Truth on THANKSGIVING

 If you think about it, most people who celebrate these pagan days aren’t concerned with the LORD. How do I know? It takes experience to know. I always would get bad anxiety around these “holi-days, counterfeit” and it’s all for show, and it’s all not for Jesus. We are to be separate. If you celebrate these days vs the LORD’s feasts Leviticus 23, something is wrong and you need to repent, and seriously question yourself why you do it. For children they will say- yet another child sacrifice. It’s Not for the kids! You are just lying to them!

For those who live in the United States, Thanksgiving is just a few short weeks away. Families will gather, friendships will be renewed, and everyone will exclaim what they are “thankful for” or “giving thanks for the blessings they have received during the year.” Enormous plates of food will be served, including turkey, potatoes, and pumpkin pie. Parades and football games will be watched and naps will be taken. No one will leave empty handed and still the counters will be overflowing with leftovers. It’s an American eating tradition.

But of all American holidays, this one is neither tied to our patriotic history, or any religious occasion. It’s just Thanksgiving and its so much more. Throughout history people have gathered together for great feasts celebrating the harvest or the first beers being brewed, or any of a number of celebrations tied to the earth. And anyone who is anyone knows that earth-based anything has its roots in paganism. In case you are unfamiliar with the exact meaning of the word pagan, it must be understood that it was originally a term used to identify anyone who wasn’t a Christian. All of the earth-based old world religions were considered pagan. As time passed the term took on a darker tone and was used to demonize and persecute those who refused to convert.

The great civilizations of the past had their own versions of Thanksgiving. The Romans celebrated a holiday called Cerelia in early October.  The festivities were included feasting while thanking the Goddess of the Harvest, Ceres. In ancient Greece they honored Demeter. She was the Goddess of the harvest, agriculture, and especially corn. The Celts and Anglo-Saxon’s had many celebrations connected to thanking the Gods for a productive harvest. Lammas, Mabon, and Samhain were the names of the three great harvest festivals of the ancient world. As time progressed, these events were adopted and adapted. In England, an autumnal feast called Harvest Home and was derived from a variant of the ancient Celtic feasts.

But instead building great balefires and worshipping the ancient Gods, the Christians appropriated parts and added others. Harvest Home was a three-day feast that began with a special church service followed a communal dinner. Later, the Puritans would shun Harvest Home as well as Christmas and Easter on the grounds that they had pagan origins. The belief that merging pagan celebrations with Christian doctrine for the sake of converting people didn’t sit well with the common people, once they discovered it. Their religious beliefs as well as the austerity and difficulty of their lives in the rather primitive settlement, did not permit them the luxury of celebration.  Their severe living conditions required discipline and sacrifice.  Yet the creation of a new holiday that specifically thanked their God for the harvest that enabled them to survive the winter, seemed just fine.

Native American spiritual worship was also considered pagan by the church since it didn’t fit into their one-god doctrine.  Yet, the Wampanoag tribe of Native Americans that had their meal with the Pilgrims on that faithful day gave thanks to the many Spirits they worshipped on that day.  They gave standing to the precious corn crop for it’s life-giving nourishment.  They celebrated Kiehtan the Creator, as well an obvious similarity to the Christian God.

Despite the passing of time, the Christian church has not been able to eliminate Thanksgiving as a holiday, eventually accepting it as a nationalistic day with no connection to the church.  Basically they rejected it as another potential stolen pagan celebration that they could repackage to their parishioners.  Much like Halloween, Thanksgiving had a deeper root into the lives of the early people than the church could imagine.

Symbols of Thanksgiving & Their Meaning

Cornucopia – A Cornucopia is a horn shaped basket, usually filled to the point of overflowing with the bounty of the recent harvest.  Items such as fresh fruits, dried grains, and other root vegetables were piled around the opening of the cornucopia to demonstrate “plenty.”   So much that the cornucopia has been referred to as the “horn of plenty.”  The cornucopia dates back to ancient Greece.   In an old tale, Amathea the goat, broke off his horn and offered it to Zeus as a sign of reverence.  In return for his loyalty, Zeus interred the image of the goat in the night sky, an image we now known as Capricorn.  This tale demonstrates an exchange of gratitude and offering, thanks and giving.

