Planting a garden and reaping its harvest are among the many things to feel grateful for.
Think Gratitude
America: Thanksgiving (the fourth Thursday of November) is a time for gratitude. The holiday has roots back to 1620 and the landing of the Mayflower. As well as being a day to remember contributions from Native Americans that helped the Pilgrims survive, it is a celebration of appreciation for the bounty of the earth. It is a happy occasion to join with family and friends, divorced from the stress of daily life.
Related to our Thanksgiving is a celebration that takes place in Leiden, Netherlands, in remembrance of the Pilgrims who lived there before leaving for the New World. The city in the Dutch Republic had permitted Pilgrims to practice their religion there without being hassled. After trying to adjust to Dutch society, they left for the New World due to a lack of education, harsh working conditions, and a potential war with Inquisitional Spain. Leiden’s annual Thanksgiving celebration takes place at Pieterskerk, a Gothic church that has the grave of one of the Pilgrim leaders.
Listening to the news, it is easy to forget that there is much to be thankful for. I am grateful to have food on my table and cherish the friends and family who fill my life with good cheer. For families yet on pilgrimages undertaken due to poverty, war, or natural disasters, gratitude is more difficult to achieve. Yet, they, too, are filled with hope for a new beginning. Following are some of the ways countries celebrate the harvest and give thanks for abundance.
Canada: Jour de l’Action de Grace – (second Monday in October) Canada’s first Thanksgiving was celebrated in 1578 when English explorer Martin Frobisher’s crew gave thanks in Newfoundland for a successful journey to North America. Their feast is similar to ours, a three-day weekend with parades, a Canadian Football League doubleheader, and a dinner with turkey, mashed potatoes, corn, and pumpkin pie.
Korea: Chuseok (25th day of August, lunar calendar) is a festival with roots dating back to 2000 years ago when Korea was an agrarian society. Legend relates that the ancient king, Silla, held a month-long weaving competition, treating the winning team with food, drinks, and gifts from the losing team. Today, families gather in a bonding activity a night before the celebration to prepare rice cakes and share presents. Spam is a standard gift popular among Koreans.
UK: London’s Harvest Festival (October–days differ), a relatively new festival that started in 1998, showcases livestock, horticulture, and home products. Competitions are held for the animal most like its handler, the most pleasantest pig, the best goat beard, the best animal portrait, and more. Celebrations are held in churches, schools, pubs, and even barns where participants sing hymns, pray, and decorate event halls with baskets of fruit and food. Lavish meals featuring several types of meats, vegetables, puddings, tarts, and ale are accompanied by songs, drinks, and games. The Royal Horticulture Society organizes the festival.
Germany: Erntedankfest is a rural festival thousands of years old that celebrates the harvest. There is no set date, but festivities are held between mid-September through October in various communities, especially in rural areas. Christian and Protestant churches celebrate with a service, a parade, music, feasting, and the crowning of a Harvest Queen. It is primarily a religious holiday for fun, food, and Thanksgiving.
Ghana: The Homowo Festival commemorates a time when the Ga tribe in Ghana had no food to harvest because of infertile soil. Starving people had no choice but to wait for the rains to come again and the famine to end. In remembrance of the famine, the capital city, Accra, enforces a noise ban and prohibits fishing in lagoons for a month. The silence ends when the rainy season begins. The celebration starts with a church service that lifts the ban. Harvest feasts and gaiety follow.
China: Chung Chi (August Moon Festival–5th day of the eighth lunar cycle of the year). Families enjoy three days of public and private gatherings where they worship the moon, give thanks for the harvest, and encourage life-giving sunlight. People float paper lanterns and share mooncakes that represent unity and peace for the coming year. Mooncakes contain duck egg yolks, lotus seed paste, and sesame seeds. Chung Chi is a favorite time for matchmaking.
Argentina’s month-long celebration starts with the archbishop of Mendoza sprinkling the season’s first grapes with holy water and offering the vintage to God. Crowds line the streets afterward to watch parades with regional floats with competing beauty queens. Musicians, dancers, and others entertain until the Harvest Queen is chosen and fireworks begin.
Israel, a country now in mourning, is going through a horror similar to the ones inflicted on past generations of Jews. This year’s Sukkot celebration ended on October 6th, the day before Hamas invaded. Sukkot is a biblical holiday known as the Feast of Tabernacles. People construct makeshift huts decorated with harvest hangings with roofs open to the sky. Celebrating bountiful harvests, they give thanks and reflect on the 40 years the Israelites spent in the desert after the exodus from slavery in Egypt. Wands of Myrtle, willow, and palms are shaken daily in every direction to honor the earth’s gifts. Families pray, dine, and sometimes sleep in the Sukkah for seven days.
As a citizen of the United States, my blessings are many. I’m not faced with hunger, war, or poverty. My family is loving, and my children and grandchildren help each other when it is necessary. Yet, I feel deeply sorrowed by those struggling in war-torn countries and those at home with unimaginable difficulties. I do what I can to ease some of their burdens, for as a child, I was taught that that is what good neighbors do. From the comments I receive, I believe that people who read my blogs have generous hearts and put themselves out as well.
I’m glad for a day to consider my blessings and am thankful for all that is good in life. Warm wishes to you and your loved ones this Thanksgiving.
References:
Wolfe, D. (2016) Think About What Family Means Around the World. HuffPost. retrieved from https://www.huffpost.com/archive/ca/entry/think-about-what-family-means-around-the-world_b_9951754
Travel Chanel website. retrieved from https://www.travelchannel.com/interests/holidays/photos/giving-thanks-around-the-world
StarTribune website. retrieved from https://www.startribune.com/how-cultures-around-the-world-show-gratitude-in-their-ceremonies-of-thanksgiving/565530632/
Mellinger, J (2020). Top 10 Ways Different Countries Give Thanks.LISTVERSE. retrieved from https://listverse.com/2020/11/20/top-10-ways-different-countries-give-thanks-2020/
I look forward to hearing about how you celebrate Thanksgiving. What in life are you most thankful for? Share your thoughts below.
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