OF theil
plenty hear to their friends in Eng
land, which were not famed, but true
reports"
Excepting small boys, one can hard
Iy imagine the folk Of modern com
munity boasting about their plenty
under the stimulus Of peck meale
q weeke to a person. plus such game
as could be trapped, or shot with flint
lock firearms. But such things depend
mainly on the point Of view, and that
may not have improved so much In
the last three centuries as we think
We Of today know more of thousand
things than did Governor Bradford and
his companions, but 1t is not so certain
that we know more of the basic busi
ness Of living.
Excellent hearts had our fathers OF
old" 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 procla,