Corn – One of  the easiest symbols of Thanksgiving to recognize is corn. Native Americans would know it as maize or maiz.  Maize played an important mythological role in many tribes and in some, Corn was a respected deity, while in others, corn was a special gift to the people from the Creator.  In addition to its importance as a food source, corn also played a ceremonial role in many tribes, with sacred corn pollen or cornmeal being used as ritual adornment and spiritual offering.  It is believed that native Americans had been growing corn a long time before the pilgrims arrived in the new world, and they taught pilgrims how to grow corn and help them survive the bitter winter.  Corn was from that day forward, a part of the Thanksgiving dinner, and the tradition continues today.

Turkey – Long before the pilgrims sat down to eat with the native American’s who saved them from starving, the turkey was associated with abundance and being thankful.  Some tribes viewed the bird as a sacred symbol of abundance and fertility, one which would serve as the sacrificial guest of honor in various ceremonies.  Turkey feathers are a prized possession and are an integral part of ritualistic smudging ceremonies.  Animal symbolism is considered powerful medicine among natives and should not be treated disrespectfully.  Turkey medicine is strongest in the fall and a visit from a turkey means we should be mindful of the blessings bestowed upon us.

A Few Thanksgiving Facts You Might Not Have Known

The official version states that Thanksgiving started in 1621 with a three day feast by pilgrims to celebrate their survival through their first winter in the new world.  It was later made a permanent holiday by President Lincoln in 1863.

President Franklin Roosevelt made one of the only changes to the holiday’s celebration; changing the date from the late Thursday in November to the next-to-last, in hopes that a longer Christmas shopping window would boost retailers profits.  The term Black Friday, being the first shopping day of the Christmas season has it’s origins in the same logic FDR worked with.

The ancient Roman celebration of the harvest is called Cerelia, which is the origin of the word cereal that we use today.

Ben Franklin had proposed the turkey as the official bird of the nation, but eventually the bald eagle won out.

The Christmas classic, “jingle bells” was originally penned by James Pierpont for children celebrating Thanksgiving at his Boston Sunday School.  It was so popular that it was repeated for Christmas, a holiday which made the song what it is today.

91% of Americans consume turkey on Thanksgiving.

The very first TV Dinner consisted of a Thanksgiving meal – Swanson Foods found themselves with a surplus of frozen turkey after a slow Thanksgiving one year and a senior executive came up with the frozen meal idea – it debuted at $0.98 for the complete meal, a factor which helped establish a permanent market.

The Wednesday before Thanksgiving is the single largest sales day for tavern and bar sales nationwide.

Just what is Thanksgiving Day? The Church proclaims it a holiday (holy day), for the purpose of giving thanks to God for the many blessings they have received, especially agriculturally. Quoting a 6 year old, after hearing the last line, he said, ‘That’s what we do for the seven days of Sukote (the Feast of Taberna- cles).’ Out of the mouth of babes...Why do we need another fall harvest festival? God has given us Sukot (Lev. 23:33-44). It seems apparent that to keep Sukot, and then to keep, only 30 or so days later, another harvest day of thanks to God, is not only repetitious, but very strange. Thanksgiving Day is an outright copy of Sukote. albeit, a pale copy. The Counterfeiter has struck again. Did you ever wonder why the ma- jority of God’s people don’t keep the days He has designated as holy? The majority are deceived by Satan. The majority also keep Thanksgiving Day. For those of you whom He has called out of Babylon, but keep Thanksgiving Day, this ought to be cause for concern.

