| A Grateful Heart |
| As far as I know, the U.S. and Canada are the only countries with an official Thanksgiving holiday. Canada celebrates in October and the U.S. in November. However, people all over the world have had harvest festivals of thanksgiving since time immemorial and it's a tradition that continues in many places. |
| While the names, dates and customs of the festivals differ, the origin of the concept is the same. |
| The Pilgrims are closely associated with Thanksgiving in the U.S. and we often refer to their celebration in 1621 as "America's first Thanksgiving." I wouldn't mind thinking that was so, since my 8-g-grandfather, Edward Doty, was in attendance at that feast in Plymouth. |
| But, in fact, a Thanksgiving celebration of exactly the same kind was actually first celebrated in 1565, in what is today St. Augustine, Florida, when Spanish Admiral Pedro Menendez de Aviles and his men shared a harvest feast with the Timucuan Indians. |
| The 1565 celebration wasn't new to the Timucuans, just as it wasn't new to the Wampanoag Indians in Massachusetts, who helped the Pilgrims survive their first winter and shared in their Thanksgiving feast. |
| Harvest festivals have always been a big part of Native American culture...a time to offer thanks for a successful growing season and sustenance for the coming winter. And that, at its core, is the essence of all harvest celebrations. |
| As different as the various festivals around the world may appear, there is one common denominator and that, of course, is gratitude. Each person who participates does so with a grateful heart. -- Nancy |
| The greatest treasure anyone can possess is a grateful heart. -- Lucius Seneca |
| Appreciation can make a day, it can even change a life. -- Margaret Cousins ~ ~ ~ |
| ~ ~ ~ When eating a fruit, think of the person who planted the tree. -- Vietnamese Proverb |
| A hundred times a day I remind myself that my inner and outer life depends on the labors of others, living and dead, and that I must exert myself in order to give in the same measure I have received and am still receiving. -- Albert Einstein |
| A grateful heart can turn what we have into enough. It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend. A grateful heart can make sense of the past, bring peace to the present and create a vision for the future. -- M. Beattie |
| We too often measure success by accumulation. That measure is false. The true measure is appreciation. He who appreciates most has most. -- Henry van Dyke ~ ~ ~ |
| The question is not what a man can scorn or disparage, but what he can value and appreciate. -- John Ruskin |
| Value the least gifts no less than the greatest. -- Thomas Kempis ~ ~ ~ Reflect upon your blessings, of which every man has plenty; not on your misfortunes, of which all men have some. -- Charles Dickens |
| Two kinds of gratitude: The kind we feel for what we are given; and the larger kind we feel for what we give. -- E. A. Robinson ~ ~ ~ |
| Gratitude is when a memory is stored in the heart and not in the mind. -- Lionel Hampton |
| Iroquois Thanksgiving Prayer ~ Adapted for the Sisters of St. Joseph of Peace ~ |
| We return thanks to the rivers and streams, which supply us water; We return thanks to the sun, which has looked upon earth with a beneficent eye; |
| We return thanks to the moon and stars, which have given us light when the sun was gone; We return thanks to our Mother, the Earth, which sustains us; |
| We return thanks to the Great Spirit, in Whom is embodied all goodness, and Who directs all things for the good of His children. |
| In modern times, I believe Thanksgiving remains true to its purposes. The occasion says less about who we were in some specific Then, than about who we want to be in an ever-changing Now. -- Jane Kamensky |
| There's power in appreciation; and peace in a grateful heart. -- John Ward |
| When I think of the Wampanoags, it is truly with a grateful heart. Without their help, would any of The Mayflower's passengers have survived their first winter in the New World? Would my 8-g- grandfather have survived? Would my fellow Doty descendants and I be here today? -- Nancy |
| The following was written by Gladys Widdiss, Wampanoag tribal elder: |
| The Wampanoag tribe's harvest celebrations continue today. There are set times for celebration that coincide with the changes of season and harvest times. Summer is celebrated with Strawberry Thanksgiving. Green Corn Harvest comes at mid-summer. Cranberry Harvest celebrates the ripening of the last wild berry. |
| These celebrations are times of reflection and a prayer of thanks to the Creator for providing sustenance. Every day is a day of thanksgiving to the Wampanoag. There is always something to be thankful for. Giving thanks comes naturally. |
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