Friends,
The leaves are falling, the sun is fading, and the Lions are 0-8-1 which can only mean one thing: Thanksgiving is upon us.
I'm hosting a few of my family members at the rectory and I'm the one cooking the bird. Pray for me, it's my first time. It's times like these that Youtube cooking videos really come in handy.
Whatever your Thanksgiving plans may be, maybe tur-duck-in, medicating yourself with a self-induced food coma so you don't have to suffer another historic Lion's loss, or obsessing over Black Friday deals, the history of Thanksgiving might surprise you.
The familiar story about the Pilgrims sailing on the Mayflower, starting the first colony at Plymouth Rock in search of religious freedom, and then having a big celebratory meal shared with the Native Americans in thanksgiving of their newfound freedom turns out to be pretty inaccurate:
"First of all, they were not known as “pilgrims” till about 200 years afterwards. They were Puritans...
Secondly, there were at least nine other British settlements before the Plymouth colony. In fact, one of them was at Plymouth. All but one of them failed, including the first settlement at Plymouth. The Puritans who came to Plymouth in 1620 almost didn’t survive. Half the settlers died the first winter. They were saved by a Native American named Squanto, who taught them how to hunt and fish and grow corn.
But here’s what is really interesting: Squanto was a Roman Catholic.
...After he came to the aid of the Plymouth settlers, helping them grow their own food, he arranged for a joint harvest feast with the local Wampanoag tribe. It was this event that is the basis of our Thanksgiving holiday. So Thanksgiving was started by a Native American Catholic."
Did you know that?! Read the full article here: https://www.catholicworldreport.com/2019/11/27/the-catholic-origins-of-thanksgiving/
As Catholics, our thanksgiving meal is, of course, at every Mass. The word "eucharist" means in Greek, thanksgiving. When you receive the Eucharist and say "amen" you are in essence saying "thank you" to God in the most powerful way we know how!
Happy Thanksgiving!
Fr. Stephen
