The Spirit of Thanksgiving(a sermon delivered at the Hamburg Unitarian Universalist Church on November 30, 2005) I have spent some time this year investigating the true meanings of various holidays, rituals, and ceremonies. Last April, I stood up here and recounted tales of various Spring holidays and talked about how the pagan fertility rituals morphed over time into the modern traditions of Easter. Later, in May, I talked about the history of Marriage, paying particular attention to how it has changed over the last two millennia, showing that it is not so immutable an institution as some politicians and religious leaders might like us to believe. Then, last month, I spoke at the East Aurora UU church on the traditions of Halloween and how once again, the Holy Roman church co-opted pagan rituals into their own holy days as a way to make the fledgling religion more palatable to those who might wish to convert. Now, you might see a common theme here. There is a rich history to this world that can educate and enlighten, and I firmly believe it is better to listen and debate ideas – even religious ideas – than to blindly accept as fact dogma handed down from generation to generation. It is this blind faith that leads to closed-minded thinking. And, for some, closed-mindedness all too easily slips into bigotry, racism, hatred, and, ultimately, violence. Education, I believe, is the key to enlightenment. So, when I decided to talk about the history of Thanksgiving, I had it in my mind to explore the spirituality of all those rich Native American cultures who are too often marginalized in our modern world. I also thought I might debunk some of the myths surrounding that first Thanksgiving and ask us all during this season of thanks to spend at least a little time thinking about the hundreds of years of violence we European settlers have wrought upon the indigenous people of this land we have conquered. But a funny thing happened while I was doing my research. I had found a website with a reprinted article from the Vegetarian Times describing the horrible truth of Thanksgiving. I won’t go into too much detail, but suffice it to say, this article stated that the Pilgrims didn’t so much invite the Indians to a feast to give thanks for the bounty and the friendship between two disparate peoples. According to this article, it was more of a feast for the pilgrims to give thanks for the destruction of the Indians at a recent massacre. Well, I was prepared to be incensed at this revelation. But being the (I hope) fairly open-minded person I am, and a former journalist, I felt it was my duty to check the accuracy of these statements. This was an article printed on the Internet. It just might not be completely factual. My search eventually led me to another website and a long treatise on the subject of the myths of Thanksgiving – not the myths of the original story, but the myths that have cropped up in the last 20-30 years – the rewriting of this history from a modern, politically correct viewpoint. This website was Sail1620.org – a website dedicated to perpetuating “the memory of our Pilgrim ancestors, and to preserve their records, history and all facts relating to them, their ancestors and their posterity.” The author was Jeremy D. Bangs, Ph.D. Dr. Bangs has a long list of credentials including: Director of the Leiden American Pilgrim Museum, Visiting Curator of Manuscripts at Pilgrim Hall Museum, Chief Curator at Plimoth Plantation, and Curator of the Leiden Pilgrim Documents Center. He’s also written numerous books on the pilgrims and the Native Americans. Now, sure, Dr. Bangs and the Sail1620 organization have their own axe to grind here. Their own website states they are dedicated to the preservation of the memory of the pilgrims. But this article entitled: Thanksgiving on the Net: Roast Bull with Cranberry Sauce was the most in depth, well-researched, and unbiased piece of writing I’ve ever found on the World Wide Web. Dr. Bangs cites primary sources for his arguments as well as presenting the opposing arguments in great detail (often with links to the full text). It is quite obviously the work of a curator. It is often long and dense with citations, and I won’t go into the detail today that he does in this article, but if you have a couple of spare hours, I suggest you read through it. It is quite fascinating. Here is the gist of Dr. Bangs argument – the first Thanksgiving happened exactly as we’ve always been taught in school (or as nearly exactly as we can ever be sure of when dealing with events from nearly 400 years ago). In 1621, the settlers in Plymouth made a contract with the Wampanoag tribe, in part to settle disputes of thievery on both sides, and for the health and well-being of both peoples. This contract has survived to the present day, so we know the provisions, which included provisions for not harming one another, making restitution for any stolen items, for helping each other out in times of war, and for extradition of criminals on either side. Evidence in the form of letters and journals written in 1621 have also survived, and these letters describe in some detail the events of the first Thanksgiving. Now, some have contended that the words of William Bradford were an early attempt at marketing. He wanted more people to emigrate to Plymouth and so painted a much rosier picture. But the fact that two other accounts also exist that tell much the same story makes that assertion seem unlikely. One of these accounts came from a settler who only heard about the feast from others, but unless Mr. Bradford had complete control over all correspondence coming out of Plymouth, you would think that if atrocities had happened, there would be a record of it left behind. There isn’t. Here is what the letters tell us happened in the fall of 1621 in the words of Edward Winslow:
Another argument that Dr. Bangs discusses is that this wasn’t a religious event because a Thanksgiving was a time for fasting, not feasting and entertaining. He goes through this argument point by point, but his most intriguing argument, I thought was this:
Dr. Bangs goes on to say that it is possible that the biblical injunction to include the "stranger" may well by the reason that the Pilgrims' invited their Wampanoag neighbors to the feast. Now, there can be no doubt that over the next 400 years, we the invaders of this land have done great amounts of harm to the native people of the Americas. We have killed and yes, even slaughtered their people. We have broken treaty after treaty that has been made with them. We have herded them into smaller and smaller plots of land, taking away their heritage and their very existence, which was to live off the land. But, to also take away this one shining moment in our past. To say that the first thanksgiving didn’t happen until 1637 as a celebration over the massacre of the pequots (a massacre that, according to Dr. Peters, the Pilgrims at Plymouth did not take part in; their answer to the summons not arriving until two weeks after the fact). To smear this one time in our history when we met another people, made friends with them, invited them into our homes, and feasted with them. That’s also a tragedy and a massacre of the truth. Should we be ashamed of our bloody past? Yes. But I would suggest that we should also be proud of the pilgrims. Proud of what we white, mostly European, imigrants can aspire to when we meet a people with open minds, open hearts, and open homes. We should be proud of the true tradition of thanksgiving. Not just as a time to give thanks to whatever god you pray to for the bounties of the land, the comforts of home, and the warmth of family. But as a time to turn strangers into friends. As a time to forgive past misdeeds and mistakes and move forward into a world without disputes over boundaries. As a time to to see the world through the eyes of our enemies instead of going to war over our petty differences. In the words of Russell Peters, Former President of the Mashpee Wampanoag Indian Tribal Council and member of many U.S. national committees dealing with Native American issues: "The time is long overdue for the Pilgrims and the Wampanoags to renew a meaningful dialogue about our past and look towards a more honest future." So, in my quest to find the true spirit of Thanksgiving in Native American spirituality, I ended up finding it in the one place I never thought to look – the hearts and minds of god-fearing Christians living in a harsh wilderness surrounded by enemies. They had the courage to look beyond the differences of language, color, and beliefs and invite the stranger into their house instead of venturing forth to slaughter and conquer. They retained an open mind. Can we do no less today? |
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