Giving Thanks Like The Pilgrims

Several years ago, Mary Lynn and I had the opportunity to take a three day "American History" tour for college credit through Massachusetts.  That kindled a deep respect and ongoing appreciation for the Pilgrims who landed at Plymouth Rock in 1620.

Since then, Thanksgiving has become my favorite national holiday.  No surprise there!  I love to eat, gather with family, nap through football games, and watch advertisers attempt to commercialize a holiday meant to focus on giving thanks, not acquiring more.  And I always love to review the history of those Pilgrims and their Plymouth Colony.

I accent that word history because I find more and more people have come to question that such an event actually happened or that we should celebrate it.  Certainly, there is a tradition that has grown up around the holiday - from the early colonial times, to Lincoln's 1863 declaration of a national day of thanksgiving to Roosevelt's establishing of the modern holiday as law in 1941.  But we have a reliable account of the original Thanksgiving from an actual participant named  Edward Winslow.  Here is his participant's account:

Our harvest being gotten in, our governor sent four men on fowling, that so we might after a special manner rejoice together after we had gathered the fruits of our labor. They four in one day killed as much fowl as, with a little help beside, served the company almost a week. At which time, amongst other recreations, we exercised our arms, many of the Indians coming amongst us, and among the rest their greatest king Massasoit, with some ninety men, whom for three days we entertained and feasted, and they went out and killed five deer, which we brought to the plantation and bestowed on our governor, and upon the captain and others. And although it be not always so plentiful as it was at this time with us, yet by the goodness of God, we are so far from want that we often wish you partakers of our plenty.    Mourt's Relation, p. 82

Fifty-three Pilgrims - approximately half had died in their first New England winter - and 90 Native Americans for 3 days of eating and sharing life with gratitude. That was the first Plymouth Thanksgiving.  It really happened.

Think about what we see here:

Thankful to the God of the Bible - Whether you are a Christ-follower or not, it is clear that this small community of English settlers was motivated by a deep faith focused on the Gospel of God's Grace.  The history of their faith and worship is inspiring and unique - instructive and different in important ways from their spiritual cousins, the Puritans who would come to Massachusetts later on.  We often learn to live life by observing how and why others lived the way they did.  The Pilgrims have been a wonderful model for me.

Thankful in the Midst of Difficulty - The Pilgrims were thankful in the midst of what looks to me like great loss and privation.  For instance, every family at that first feast had lost a close relative, probably several, in the year since arriving.  They had a faith though that put their losses and needs in a different context than our present individualistic and materialistic culture.  They weren't simply thankful for the "things of life" and so didn't need more things to be more thankful.  They had a rich, meaningful, and, through faith in Jesus, an eternal life, that let them be thankful for what they did have, rather than crushed by what they did not.

Thankful by Sharing - There were about three times more Native American men than there were Pilgrim men at that first Thanksgiving.  That shows us how good relations were between the two at that point.  We could wish that other English settlers and the American nation that followed had been able to maintain that over time. Still, the sharing that went on between both groups points us to a thankfulness that is communal and inclusive.  I think that grows out of hearts that are transformed by the Gospel of grace.

There are some great resources for keeping the history of that first Thanksgiving fresh.

My favorite one for families is Three Young Pilgrims by Cheryl Harness.  Publisher's Weekly says: "Using the lives of three real children who traveled on the Mayflower and lived in the Plymouth Colony--Mary, Remember and Bartholomew Allerton--Harness focuses on their experiences and "adventures during one year, between the autumns of 1620 and 1621." She surrounds their story with the larger one of the Pilgrims' struggle for religious freedom and human survival, and invests these figures from the past with a vitality and accessibility that transcend the customary seasonal emphases."

There also two wonderful books by eyewitnesses that are very accessible to adults.  Primary sources like this are the only way to get back to the times.

Mourt's Relation Or Journal of the Plantation at Plymouth is an account of life in Plymouth Plantation written back to friends in England inviting them to join the now stable colony.  It contains the description of the first Thanksgiving feast referred to above.

Of Plymouth Plantation by William Bradford is a full history of the Pilgrims - their beginnings in England, their move to Holland and their eventual departure to New England and the establishment of Plymouth - by a key leader through the entire time.

The Plimouth Patuxet Museums are a favorite resource of mine.  Located in Plymouth, MA they aim to  bring to life the history of Plymouth Colony and the Indigenous homeland. Major exhibits include the Patuxet Homesite, 17th-Century English Village, Mayflower II and Plimoth Grist Mill.  CLICK HERE for their page on "Who Were The Pligrims?"  

Updated from original post of 11/18/10