Most history books would like to convince us that Thanksgiving Day goes back to only Plymouth Rock in the 1600s. Plymouth Rock was not the first Thanksgiving Day though. Also, have you ever wondered why Canada has a Thanksgiving Day, but on a different date? This pagan feast, honoring the agricultural gods, goes back thousands of years, in one form or another:

‘Thanksgiving Day, in the United States and Canada, a day set apart for the giving of thanks to God for the blessings of the year. Originally, it was a harvest thanksgiving, and while the purpose has become less specific, the festival still takes place late in autumn, after the crops have been gathered.’ Indeed, it is probably an outgrowth of the Harvest- Home celebrations in England. Such celebrations are of very ancient origin, being nearly universal among primitive peoples.’2

‘The first Thanksgiving in the New World however, was not merely a feast, there were prayers and sermons and songs of praise; and three days had gone by before the Indians returned to their forest and the colonists to their tasks.’3

Notice the wording, not the first Thanksgiving, but just the ‘first Thanksgiving in the New World.’

‘In 1789...the Protestant Episcopal Church in America announced the first Thursday in November as a regular annual day for giving thanks.’4

With that Thanksgiving Day on the first Thursday in November, it was very close to Sukote, which gener- ally falls in October.

‘It was not until 1888 however, that the Roman Catholic Church formally recognized the day.’5

Throughout the country, ‘but especially in New England, where the custom originated, the day is looked upon with great reverence.’6

That sounds like a holy day or a day ‘set apart’ to Jesus. This is also what happens for Christmas and Easter.

 2 3 4 5 6

‘Thanksgiving Day in Canada. The Dominion too, has an annual Thanksgiving Day. 

Moses gave instructions to the Hebrews for the celebrations of their harvest festival, which was called the Feast of Tabernacles.’16

Yeshua (Jesus), observed Sukot (Tabernacles) every year of His life,17 and with good reasons; God gave it to the people Israel as a reminder of the food that He provided for Israel in the Wilderness, and also the ‘present’ harvest and the spiritual Harvest to come, when God would feed His people from His Son.

‘Even before biblical times the ancient people of the Mediterranean Basin held festivals at harvest time in honor of the earth mother. The goddess of the corn (‘corn’ being the European term for any grain; Indian corn [American corn], is called maize), was always one of the most important deities in the hierarchy of the gods, and her child was the young god of vegetation.’18

‘The ancient Semites called the earth mother Astarte...The Phrygians called her Semele...The Minoans had an earth mother for each district. All these local deities were absorbed by the Greeks into the one great goddess, Demeter.’19

Astarte and Semele are also known as the Queen of Heaven and are fertility goddesses. In different coun- tries the name of the goddess would change, but her functions would remain similar, if not identical. ‘Thanksgiving Day’ was more than just filling a ‘horn of plenty,’20 thanking the goddess, eating food and playing sports:

‘Besides eating, feasting, etc. the married women practiced special rites. Under the cover of night, the women spent the next day bathing nude in the sea and dancing and playing games on the shore. Then they fasted, sang songs, then feasted, sang, and had general gai- ety. All this lasted over a period of several days.’21

‘The Roman harvest festival...was called the Cerelia, after Ceres, the Roman goddess of the corn.’22

‘With the acceptance of Christianity as the official religion of Rome and the conversion of the barbarians who had invaded the crumbling Empire, these pagan rituals were frowned upon and even forbidden by law. However, the peasants clung to them with a tenacity which has made the word ‘pagan’ (originally meaning simply ‘a villager’), a syn- onym for ‘heathen.’ As late as the sixth century...St. Benedict...found the local peasantry worshiping Apollo in a sacred grove. Even after conversion, old habits and beliefs died hard, and the church was too busy...to trouble with minor heresies.’23

‘The benevolent earth mother...blended with the equally benevolent mother of Christ.

