Remember back in nursery school when we all wore funny black  hats, or a headband of feathers?  Yep, the days of the Pilgrims and the Indians celebrating their first Thanksgiving.  They got along beautifully, and we pretended to be them, thankful to find a new home and plenty to eat.

Then, as we get older, and much fatter, we forget about the black hats and feathers and concentrate on a day for families to gather and enjoy each other’s company, and get fatter too.

Regardless of the real origin of Thanksgiving Day, we all really do need to take the time to give thanks to God for our families, our friends, and the life we enjoy.  That is the whole point and lets take time to do just that.

But before we start, lets all make plans to help those that are less fortunate.  Local support networks, such as Second Harvest Food Bank, church and local food pantries, the Nashville Union Rescue Mission, The Salvation Army, and others have serviced growing numbers of individuals and families as a result of our economic times. 

This holiday season, all of us at Ole South are collecting new, unwrapped toys for the Toys For Tots program along with new and used shoes for the Soles 4 Souls organization.  We need your help too! 

Our model homes will be open daily to receive your donations.  Please visit www.OleSouth.com for the location nearest you, or visit www.toysfortots.org or www.soles4souls.org for other drop-off locations.  Together, we can, and will make a difference.

We all have problems, but there are always others with larger problems.  We do have a lot to be thankful for.  So, give thanks, be a glutten, and watch the parades!  In the meantime, here is discussion about Thanksgiving, according to history.com.  All those years of silly hats were wasted.  But the turkey won’t be!

Happy Thanksgiving to all!

Thanksgiving Controversies

For some scholars, the jury is still out on whether the feast at Plymouth really constituted the first Thanksgiving in the United States. Indeed, historians have recorded other ceremonies of thanks among European settlers in North America that predate the Pilgrims’ celebration. In 1565, for instance, the Spanish explorer Pedro Menéndez de Avilé invited members of the local Timucua tribe to a dinner in St. Augustine, Florida, after holding a mass to thank God for his crew’s safe arrival. On December 4, 1619, when 38 British settlers reached a site known as Berkeley Hundred on the banks of Virginia’s James River, they read a proclamation designating the date as “a day of thanksgiving to Almighty God.”

Some Native Americans and others take issue with how the Thanksgiving story is presented to the American public, and especially to schoolchildren. In their view, the traditional narrative paints a deceptively sunny portrait of relations between the Pilgrims and the Wampanoag people, masking the long and bloody history of conflict between Native Americans and European settlers that resulted in the deaths of millions. Since 1970, protesters have gathered on the day designated as Thanksgiving at the top of Cole’s Hill, which overlooks Plymouth Rock, to commemorate a “National Day of Mourning.” Similar events are held in other parts of the country.

Thanksgiving’s Ancient Origins

le the American concept of Thanksgiving developed in the colonies of New England, its roots can be traced back to the other side of the Atlantic. Both the Separatists who came over on the Mayflower and the Puritans who arrived soon after brought with them a tradition of providential holidays—days of fasting during difficult or pivotal moments and days of feasting and celebration to thank God in times of plenty.

As an annual celebration of the harvest and its bounty, moreover, Thanksgiving falls under a category of festivals that spans cultures, continents and millennia. In ancient times, the Egyptians, Greeks and Romans feasted and paid tribute to their gods after the fall harvest. Thanksgiving also bears a resemblance to the ancient Jewish harvest festival of Sukkot. Finally, historians have noted that Native Americans had a rich tradition of commemorating the fall harvest with feasting and merrymaking long before Europeans set foot.