Thanksgiving: a universal celebration

Thanksgiving is a universal celebration throughout the world. It may be celebrated on different dates or time of the year. But it is a day that is set aside to show a society’s sense gratitude to a greater being for a good year’s harvest in famine, storm or drought stricken countries.

Be it in the US mainland, the People’s Republic of China, the Pearl of the Orient, or as far away as Egypt and Greece, the theme remains the same: a day to give thanks.

In Greece, the Greeks worshipped many gods and goddesses. Their goddess of corn (actually all grains) was Demeter, who was honored at the festival of Thesmosphoria held each autumn.

On the first day of the festival, married women (possibility connecting childbearing and the raising of crops) would build leafy shelters and furnish them with couches made of plants. On the second day they fasted. On the third day, a feast was held and offerings to the goddess Demeter were made–gifts of seek corn, cakes, fruits and pigs.

The Romans also celebrated a harvest festival called Cerelia, which honors Ceres, their goddess of corn (from which the word cereal comes). It is held annually on Oct. 4th and offerings of the first fruits of the harvest and pigs were offered to Ceres.

The ancient Chinese celebrated their harvest festival, Chung Ch`ui, with the full moon that fell on the 15th day of the 8th month. This day was considered the birthday of the moon and special “moon cakes” round and yellow like the moon, would be baked. Each cake was stamped with the picture of a rabbit–as it was a rabbit, not a man–which the Chinese saw on the face of the moon.

Jewish families also celebrated a harvest festival called Sukkoth. It takes place in autumn that has been celebrated for over 3000 years.

Sukkoth is known by two names–Hag ha Succot, the festival of the Tabernacles and Hag ha Asif, the feast of gathering. It begins on the 15th day of the Hebrew month of Tishri, five days after Yom Kippur, the most solemn of the Jewish year.

Sukkoth is named for the huts (succots) that Moses and the Israelites lived in as they wandered the desert for 40 years before they reached the Promised Land. These huts were made of branches and were easy to assemble, take apart, and carry as the Israelites wandered through the desert. The celebration involves building small huts of branches which recall the tabernacles of their ancestors.

The ancient Egyptians celebrated their harvest festival in honor of Min, their god of vegetation and fertility. The festival was held in the springtime, the Egyptian’s harvest season.

When the Egyptian farmers harvested their corn, they wept and pretended to be grief-stricken. This was to deceive the spirit which they believed lived in the corn. They feared the spirit would become angry when the farmers cut down the corn where it lived.

In the United States (after a hard and devastating first year in the New World in 1621), the Pilgrim’s fall harvest was very successful and plentiful. There was corn, fruits, vegetables, along with fish which was packed in salt, and meat that was smoke cured over fires. They found they had enough food to put away for the winder. They had beaten the odds. They built homes in the wilderness, raised enough crops to keep them alive during the long winter months and they were at peace with their Indian neighbors.

Here in the islands, we have adopted the most famous American tradition of thanksgiving since the mid-sixties. It augurs well with our traditional form of giving gratitude to our Creator for all our blessings despite the occasional hardship that we face before, during and after the war. Happy Thanksgiving!