Folk memory of local deities fused with the Christian tales of saints to provide patrons for villages, and the white robed goddess of grain lived on in various guises. To those who live close to the soil, the harvest has an emotional and religious significance...their gratitude finds expression in rites in honor of the being who they feel is most closely re- lated to fruitfulness; a being of warm earth, rather then cold heaven.’24

‘Even today a half pagan belief in the corn mother still survives among the peasants in many parts of Europe.’25

‘The Pilgrims undoubtedly brought memories of such English harvest home celebrations with them when they came to the new world. They had also witnessed ‘thanksgiving’ cer- emonies during their sojourn in Holland...The Pilgrims themselves would have denied that the Thanksgiving feast in honor of their first harvest in 1621 was evoked by memo- ries of the profane practices of the old world; however, all revolutionaries, political or re- ligious, once their goal is accomplished, turn back to the patterns of the society in which they have been reared, and the Pilgrims, at the time of the first Thanksgiving, were no exception.’26

Abraham Lincoln declared on Oct. 3, 1863, after Thanksgiving had become a national holiday, that all in the United States should ‘set apart’ and observe the last Thursday of November as a day of Thanksgiving and praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens.27

‘The day is fixed by proclamation of the president. It is an annual festival of thanks for the mercies of the closing year, celebrated by prayers and feasting.’28

‘The earliest harvest Thanksgiving in this country was held by the Pilgrim fathers at Ply- mouth Colony in 1621. But long before the Pilgrims held their first Thanksgiving dinner, harvest festivals were observed in this country. Among the North Dakota tribes, the corn spirit was known as the ‘old woman who never dies.’29

‘In Peru, the ancient Indians worshiped the ‘Mother of Maize’ and tried every year to per- suade her to bring in another good harvest. In Europe, the Austrians also had a ‘Corn Mother’ doll, fashioned from the last sheaf of grain cut in the field and then brought home to the village in the last wagon.’30

It’s interesting that God uses the first sheaf to dedicate the forthcoming crop (Lev. 23:5-12), while Satan draws attention to the last sheaf for next year’s crop! Also, Yeshua is the First Fruits or First Sheaf of the Resurrection from the dead: ‘But now Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who are asleep.’ (1st Corin. 15:20)

‘In Upper Burma, the friends of the household are invited to the barn for a feast when the rice has been piled in the husks on the threshing floor. After a prayer to the ‘father and mother’ for a good harvest next year, ‘then, much as we do, the entire party celebrates this year’s harvest with a feast.’

Of course, most American Christians do not follow the rituals described above. Yet, does that make Thanksgiving Day right for them to observe? Is it acceptable for Christians to celebrate Christmas as long as they don’t have a tree or yule log? Of course not.

God would not have His people to cling to any vestiges of practices that portray gods or spirits in food to be worshiped. We, who are coming out of worshiping the Lord in the ways of Babylon, do not need to cling to a poor copy of what our God has given us in Sukote. Our need to thank the Lord for His Provision has already been ordained by God in the Feast of Tabernacles. Alexander Hislop writes that the Druids of the British Isles (the priests of their times), had their ‘Midsummer fires and sacrifices’ which were intend- ed ‘to obtain a blessing on the fruits of the earth’ whether for May Day (the first day of May), or for ‘those of the last of October...a thanksgiving for finishing the harvest.’40

Does Man have the right or the authority to ordain holy days of thanks to God, especially when God has provided holy days for giving thanks to Him? Yahveh answers whether or not Man can make his own reli- gious days, in counter-distinction to His, whether in ignorance or rebellion, when we see that the first king of the northern Kingdom of Israel, set up a day of festivity in the 8th month, the 15th day (approximately about the time Thanksgiving Day is celebrated in the United States). The Feast of Tabernacles occurs in the 7th month on the 15th day and lasts for eight days. It generally falls around mid-October. In the book of 1st Kings 12:26–13:5 Scripture records that Jeroboam set up a feast to rival the Feast of Tabernacles, which was held in Jerusalem:

‘And Jeroboam said in his heart, ‘Now the kingdom will return to the House of David. If this people go up to sacrifice in the House of Yahveh at Jerusalem, then shall the heart of this people turn again unto their lord, even unto Rehoboam, King of Judah, and they shall kill me and go again to Rehoboam, King of Judah.’

“Whereupon the king took counsel, and made two calves of gold, and said unto them, ‘It is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem! Behold your gods, Oh Israel, which brought you up out of the land of Egypt!’”

‘And he set the one in Bethel, and the other he put in Dan, and this thing became a sin: for the people went to worship before the one, even unto Dan.’

