Walking in the Valley A weekly column for those who live and walk in Silicon Valley by Barbara Dahlgren

A Traditional Thanksgiving Column for the week of November 23-29, 2003

archives |

printer-friendly version

Traditions are customs, beliefs, and/or stories that are handed down from generation to generation. Some traditions we just accept and fall into. That’s the case with Thanksgiving. Most Americans will celebrate it by watching the Macy’s Day Parade on TV while preparing a meal. Families will feast on turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, cranberries, and pumpkin pie. After eating our fill and then some men will most likely watch football and women will anticipate Christmas shopping which officially begins the next day. If you think football is rough try shopping the day after Thanksgiving without shoulder pads and a helmet.

Curiously, it is doubtful that the first settlers (it probably wasn’t the Pilgrims) and Indians ate few if any of the delicacies we associate with the holiday at the first Thanksgiving. There was no Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, no football, no Christmas shopping the next day. Some historians don’t even believe the first Thanksgiving took place in the fall. But hey, those are minor details. I say, “Pass the football and the stuffing!” Erma Bombeck used to say that it’s called Thanksgiving Day because it’s the day no one diets. Let’s celebrate.

Hearth and home seem to be the themes of Thanksgiving. No matter how dysfunctional we all may be there is a feeling that we should be with family at this time of year. We all share stories about the year we ran out of mashed potatoes, Uncle Ned made a mess of carving the turkey, and Mom dropped a whole pumpkin pie on the floor. (Splat! Okay, who snitched? That actually happened to me last year but fortunately we had plenty of other pies to eat.) We eat, we laugh, we cry, we celebrate in our own ways. We create memories. Some good, some bad, but memories.

Being with family is one thing but missing the essence of why we are gathering is quite another. Even though what we traditionally do now on Thanksgiving may not resemble what the first settlers and Indians did (then, again, it might but I won’t go there) there are some traditions we shouldn’t stray too far from. The first Thanksgiving was about sharing our bounty and giving thanks.

The settlers had some harsh times. After much prayer, fasting, and supplication, God blessed them with a bountiful harvest. Governor Bradford “sette aparte a day of thanksgeiving.” A first-hand account by Edward Winslow, a leader of the colony, states in a letter to a friend back in England, “Our harvest being gotten in, our governor sent four men on fowling, that so we might after a special manner rejoice together after we had gathered the fruit of our labors...Many of the Indians coming amongst us... with some ninety men, whom for three days we entertained and feasted...and although it be not always so plentiful as it was this time with us, yet by the goodness of God, we are so far from want that we often wish you partakers of our plenty.” They were sharing their bounty, feasting, and thanking God.

Whatever family traditions you enjoy or endure this time of year never forget where the day got it’s name. Without God, whom do you thank? It’s one of those non-religious national holidays that has everything to do with believing in God. Sharing and thanking should be as much a part of Thanksgiving as feasting. If you aren’t passing that down as a family tradition you have truly missed the Mayflower.

“ If the only prayer you said in your whole life was, ‘thank you,’ that would suffice.”

Be sure to visit this page every week to read the next edition of Walking in the Valley. You can write to the author at bdahlgren@wcgsouthbay.org.