According to recent surveys, 97% percent of Americans celebrate the annual fall holiday no matter where they are in the world. The annual scramble to supermarkets for turkeys, cranberry sauce and pumpkin pie filling has been celebrated in late November for generations.
Everyone has a memory of that most special Thanksgiving where they felt connected to family and friends and welcomed strangers to the table – just like the First Thanksgiving that happened in Plymouth 400 years ago in the autumn of 1621. Now Plymouth marks the start of the holiday week with the USA Thanksgiving Parade, kicking off a week of gratitude.
“We Gather Together – The Gratitude Holiday”
In an era when it’s hard to pass the Thanksgiving turkey and stuffing without a heaping helping of gravy-curdling politics, it is time we stop and consider the neighborliness, the good will, and gratitude of the First Thanksgiving when sachem (chief) Massasoit and his ninety men (among other Native Americans groups) at the harvest festival – banqueted, played sports, and exchanged gifts of food with the 52 Mayflower passengers. The Pilgrims and Massasoit’s Pokanoket people could not speak to each other without translators—yet they came together in celebration—fragile communities reaching toward one another after great hardships.
