Like most religions, the United States has its own Harvest Festival Celebration. Thanksgiving Day is a special day, set aside for people to give thanks to The Creator for the bounties of Nature, by sharing food with family and friends, in gratitude for the Blessings of Creation.
The holiday is based upon a Sixteenth Century event when the people of one of the original nations of the Americas shared the fruits of the Earth with their European guests, the “Puritans”, or “Pilgrim Fathers” of U.S. History.
The “Puritans”, “Christian Fundamentalists” of the time, had left their native England, seeking to build a “New Jerusalem”, based upon their particular view of Christianity. Thinking themselves an “elect” or “chosen people”, they sought to reenact the Biblical settling of “The Promised Land”, by eliminating the peoples and nations of North America.
They and their followers succeeded in reducing the Native Americans from an estimated high of 18 million in 1492, to approximately 2 million in the United States, today.
Nevertheless, Thanksgiving Day is one way to honor The Creator and to be grateful for whatever Blessings we have.
We wish everyone, particularly Native Americans, a Peaceful and Blessed Thanksgiving ! May the Spirit of the original harmonious meeting of two cultures provide a source of Inspiration, capable of overcoming all the sorrow that has followed !
We also hope you will read a previous article on Thanksgiving Day which goes into more detail.
Happy Thanksgiving Day ! - plus Some Real History
http://www.unobserver.com/index.php?pagina=layout5.php&id=1219&blz=1
Please also visit:
American Indian Genocide Museum
http://www.aigenom.com
Alcatraz Thanksgiving Sunrise Gathering, November 25, 2004
http://www.treatycouncil.org/section_211112.htm
Statistical Reference:
Encyclopedia of North American Indians
Population: Precontact to the Present
http://college.hmco.com/history/readerscomp/naind/html/na_030500_precontactto.htm
Please also see:
Aid trickling in to desperate Fallujans
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/00349EFE-6579-4F43-860B-85E7AF65B72F.htm
and
Turkeys
A bald eagle, as the nation's official bird, adorns the Great Seal of the United States of America. But if Benjamin Franklin had had his way, a turkey, not a bald eagle, might have famously gripped those 13 arrows and an olive branch as part of the seal. Franklin knew, like others who have spent time around this large bird, that it would have been an honor for the turkey to represent the United States. http://www.hsus.org/ace/11490
Turkeys: A Life Beyond the Holiday Dinner Table
http://www.hsus.org/ace/15845
The holiday is based upon a Sixteenth Century event when the people of one of the original nations of the Americas shared the fruits of the Earth with their European guests, the “Puritans”, or “Pilgrim Fathers” of U.S. History.
The “Puritans”, “Christian Fundamentalists” of the time, had left their native England, seeking to build a “New Jerusalem”, based upon their particular view of Christianity. Thinking themselves an “elect” or “chosen people”, they sought to reenact the Biblical settling of “The Promised Land”, by eliminating the peoples and nations of North America.
They and their followers succeeded in reducing the Native Americans from an estimated high of 18 million in 1492, to approximately 2 million in the United States, today.
Nevertheless, Thanksgiving Day is one way to honor The Creator and to be grateful for whatever Blessings we have.
We wish everyone, particularly Native Americans, a Peaceful and Blessed Thanksgiving ! May the Spirit of the original harmonious meeting of two cultures provide a source of Inspiration, capable of overcoming all the sorrow that has followed !
We also hope you will read a previous article on Thanksgiving Day which goes into more detail.
Happy Thanksgiving Day ! - plus Some Real History
http://www.unobserver.com/index.php?pagina=layout5.php&id=1219&blz=1
Please also visit:
American Indian Genocide Museum
http://www.aigenom.com
Alcatraz Thanksgiving Sunrise Gathering, November 25, 2004
http://www.treatycouncil.org/section_211112.htm
Statistical Reference:
Encyclopedia of North American Indians
Population: Precontact to the Present
http://college.hmco.com/history/readerscomp/naind/html/na_030500_precontactto.htm
Please also see:
Aid trickling in to desperate Fallujans
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/00349EFE-6579-4F43-860B-85E7AF65B72F.htm
and
Turkeys
A bald eagle, as the nation's official bird, adorns the Great Seal of the United States of America. But if Benjamin Franklin had had his way, a turkey, not a bald eagle, might have famously gripped those 13 arrows and an olive branch as part of the seal. Franklin knew, like others who have spent time around this large bird, that it would have been an honor for the turkey to represent the United States. http://www.hsus.org/ace/11490
Turkeys: A Life Beyond the Holiday Dinner Table
http://www.hsus.org/ace/15845