I Love It Here!Sauk Centre This Season |
Thanksgiving DayI looked up Thanksgiving Day in an encyclopedia (World Book, 1992), and found this: "Thanksgiving day is a day set aside each year for giving thanks to God for blessings received during the year." I also found that the first observance of thanksgiving wasn't that famous scene in the Plymouth colony. The first was a few years earlier, in 1619, down in the Berkeley Plantation on the James River (Charles City Virginia is near there now). The thirty eight settlers had a charter that set aside the day of arrival's anniversary as a day for thanksgiving to God. The celebration we're familiar happened in 1621. You know the story: Three days of holiday. That's when we got the start of the gastronomic marathon that marks this observance today. I suppose I could try to say something profound. Instead, I'll just pass on a thought. As Thanksgiving approaches, I work late so that I have some time free on Friday to spend with my family. I did the same last year. Then, as I arrived at a grocery in the evening, I heard a siren and saw an ambulance race southward on Main Street. The vehicle returned, siren and lights on, as I left the store. Especially in light of what happened on 9/11, I was, and am, thankful that emergency workers are willing to be on duty 24/7. (Thanksgiving, 2001) And now something completely different: I read that Seattle is teaching kids that Thanksgiving is a day of mourning: something about American Indians. Inspired by this alternative view of a traditional holiday, I created a relevant view of Thanksgiving that could be introduced next year:
Happy Thanksgiving, 2007. Or, how about this?
Happy Thanksgiving, 2008. |
|
Text is copyright © Brian H. Gill 2001 |
I Love It Here! |
This Season | Walking to
Work | A House of Our Own
|
Brendan's
Island home page |
This page last updated: December 19, 2010