Kassiquan

Thanksgiving

As I am writing this “blog” I am thinking of a man I had come to know when I was installed as a member of the Beacon United Presbyterian Church, affiliated with the United Kensington Presbyterian Larger Parish of Philadelphia that included, The Wilkey Memorial United Presbyterian Church, Twelfth United Presbyterian Church and Trinity United Presbyterian Church.  The man of whom I am referring is the late Reverend Dr. Edward Bradford Davis, who was then Senior Pastor of the Parish.  Sadly, the Parish does not exist today.  Whenever Dr. Davis met new comers, or persons at various functions, he would proudly share with them his being a descendant of William Bradford who, with other passengers sailed on the Mayflower from England to “The New World.”  Dr. Edward Bradford Davis, this is dedicated to you.

When I started elementary school, we were taught about the “First Thanksgiving;” how Pilgrims sailed on the Mayflower, landed in Plymouth Rock, Massachusetts; how the “Indians” (Native Americans) helped the Pilgrims get through a harsh winter by showing them how to hunt, and how to plant and grow corn, beans and squash, and how the Pilgrims invited the Native Americans to join them for a celebration; a feast to give thanks to God for their survival in a new land.  Side note: I sort of thought that the Nina, the Pinta and the Santa Maria sailed along with the Mayflower; how confusing was that as a young child, ha, ha!  This was really straightened out later in American History because one was in 1492 with Christopher Columbus who discovered America while the other in 1621 with William Bradford when America was being settled and grew to 13 colonies.

How many of us really know the “true” story of Thanksgiving?  I wrote a song with the “First Thanksgiving;” story in mind, the one about which I first learned and thought I understood.  Below are the following words.

                        Be thankful, this Thanksgiving for the country in which we stand

                        The knowledge that Christ is living, freedom of worship in this land

                        Be thankful, this Thanksgiving for the food which God provides

                        The joy of blessings in living, freedom of choice as man decides

                                    It’s time for us to be thankful to the God that we serve and love

                                    In Christ we are free and hopeful, let us be thankful to the Lord above

                        Be thankful, this Thanksgiving for the Pilgrims and their faithfulness

                        They traveled in faith believing that their journey the Lord would bless

                        Be thankful, this Thanksgiving for they began this Holiday

                        The provisions received believing that God now had his perfect way

Here is what I really learned about that First Thanksgiving.

The Pilgrims were actually called Separatists or “Saints” were disgruntled English Protestants that did not want to give their allegiance to the Church of England believing it was just a corrupt as the Catholic Church it replaced.  In 1620, a group of 40 Separatists under William Bradford joined another group of colonists set sail on the Mayflower.  After a two months of traveling on a crowded ship and sailing at the height of storm season, they landed in Plymouth Rock settling in an abandoned Native American Village.  Winter was spent mostly living on the Mayflower with only 53 passengers and half the crew surviving the journey.  Out of 19 women who began the journey, 5 survived.  With the help of the Wampanoags (Local Native Americans); the settlers learned to hunt, plant and grow corn, beans and squash.  At the end of the summer, the colonists celebrated their first successful harvest which lasted three days; a festival of thanksgiving sometime between the month September and mid-November.  Edward Winslow, one of the settlers, who wrote about this “first Thanksgiving” said the colonists were outnumbered two to one by their guests (Native Americans).

It is not known if the colonists repeated this tradition in subsequent years but, upon the discovery of Winslow letter in mid-1800’s and Bradford’s manuscript, a magazine editor, Sarah Josepha Hale, incorporated these discoveries to campaign for an official national Thanksgiving Holiday.  In 1863, President Abraham Lincoln proclaimed the final Thursday in November as a national Thanksgiving holiday for the first time; an attempt to mend a divided nation during the Civil War to celebrate the original tradition, annually with family, food, (friends) and gratitude.

Source: www. History. com        First Thanksgiving & Mayflower

Have a Blessed Thanksgiving