PHASE THREE by Arnold Bornstein: Giving thanks for the past

Holiday inspires thoughts of family, friends

By: Arnold Bornstein
   Another Thanksgiving has come and gone, and despite yesterday’s overindulgence, we are left with thoughts that include love, family, home, friends and laughter. It seems like the magic of the season begins at Thanksgiving.
   Sure, you can point out that today is considered the country’s favorite shopping day in terms of customer traffic, but the weekend before Christmas is regarded as the biggest by sales volume. And you can add that the commercialization of the holiday season seemed to start a few days before Thanksgiving.
   You can also note that the unscientific "Quick Poll" on the History Channel’s Web site asked the site’s visitors to vote on the best part about Thanksgiving. It listed four choices for the question and the results, when I looked, were 31 percent said food, 41 percent chose family, 2 percent voted for folktale and 25 percent said football.
   Cynicism aside, Thanksgiving is a holiday that is cherished for its gatherings of family and friends. It has also taken on somewhat commercial overtones with an increase in Thanksgiving greeting cards, as well as the cards that companies and stores send to their customers.
   Our recent Thanksgiving get-togethers have been with our children, grandchildren and in-laws and sometimes friends. Remembrances of past Thanksgivings bring back memories of those who are no longer sitting at our table.
   Our national tradition tells us that in 1621, the Pilgrims and Wampanoag Native Americans celebrated the first Thanksgiving at Plymouth, Mass. Actually, it was not a Thanksgiving holiday, nor was it repeated. Instead, it was apparently a three-day celebration filled with dancing, singing and game playing, modeled after English harvest festivals.
   In a letter dated Dec. 12, 1621, Edward Winslow, one of the prominent Pilgrims, wrote about that first celebration:
   "Our governor sent four men on fowling…. The four in one day killed as much fowl as, with a little help beside, served the company almost a week… many of the Indians coming amongst us… with some ninety men, whom for three days we entertained and feasted, and they went and killed 5 deer, which they brought to the plantation and bestowed on our governor, and the captain, and others."
   The feast evidently did not include ham, as the Pilgrims most likely did not have pigs with them. Sweet potatoes, potatoes and yams probably weren’t served either, as they had not yet been introduced to New England. There was most likely no corn on the cob, as Native-American corn was for making cornmeal and not eating on the cob. There wouldn’t have been any cranberry sauce, as cranberries were available but not sugar, and no pumpkin pie, but probably some kind of pumpkin pudding, sweetened with honey or maple syrup.
   They did not use forks, but ate with spoons, knives and their fingers. There were no courses, and all the food was placed on the table at the same time, and they helped themselves, perhaps similar to what we call family-style serving.
   The dates of that first three-day celebration are not known, but it is believed that it was held sometime between Sept. 21 and Nov. 11.
   In 1863, during the Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln designated Thanksgiving as the last Thursday in November. If that were still the case this year, Thanksgiving would be celebrated next week on Nov. 30 rather than yesterday.
   Every president since then has issued Thanksgiving Day Proclamations. In 1939, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt appointed the fourth Thursday in November as Thanksgiving Day, which still stands today.
   I am sure that nobody today would confuse the Mayflower with a cruise ship. The ship that brought the Pilgrims and colonists to Plymouth, Mass. was believed to be about 35 yards long and was powered by sails and rigging. The voyage lasted 66 days.
   There were 102 passengers on board, including three pregnant women, and it is thought the crew consisted of 25 to 30. The Mayflower left Plymouth, England, on Sept. 6, 1620, land was sighted off Cape Cod on Nov. 9 and the first landing was Nov. 11. The 66-day trip covered 2,750 miles.
   One woman gave birth to a son at sea, and another gave birth to a son while the ship was anchored off Cape Cod. The third gave birth to a stillborn son while the Mayflower was anchored in Plymouth Harbor. One passenger and one crew member died at sea.
   Storms and rough seas were endured during the trip, and many of the Mayflower’s passengers were injured as they were thrown against walls by the wind-tossed ship. The group quarters had no privacy, lived among many strangers and lived in extreme boredom for 66 straight days, with a chamber pot for a toilet.
   The Pilgrims on board had been persecuted in England for religious beliefs. There were also colonists who had been recruited by English merchants who helped finance the voyage with the understanding that they would share in what the laboring produced in the new colony.
   Many of the Mayflower passengers did not survive the first two harsh winters and disease in the new colony of Plymouth. But there was much that flourished greatly.
   Hopefully, this column did not sound like a history lesson. Looking back at what those men, women and countless others cultivated in this nation, it stirs thoughts that, but for the difference in centuries, it could have been any one of us living through their circumstances.
   The nation’s torch continues to be passed from one generation to the next. And that is truly something for which we should be giving thanks.
   Arnold Bornstein is a resident of Greenbriar at Whittingham in Monroe.