Thanksgiving Break (Until November 27)
"Enter into His gates with thanksgiving, and into His courts with praise: be thankful unto Him, and bless His name.
"For the Lord is good; His mercy is everlasting; and His truth endureth to all generations."
--Psalm 100: 4-5 (KJV)
During my absence, please check out some of the right-sidebar links to other blogs. I highly recommend this one for insightful articles about Islam. I also recommend these sites: here and here. And if not taking a Thanksgiving break, my friend Mustang, my first stop every day, puts up interesting articles about once a week.
posted by Always On Watch @ 11/16/2005 06:51:00 AM
18 comments
18 Comments:
Thanksgiving, despite the widespread attention it receives, is possibly the most underrated and misunderstood of our major holidays.
I don't mean that it goes by unnoticed or uncelebrated; what I mean is that most people, thanks (no pun intended) to our anti-American, postmodernist-controlled, government-run school system, most citizens are just plain don't know when and why it was established.
The early feast held by the Pilgrims was a New World version of the fall "harvest festival," the history of which goes back to the time when modern man first migrated into the temperate zones of the world, where seasonal shifts profoundly influenced the food supply. The festivals were established to appease the gods/spirits and thereby to effect a return to times of plenty--spring, summer, and autumn.
The "harvest festival" remained a celebration of survival right through the time of the Pilgrims, and however this celebration was throughout the history of mankind, it was not related to the origins of the American Thankgiving.
The timing--in the fall--was coincidental, but because of that coincidence, the harvest festival and Thanksgiving were rolled into a single celebration.
The American Thanksgiving was so much more than a harvest festival; it was the celebration of the Constitution of the United States of America, and first established by Congress at the suggestion of our first president, George Washington, on October 3rd, 1789.
Here are a few bits and pieces to illustrate what the First Thanksgiving was all about. There was more than there is room here to display, and everyone should see the whole thing;it has become my custom to post it on 6th Column Against Jihad on Thanksgiving day; here, in the meantime, are some parts:
"...Now therefore, I do recommend and assign Thursday, the twenty-sixth day of November next, to be devoted by the people of the States to the service of that great and glorious Being...that we may then all unite in rendering unto Him our sincere and humble thanks...for the peaceable and rational manner in which we have been enabled to establish Constitutions of government for our safety and happiness, and particularly the National One now lately instituted...to render our National Government a blessing to all the people by constantly being a Government of wise, just, and constitutional laws...to protect and guide all sovereigns and nations...to bless them with good governments, peace, and concord...and, generally to grant unto all mankind such a degree of temporal prosperity as He alone knows to be best.
"Given under my hand, at the city of New York, the third day of Octover in the year of our Lord, one thousand seven hundred and eighty-nine.
(signed)
"G. Washington"
Enjoy your holidays..don't overeat.
no vacations, they are way over rated! have a good one, read you when you get back.
He has promised to give above all we ask or think. Jehovah Jireh..our provider!
Happy Holidays...looking forward to your return
Cubed, you are clearly one of the most well-informed individuals in the blogosphere. I salute you for your many contributions, and encourage you to continue doing it.
AOW, enjoy your holiday with Dee.
Always On Watch, Have A Safe and Happy Thanksgiving.
God Bless America, God Save The Republic
Happy thanks giving day. I enjoyed visiting the National Archives and Natural History Museum during my stay in DC. At the conference, everythi9ng moved very quickly.
Good luck.
cubed,
As long as we're on the historical "origins" of the Thanksgiving festival... there are some "non-traditional" roots in the festivities as well...
New England Squantum Festivals
or
More on Squantum Festivals
Only in New England would they eat "fish" instead of Franklin's favorite bird, the "turkey".
Seem's the original Sons of Liberty and Sons of St. Tammany liked to dress up as indians (ie - Mohawks during the Boston Tea Party). Especially couriers and scouts. After the war, many became members of the Order of Redmen or Cincinnatus and formed themselves into "political" movements in NYC like "Tammany Hall" or in Philly under the Sons of St. Tammany.
Evidently, when the colonists broke with England, they decided that from that point on, we were all "native" Americans.
Perhaps that is why the APS has devoted so much effort to preserving Native American culture. Sometimes its' hard to historically distinguish the indigenous "Native American's" from the colonists. I guess no where but in mythology can men like Achilles' Mermidons or Cadmus' Theban Spartoi "spring from the very earth itself" and become entitled to call themselves truly "indigenous". And once they do mythologize their history, they tend to get lame feet, like the Greek god Hephaestus or the Palestinians on the West Bank.
Mixed Native American and Colonial Histories
Sons of St. Tammany
Order of Redmen
NYC's Tammany Hall
-FJ
Mustang,
I am VERY flattered; coming from you, such a comment is more than a little pleasing!
The Daughters of the American Revolution have made it a special project of theirs to get the story of the origin of Thanksgiving as a Postrevolutionary American celebration out to the public, especially into the schools, for decades; unfortunately, it has not met with a whole lot of success.
So everyone, this Thanksgiving, let's all raise our glasses in toast to the greatest document ever written at the hand of man!
And Anonymous,
Thank you for the resources--I do so enjoy digging for pearls! I have long agreed with the colonists that as one born in the United States, I have a legitimate claim to the status of "native American."
I was sleepy when I saw, either on TLC, National Geographic, or Discovery, a show telling of Ice Age Europeans crossing from Europe to North America via the edge of the Atlantic glacier. They made an excellent case for these very early immigrants, supported by archeological finds. I must find it again, since I kept dozing off, and missed bits and pieces. Didn't even have the alertness to record it! ARGH!
Click me
Have an AWESOME time away. ;) And a fabulous Turkey Day!
War Damn Eagle! It's Iron Bowl Weekend!
Have a great break, and enjoy the gobbler!
It's a shame we don't have an occasion like Thanksgiving here in Oz...It has always struck me as a much more genuine holiday period than the likes of Xmas for example (so over commercialised these days).
It's a time for family and genuine reflection.
Have a great time AOW.
Hurry back, and happy Thanksgiving!
Yes, AOW have a good time and fun.
Happy, happy Thanksgiving.
Happy Thanksgiving to all!
-FJ
Have a good holiday and a well deserved rest. I just got into NYC yesterday. The locals in VT were swearing I got caught in the Mountains of I87.
I did well up until I got to Jersey when a Coach bus blew up about fifteen cars in front of me but there was nothing in the news.
I pulled out the NY Post and waited for two hours until the road was cleared.
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