Resident tells story about first Thanksgiving

As we celebrate Thanksgiving this year, let us remember why our country decided to make a holiday about giving thanks. It starts with a group of people called Pilgrims, who were originally called separatists because they separated themselves from the Church of England. For their religious beliefs, they were persecuted and many fled to Holland for religious freedom. After 12 years in Holland, they, through their children, were becoming Dutch, not English anymore, so they decided to try for a new life in the New World.

They returned to England, and on Sept. 6, 1620, they set sail from Plymouth, England, bound for the new world. After 65 days of headwinds and westerly storms, they sighted land at Cape Cod, Mass. They were supposed to go to Jamestown, Va., but the storms had blown them north. With winter weather and many sick passengers, Capt. Christopher Jones decided to land his passengers in Massachusetts. Since they had no legal right to these lands, the separatists and other passengers called "strangers," who together became known as Pilgrims, decided to govern themselves with a written compact. This became known as the Mayflower Compact, and it became a foundation stone for the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution.

During the first winter in Plymouth, Mass., half the Pilgrims died of disease and starvation. In the spring, with the help of an English-speaking Indian named Squanto, the Pilgrims planted their first crops. In the summer, a drought came, and if the Pilgrims lost the crop, they would be threatened with starvation. As Christians, the Pilgrims set aside a day for fasting and praying to God. After nine hours of the Pilgrims taking turns praying, a gentle rain began to fall that lasted for 10 days. The Indians were amazed that the Christians could pray to their God and He could answer them. Instead of starvation, the Pilgrims now had plenty of food, so they decided to have a time of thanksgiving to God for answering their prayers. The first Thanksgiving lasted three days, and 90 Indians came to join in the feast.

In 1863, during the American Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln made Thanksgiving a permanent holiday by issuing a proclamation that ends with the following words, "It has seemed to me, fit and proper, that God should solemnly, reverently and gratefully acknowledged, as with one heart and one voice, by the whole of the American people. I do therefore invite my fellow citizens, in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday in November as a day of Thanksgiving and praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the heavens."

So this Thanksgiving, remember it is not about football, or turkey, but about thanking God for all he has done for you.
Martin A. "Skip" Jessen
Edison