‘And he made shrines on every high place, and made priests of the lowest of the people, which were not of the Sons of Levi.’

‘And Jeroboam ordained a feast in the eighth month, on the fifteenth day of the month, like unto the feast that is in Judah, and he offered sacrifice upon the altar. So he did in Bethel, sacrificing to the calves that he had made, and he placed in Bethel the priests of the high places, which he had made. So he offered sacrifice upon the altar, which he had made in Bethel, the fifteenth day of the eighth month, even in the month which he had de- vised of his own heart, and ordained a feast unto the Sons of Israel, and he offered sacrifice. Thanksgiving Day originated in the darkness of the ancient past, and falls into the same category as two other pagan-Christian holy days: Easter and Xmas. Thanksgiving is not a day to thank Jesus for all the blessings He has given to us. The Church is oblivious to its marriage with paganism because it thinks it can baptize those pagan days, ‘in the name of Jesus,’ and everything is alright then, but it’s not alright with God.

Following Messiah Yeshua means that He wants to change us, from the inside-out. We all come to Him with many things we learned growing up, like Thanksgiving Day, but there comes a time when we hear the Truth and need to separate from those ways and choose His Way. Christians who want to know and walk in God’s Truth must separate themselves from all pagan days and ways and walk in the Light of the God of Israel, for He has called us out of darkness into His marvelous Light (1st Peter 2:9-10).41 We must follow Him, not a sanitized form of paganism. When we celebrate God’s holy days we reflect to ourselves and the world the true God who provides for our every need, including our food. He has provided holy days of thanksgiving for us. When Christians celebrate Satan’s pagan holy days, ‘in honor of Jesus,’ they not only sin against Jesus, but present a distorted and perverted picture of the One who is the Way, the Truth and the Life (John 14:6).

ORIGINS OF THANKSGIVING

The Pagans in ancient Rome celebrated their thanksgiving festivities in early October. The holiday was dedicated to the goddess of the harvest, Ceres, and the holiday was called Cerelia. The Holy Roman Universal (Catholic) Church took over the Pagan holiday and it became well established in England, where some of the Pagan customs and rituals for this day were observed long after the Roman Empire had fallen and had been absorbed into the church system. In England the "Harvest Home" has been observed continuously for centuries.

In our own part of the world, among the early Aztecs of Mexico, the harvest took on a much more horrible aspect. Every year, a young girl - a representation of Xilonen, The goddess of the new corn - was beheaded. The Pawnees also sacrificed a girl. In a more temperate mood, some of the Native Americans in the southeast, danced the "Green Corn Dance" and began the new year at harvest's end. It was all designed around cyclical seasons and multi-celebrations every year.

No wonder the Native Americans and the Pilgrim Fathers felt right at home on that big day in 1621. Obviously, the idea for this first Thanksgiving in the New World was not an original concept. On the contrary Thanksgiving, in the guise of the Pagan harvest festivals, can be traced all the way back to ancient Babylon and the worship of Semiramis. But, that's for another article.

No matter it's roots or beginnings, this is a time to gather with family and friends and unite in a state of thanksgiving ... being thankful for all that we have. A vast number of the world's population lives a troubled existence. They are hungry, poor, homeless, ill, and without work or shelter. It's a time when we can be both a human being, and a human giving. Help others when you can. The younger we are, the less we have. And I have found that the older I get, the less I need. Be forgiving, be loving, be tolerant, be understanding, and ... be thankful for everything ... even the bad times. 

We all know that Thanksgiving is an American holiday meant to celebrate and be grateful for our blessings and the friendship of others. What many ignore, however, is that behind this seemingly joyous occasion lies a dark story full of conflict, blood, and genocide. 

The origins of Thanksgiving, like with most other traditional festivities, are rooted in old pagan rites. The holiday has its earliest source in ancient customs found throughout the globe that allocated a day of giving thanks for a successful harvest and the fortunes or blessings of the previous year. More specifically, however, it is often said that the current American tradition of Thanksgiving dates back to the establishment of the Plymouth Colony in what today is Massachusetts, in 1620.

