Choosing to throw a party despite having problems, fears and even sorrows can be a very healthy, uplifting a courageous action. Most religions have holidays that are celebrations, which people participate in no matter what else is occurring in life. For Americans, Thanksgiving is a national holiday that includes everyone: people from all races, creeds and whatever else people use to attempt to make themselves feel superior to their fellow humans.
Along with the act of being thankful, equality seems to be a basic theme of Thanksgiving that began when the Massachusetts Bay Colony pilgrims threw the first Thanksgiving with the Native Americans who had helped them survive.
History tells us about the losses of life, the sickness, hardship and hard work those early settlers endured. By the original Thanksgiving they had harvested crops and had basic shelters. Most people of the world who we think of as extremely poor and certainly people in the USA who we count as below the poverty level are far better off than those original pilgrims on their Thanksgiving. The exception is homeless, unsheltered refugees, fleeing from war or natural disaster.
The pilgrims were also refugees, fleeing Europe 's oppression. They had made a choice to go where they could worship in their own way. They made a choice for religious freedom. Their choice and the responsibility they took, some giving their lives or lives of their children (the harder sacrifice) meant leaving Europe for a new place. So, that they had survived and could worship and live according to their theology was meaningful for them.
There is a huge difference between surviving and thriving. Yet the pilgrims made the choice to throw a party, giving thanks and celebrating what they had. Certainly, compared to the physical comforts they had enjoyed in Europe , this New World was bleak.
I do not know of any Christian group currently in the USA that actually worships and fully follows the precepts of those first settlers. The pilgrim's Sabbaths, celebrated on Sunday from dawn to dawn more closely resemble the Shabbats followed by Chabad and ultra-orthodox Jews from Friday sunset to Saturday sundown. However, modern day conveniences like heat and air-conditioning are preset and the cornucopia of food served at a typical kiddush (meal after services) would have the original pilgrims gaping in awe.
The first Thanksgiving lasted a few days. It was quite a party for the conservative, prim and proper pilgrims. Normally, the pilgrims and the early Protestant settlers were a rather dour group, thought of as a strange sect by the more fun loving Europeans who saw them as radicals. As a group, the pilgrims were workaholics, except on their Sabbath when the worked hard at worship. To take a few days off to celebrate, to not work – when there was still so much to be done that would insure survival and possibly make it more comfortable -- seems strange, yet that is exactly what the pilgrims did by throwing a feast of thanksgiving.
According to every spiritual and psychological theology and understanding, which includes the Bible (either testament) they were absolutely correct to celebrate. They may have insured their survival throughout the coming hard winter by holding Thanksgiving. They chose to refocus and see things positively. Of course, for them and anyone who believes in a Higher power or Creator (include me in), giving thanks for one's blessings is an important and ongoing principle.
Choosing to throw a party in the face of adversity takes courage, even bravado or chutzpah. By doing this – throwing a party of thanks for their survival that insured their freedom of religion – and by inviting the Native Americans who had helped them survive—the pilgrims changed the world.
Other groups came to the New World, including explorers, missionaries and settlers. But the pilgrims and those who later specifically joined them came to America specifically so they could enjoy religious freedom, and with that they initially brought a sense of tolerance that was embodied in the original Thanksgiving.
Then the old intolerant ways reappeared. Ironically, just a few years after the first Thanksgiving, my town of Southampton was founded by people who were early Protestant settlers in Rhode Island. They kicked out a group of settlers from that colony for having minor but differing views of religious practice. So Presbyterian settlers the crossed Peconic Bay and landed at Conscience Point to found Southampton, NY and the First Presbyterian Church in that state, which was none too tolerant either at its beginning.
However, the echoes of the first Thanksgiving resounded and continued. This year we will again hold our annual Thanksgiving gathering here in Southampton for peoples of all faiths. Protestants, Catholics, Eastern Orthodox and Jews all have houses of worship here, but there are other people of other religions who celebrate Thanksgiving here, too. And we are proud (and blessed) to come together. And, the First Presbyterian Church of Southampton is well noted for its tolerance having helped begin the annual inclusive gathering.
The echoes of this first Thanksgiving continue to resound throughout the world. Granted there have been those who have sought and till seek to silence it, but so far, eventually they have failed.
An echo of religious freedom and tolerance was felt and informed the Declaration of Independence and then the Constitution of the United States . It moved on to Europe and world-wide colonies of Europeans, most now free countries where the ideals of freedom of religion and tolerance are usually upheld today.
The echo is reverberating in countries that are fighting to stave off these ideals and impose ethnic and/or religious purity. They are threatened because history clearly shows that they will fail.
Giving thanks, appreciating what we have, even in the face of what we have (and do not want) or do not have (and want) is our choice. When we choose to celebrate life just as it is, we are in the moment. In the now.
Now is where reality truly is. Now is the only place we can meet (commune) with the Higher Power, or for some of us, the Almighty.
Giving thanks also changes one's focus. Focusing on what we have that is good is actually psychologically more empowering than focusing of what we lack or is unwanted.
“The rich get rich and the poor get poorer” is reflective of how thoughts, which are scientifically energy and matter, influence our lives. When we consider ourselves to be rich, when we are wise enough to find contentment with the blessings we have, more blessings inevitably find their way to us. Those pilgrims knew this – it is a principle in the Bible ( both testaments, plus the Talmud and other religious writings ).
As an artist, the founder of UnGraven Image Art, I give thanks and celebrate the freedoms of religion and tolerance that begin for me, as an American, with the pilgrims. They allowed me, and us, freedom of choice , peaceful choice with respect for others' choices, without repercussion. The state (government) could not choose my religion, but serves to guard my right to peacefully practice my beliefs.
In 1621 when the first Thanksgiving was held, the simple indisputable fact that UnGraven Image theory is based on theology fully held by all branches and denominations of Christians (Catholics, Eastern Orthodox, Protestants, Evangelicals, etc.) and Jews (Orthodox, Chabad, Conservative, Reconstructionist and Reform) would have seemed very threatening to both religious authorities and governments of nations. Now, thanks to the echo of the pilgrims' Thanksgiving, that inclusiveness and tolerance is accepted, even celebrated. We can share a vision.
When I further mention that the Torah font of my strokes is binary and so references concepts of duality (like good and evil) in all the Abrahamic religions, plus Buddhism, Hinduism and the Tao, most people who live where they enjoy freedom of belief seem to feel that is good – and I have been contacted and been seen and read worldwide thanks to the Internet. We can share a more inclusive vision and find commonality despite our differences.
So I choose to give thanks, even though I have many challenges and problems, personally but also as a citizen, such as the global weather changes, wars and the economy.
I choose to give thanks that so many of my prayers were unanswered throughout the years or I would not be where and who I am today.
I choose give thanks that I can choose to enjoy the freedoms of religion and tolerance for people who peaceably seem very different from me.
I choose to enjoy the freedoms that echo from the pilgrims of the Massachusetts Bay Colony and their Native American brothers and sisters on the first Thanksgiving.
I choose to throw a party in the face of adversity and I hope, wherever you are that you join me, with tolerance, peace and even love.
It is up to you to make the choice.
Judy Rey Wasserman
Thanksgiving 2007
Southampton , New York
See Special Thanksgiving items created with UnGraven Image Art that you'll want to give as host/hostess gifts plus keep some for yourself at: Thanksgiving Gifts
For an additional article of Thanksgiving inspiration see: Thanksgiving Faith & Vision
