Thanksgiving is Back

The snow vanished in only a few hours. The temperature rose, rain poured, and it looks now as is no snow flake ever fell on the hill. Of course, this helps commute and travelling and this is good news in this Thanksgiving week where so many families travel to gather around the traditional turkey.

Still I miss the snow. It brings so much light - important when the sky is so often overcast. Also, the snow generously transforms the somewhat neglected yards in harmonious immaculate spaces…

And here we are: this Thursday is Thanksgiving. There are documentaries on TV tracing the origin of this tradition. It actually started on the 19^th century, when the country needed unity in the common respect of a celebration. A one-time event that took place at the 17^th century – a meal shared between pilgrims and Natives from the Wampanoag tribe – provided the historical memory to root it down.

This painting below is from the beginning of the 20th century, and you see it often in those documentaries. I saw a copy for the first time at the home of one of Irvin’s brothers, and what struck me is the way the pilgrims are represented, welcoming the Natives with a kindness mixed with a bit of patronizing. The Natives are shy and sitting on the ground. The pilgrims offer them food. Actually, the Wampanoag taught the pilgrims how to survive by growing corn and squash. According to the letter documenting this shared meal, they also provided five deer.

Some American citizens, Natives and non Natives don’t celebrate Thanksgiving. On Thursday morning, some news mentioned that Angelina Jolie purportedly was among them, refusing to “celebrate what the white settlers did to the native Indians, the domination of one culture over another”.

The fact is, the Native peoples I know, from our church or Irvin’s family, are well aware of the history of their country. But they enjoy this opportunity of a family reunion around great food. Like we do every year, we had a Thanksgiving potluck at church last Sunday. We had a full house! Sharing a meal and pondering gratitude do not mean turning away from the past. For our monthly “Dinner and a Movie” night of November, we watched the first episode of the PBS documentary “We Shall Remain”, telling about the story of the Wampanoag tribe and the first contacts with the first generations of Europeans. The episode title is “After the Mayflower” and it can be viewed online at the following link.

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/weshallremain/the_films/episode_1_trailer