Problems with the official story

Most schools teach that Thanksgiving was born when some English religious dissenters, the pilgrims, were struggling to settle in Plymouth and were warmly received by friendly, local Native Americans from the Wampanoag tribe, who taught them how to survive in the New World. To celebrate their success and to honor each other, everyone got together and threw an affectionate feast in which the pilgrims showed their gratitude. That sounds like a lovely story! But, it falls way short of showing the whole picture. 

As we mentioned before, celebrations meant to give thanks for the harvesting season (which mostly fall around the same dates) were plentiful and varied much before the pilgrim story, and it’s hard to pinpoint a single event as the actual birth of the contemporary version of the holiday. Other settlers in Virginia celebrated their arrival with an annual Thanksgiving day since 1619, for example. Decades before, some Spanish settlers in the colonies got together yearly with the Seloy tribe for a friendly feast. Yet others believe Thanksgiving truly began when, in 1637, Massachusetts colony governor John Winthrop declared a day to give thanks for the fact that colonial soldiers had recently slaughtered over seven hundred members of the Pequot tribe, including women and children, in Connecticut. 

This is not a history of friendship

It is fairly well-documented that the English, and later Americans, didn’t in fact get along with their native neighbors. Actually, that’s an understatement. Native Americans were driven out of their land, hunted and virtually exterminated by the settlers during the centuries following the latter’s arrival, so it’s hardly surprising that the story surrounding Thanksgiving involves a bloody conflict. 

Though it is true that initially the Plymouth settlers held rather good relations with the Wampanoag tribe—in fact, they had an official alliance against the French and other rivals—, this friendship eventually eroded. Little by little, the colonists of Plymouth, though indebted to the Wampanoag, took over their land, straining the locals’ way of life. If that was not enough, disease, spread by the newcomers, decimated the native population.

The Sad Truth: King Philip’s War

After enduring much oppression and injustice, a new leader rose to power among the Wampanoag. Metacomet, son of Massasoit, knew his people had had enough, and was willing to fight back. Known by the English as “King Philip,” the new leader ordered raids against the colonies after many of his men were executed for murdering a Punkapoag interpreter. 

In 1675 the conflict led to a calamitous, all-out war. And the consequences, surely enough, were catastrophic.

On top of famine and disease, raids grew increasingly common. Abductions, slaughter, razing, and pillaging became everyday affairs, and on both sides the casualties were high. But whereas the colonists had the privilege of relocating to more fortified settlements, the Wampanoag were simply forced to leave their villages and flee to distant regions. 

On August 12, 1676, Metacomet was returning home after a failed attempt to recruit allies in New York. A group of rangers under the command of Captain Benjamin Church had been hunting him for a while, and when he was traveling through the Miery Swamp in Bristol, he was finally shot dead. His body was quartered and hung from trees, and his head was mounted on a pike at the entrance of Plymouth, where for over twenty years it served as a warning for those who would rise against the conquering ambition of the colonies. The chief’s wife and nine-year-old son were subsequently sold into slavery. In the end of what has become known as “King Philip’s War,” colonists lost around 30% of their people, while nearly half of the Native American population was annihilated. A heavy toll indeed. 

Thanksgiving as an ode to immigration

To say Native Americans suffered greatly with the arrival of ambitious conquerors is putting it mildly. Their homes were obliterated, their way of life was basically destroyed, and their community was massacred. There are no merits to this colonial genocide other than a tale of warning against the greed of a technologically superior civilization immigrating into exploitable land, where vulnerable communities have little chance against such foreign power. If there’s anything to learn from this tale, it’s that immigration by itself can be a great thing: the problem arises when those who pretend to settle in a new land are so greedy and powerful that they will do anything to get what they unduly want.

Be that as it may, Thanksgiving is, at its core, an ode to the wonders of migration, of human kindness and mutual friendship. Even more than celebrating the impersonal fortune of a good harvest, American Thanksgiving is about celebrating humanity itself. After all and above anything else, it intrinsically commemorates immigrants and immigration as a whole. Now more than ever, we must keep that in mind.