Why do we celebrate Thanksgiving? It is a holiday observed all over the United
States. It is a day in which we
celebrate gratitude in general. We
celebrate gratitude to God for all of his blessings in our lives, and we take
as our model, the example of the gratitude displayed by the Pilgrims of 1620
who arrived at this continent on the ship, “Mayflower”.
Who were those men, women, and children, and why did they
leave their homes and cross the Atlantic Ocean to start new lives in the
Americas?
The story begins with the Protestant reformers such as
John Huss, Martin Luther, and John Calvin.
The reformation of the Roman Catholic Church began in Europe, Germany,
Holland, and other countries during the later half of the 16th
century. The ideas of the reformers
caught the attention of many and they spread rapidly to England. In the first part of the 17th
century certain Englishmen took it upon themselves to separate from the Royal
Church, or the Church of England as founded by Henry the 8th. During the reign of King James a preacher
named John Browne had much success in persuading people to join with him in a
new sect. They called themselves
“Brownists”. His followers preached and
published pamphlets against the Church of the Realm; the Church of England. It is interesting to remember that this was
the same time as the publication of the most famous edition of the Bible in
English, the King James Version, first published in 1611.
In 1607 the Brownists, in reaction to persecution from
the king, decided they had to leave their native land and seek asylum in
Holland where there was more freedom of thought. They escaped primarily to Amsterdam but after
a few years they had to flee once again to escape the searches of the
King. This time they relocated in Leyden,
not far from Amsterdam. In Leyden they
again printed pamphlets against the King of England and his church. The spiritual leader of these Leyden
families, and he who managed the printing operations, was a man named William
Brewster. This William Brewster is my 11th
great grandfather and the ire of King James began to focus on him. The king’s police went to Holland in search of
William but he had again fled and was living in hiding from the king. About this time the Leyden families decided
they had to leave Europe all together if they were to live their religion in
peace. The youth of the Brownist
families were reaching the age when they began to be strongly influenced by the
liberal culture of the day, and this worried the parents. They wanted to get away. After much debate they chose to migrate to
America where they hoped to find complete religious freedom.
A group of families called “Puritans” had already sailed
to America in 1607 and had founded a place in the New World called Jamestown in
honor of the king. The Brownists did not
want to join these Jamestown families because they had still different
religious ideas. They hoped to start
their own colony separate from all others.
Today we call these Brownist families from Leyden the “Pilgrims”.
The voyage to the North American continent had been made
many times before 1620. Columbus,
Francis Drake, Magellan, and other commercial groups had made the trip and
there were plenty of sea captains available who knew how to navigate the
Atlantic Ocean. The Pilgrims did not
have much money between them but they were able to convince investors that, in
exchange for help with funding the great expedition, they would send back
valuable products from the New World during their first years.
The Pilgrims purchased one ship and the services of
another complete with crews and captains.
The first ship was named the “Speedwell” and the other, the
“Mayflower”. There were many problems
with the Speedwell. The travelers had to
return three times to various ports in England to make repairs. In the end they had to abandon the Speedwell
along with a part of their original group while the remainder continued on with
the one hired ship, the Mayflower.
On the 6th of September 1620 the Mayflower
sailed from the port city of Plymouth, England, with 102 passengers and two
dogs on board. The passengers consisted
of two groups; those who were seeking religious liberty, called the “Saints”,
and those who were primarily seeking economic gain, called “Strangers”. In all there were 41 Saints and 61 Strangers
among the passengers. From the start
they did not get on well. They had very
different purposes and different religious backgrounds. But the common goal of reaching the new world
helped them work through disagreements along the way.
Leaving so late in the year they knew they were going to
arrive in the middle of winter. (Reminds
you of the experience of the Willie Handcart Company, and the outcomes were not
too different.) Upon their arrival they
would have to quickly build shelters, find food and fresh water, and prepare
for a long, cold winter. They reached
land on the 9th or 10th of November, 1620, dropping
anchor in what is today called Cape Cod Bay off the coast of
Massachusetts. Close to where they
landed they encountered a large rock in the water along the shore that actually
hindered their landing party. The
Pilgrims called the place of their landing, Plymouth, and the rock became known
as “Plymouth Rock”.
Their first tasks were to find fresh water and food since
all that they had brought with them on the Mayflower had been consumed. They found a fresh stream and a wood where
they could cut logs for construction and firewood for heat. Food was more of a problem. In the winter they did not find wild
deer. Searching everywhere they came
across some curious sand mounds. They
began to dig into these. To everyone’s
surprise they found edible corn buried in the mounds. The corn actually belonged to the natives of
the area, American Indians. The Indians
had hidden the corn to save it for planting in the next spring. But the Pilgrims were dying of hunger and in
their dangerous circumstances they took the corn and ate it, giving thanks to
God for his “gift” to them. When the
Indians discovered that someone had been stealing their corn, tensions
immediately arose between the Pilgrims and the Indians.
There were many survival problems for the Pilgrims during
the months following their landing at Plymouth.
The Mayflower and her crew were not able to return to England until the
5th of April, 1621. During
this first winter half of the company perished from illnesses resulting from
cold, scant food, and inadequate shelter.
It was difficult to cut wood and build houses with so much snow and cold
temperatures. At least 50 of the
original 102 original passengers died that winter. Elder William Brewster was one who survived
and, together with one of the “Strangers”, Miles Standish, dug graves for many
of the dead.
In the spring the survivors planted corn and other crops
and found animals in the woods for food.
In October of 1621 the Pilgrims, to celebrate a good harvest and
improved relations with the Indians declared a day of Thanksgiving. They enjoyed a good feast of corn, deer meat,
roast duck, clams and other sea foods, bread and other vegetables, with plums
and berries for dessert, all washed down with many gallons of white and red
wines made from wild grapes.
The Pilgrims invited the Indian chief, “Massasoit” and
his people to participate in their feast.
He came with a contingent of 90 hungry braves. Fortunately they brought with them a number
of freshly killed deer.
The party was considered a great success and was repeated
for many years afterwards by the people of New England. It did not become a national holiday until
the great civil war. President Abraham
Lincoln declared it a day of giving thanks for the many blessings of God to
this country. Since that time the entire
country has honored the day by recounting the stories of the Pilgrims and
preparing a feast which generally includes turkey (although there is no mention
of turkey in the record left by the Pilgrims) and other foods of the autumn
harvest.
For many it is the favorite holiday of the year because
it receives more reverence and less commercialism than most other
holidays. It has become an occasion for
families to get together, share recipes, cook together, and generally be
reunited. We do not purchase gifts. We get together as families, we eat together,
play games together, work in our yards, watch football, and rest.
Consider the words of Amulek in the Book of Mormon:
“That ye contend no more against
the Holy Ghost, but that ye receive it, and take upon you the name of Christ;
that ye humble yourselves even to the dust, and worship God, in whatsoever
place ye may be in, in spirit and in truth; and that ye live in thanksgiving
daily, for the many mercies and blessings which he doth bestow upon you.” (Alma
34:38)
And the words of the Savior, Jesus Christ:
“But ye are commanded in all
things to ask of God, who giveth liberally; and that which the Spirit testifies
unto you even so I would that ye should do in all holiness of heart, walking
uprightly before me, considering the end of your salvation, doing all things
with prayer and thanksgiving, that ye may not be seduced by evil spirits, or
doctrines of devils, or the commandments of men; for some are of men, and
others of devils.” (D&C 46:7)
May we continue to celebrate Thanksgiving, that our
children and grandchildren and their children after them, will remember our
brave forefathers, and also God’s purposes in setting up this great country for
the restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
