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This week: Many thanks, much giving

By LINDSAY BIANCHI
lbianchi@thecitizennews.com

Food, family and football. Those are the three F’s that Thanksgiving has become to many Americans in this day and age. Traveling long distances, rekindling ties with relatives and eating plate after plate of tasty morsels until you can’t move are familiar signs that soon it will be time to put up the Christmas tree.

But somewhere within all the celebrating and cheering for your team, a brief moment is taken to reflect on what we have to be grateful for. Thanks are given for loved ones, good business, new additions to the family, weather, and a hundred other things. One little thing which can put into perspective the bounty enjoyed in this country year after year is to see how far we’ve come from the original three-day Thanksgiving celebration in 1621.

According to the Web site, wilstar.com/holidays, 102 English Separatists sailed from an English harbor seeking religious freedom and landed on the eastern shore of North America.

Committed to a life based on the Bible, most of these Separatists were farmers, poorly educated and without social or political standing. Only one passenger died on the two-month journey across the Atlantic. The pilgrims founded Plymouth on Dec. 21, 1620.

The Puritans who broke away from the Church of England originally emigrated to Amsterdam in 1608, then to Leiden a year later. But their dissatisfaction with the Dutch influenced their decision to set out for America.

They boarded a small ship called the Speedwell going to Southampton, where they joined up with another group of Separatists on the 180-ton Mayflower. After 65 days on the high seas, they dropped anchor at what is now Cape Cod.

Since they had been blown off course by a storm at sea and had no legal rights to where they settled, the Mayflower Compact was drawn up, and the Pilgrims started their own government.

Soon after their arrival, Samoset, a Native American belonging to the Wampanoag tribe, walked into their midst and said, “Welcome, Englishmen.” The pilgrims were introduced to Chief Massasoit and another Native American, Squanto. Chief Massasoit offered his help and after exchanging gifts, the two groups signed the “Treaty of Friendship.”

With the help of the Wampanoag, the newcomers learned the Native Americans’ methods of hunting, fishing and farming. When Massasoit and Squanto were captured by another native tribe, the Narraganset, the Pilgrims sent 10 men to confront the Narraganset, and Massasoit and Squanto were released.

Only half of the pilgrims survived the first winter in the new world. Bitter cold and a lack of food did little to help. An inadequate number of houses forced some to stay aboard the Mayflower until the following spring.

In October of 1621, Plymouth Governor William Bradford, who coined the term “pilgrim,” declared a feast to give thanks to God for their first harvest. Massasoit and 90 other Wampanoag joined the 52 Pilgrims for the feast.

The English served wild turkeys, geese, and ducks. The Wampanoag brought five deer, along with lobsters, clams, oysters, and fish. The feast also included cucumbers, carrots, cabbages, turnips, radishes, onions, beets, corn, and wild fruits.

Nowadays the pilgrimage is by car, airplane, bus or train, maybe even bicycle. Invitations arrive via e-mail or over the phone. Some are invited through the quaint use of snail mail. Somehow, everyone gets to where they are going, happy and hungry.

When the feast is unveiled, there is usually a big, juicy turkey with stuffing or a baked ham. Mountains of mashed potatoes, yams with marshmallows, cranberry sauce, and exotic vegetable dishes of every kind crowd the long table. Other tables are set up to hold pumpkin, lemon meringue, cherry and apple pies. Red wine and white wine flow, coffee brews in the kitchen, milk chills in the fridge with the Cool Whip. Everyone is dressed warmly in sweaters and cardigans. The constant chatter of conversation nearly drowns out the game on the tube.

Amidst all of this joyous company, one can look around and count a dozen or two things to be thankful for. Simple stuff like heat and laughter, plumbing, remote controls, dish washing liquid, music, Tupperware and Crayola crayons clutter our world without much notice.

After the tryptophan has kicked in and your eyes are heavy as lead, but before you drift off for an early evening nap, imagine you’re a pilgrim sitting down with John Alden, Myles Standish, John Carver and William Brewster to eat at a long wooden table.

The Wampanoag sit beside you and share their venison and seafood. The smell of freshly cooked game floats about you. It’s 1621 and the new world’s struggle is before you. You’re going to need all the nourishment you can get.

Then, when you wake up suddenly from your nap and go foraging for that second piece of pumpkin pie piled high with whipped topping, it will taste sooo much better!