Honoring A Global Tradition Of Thanksgiving

English: "The First Thanksgiving at Plymo... — English: “The First Thanksgiving at Plymouth” (1914) By Jennie A. Brownscombe (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

You may think that American’s are the only one’s who have a holiday set aside for giving thanks. Perhaps it would surprise you to know that setting aside a day / rituals for giving thanks is a global tradition that spans many cultures and has been around for a long, long time.

On howstuffworks.com this morning I found a great series on the Thanksgiving from a global perspective, starting with Thanksgiving customs in other cultures:

http://people.howstuffworks.com/culture-traditions/holidays/thanksgiving1.htm

We generally think of Thanksgiving as a uniquely American holiday, but there’s actually a long tradition of harvest-time celebrations and thanksgiving celebrations.

Every autumn, the ancient Greeks enjoyed a three-day festival to honor Demeter, the goddess of corn and grains. The Romans had a similar celebration in which they honored Ceres, the goddess of corn (the word “cereal” is derived from her name). The Roman celebration included music, parades, games, sports and a feast, much like modern Thanksgiving.

In fact, one of the most prominent Thanksgiving symbols, the cornucopia, actually dates back to the ancient Greeks and Romans. The term (generally describing a horn-shaped basket filled with fruit, flowers and other goodies) comes from the Latin cornu copiae, literally “horn of plenty.” In Greek mythology, the cornucopia is an enchanted severed goat’s horn, created by Zeus to produce a never-ending supply of whatever the owner desires.

The ancient Chinese held a harvest festival called Chung Ch’ui to celebrate the harvest moon. Families would get together for a feast, which included round yellow cakes called “moon cakes.”

In the Jewish culture, families also celebrate a harvest festival, Sukkot. This festival has been celebrated for 3,000 years by building a hut of branches called a Sukkot. Jewish families then eat their meals beneath the Sukkot under the night sky for eight days. The ancient Egyptians participated in a harvest festival in honor of Min, the god of vegetation and fertility. Parades, music and sports were a part of the festivities.

In the British Isles, the major Thanksgiving forerunner was a harvest festival called Lammas Day, named for the Old English words for “loaf” and “mass.” On Lammas Day, everyone would come to church with a loaf of bread made from the first wheat harvest. The church would bless the bread, in thanks for that year’s harvest.

Thanksgiving day is also related to the English Puritan’s practice of setting apart individual days of thanksgiving. These highly religious occasions usually followed times of great difficulty: The Puritans would praise God in thanks for enduring a hardship. In practice, American Thanksgiving isn’t a religious occasion, but it is centered around gratitude.
Click on the link http://people.howstuffworks.com/culture-traditions/holidays/thanksgiving1.htm to learn more about the origin of Thanksgiving and other fun facts and be thankful that we have the internet to give us some education and perspective.

I know I am thankful for the internet so I can spend less time blogging and more time prepping the turkey….