The "Myth" of Thanksgiving- or "Why does Thanksgiving Take Place in November?" or "Why Isn't the Harvest Festival In October?"

We were all taught the Thanksgiving "myth" in grade school, like any oft-told legend, the less pleasant facts are often filtered out, and the main points of drama are magnified. I got an email recently from someone claiming that the traditional "idyllic" version of the story of the first Thanksgiving that is taught to our kids is a hoax. I know our memories of lessons learned in first grade are a little fuzzy, but let's try not to get the Pilgrims mixed up with the Jamestown colonists, even though they took place in the same era.

When you visit the Jamestown Settlement, which is a replica of the original village and fort- in the main building, they show you a film about the first winter, and how many people starved, because the people who made the voyage did not have the right mix of skills to be able to farm the land and make the most of the resources they found when they got there; also bad luck and bad weather played a part. Capt John Smith was not well liked, contrary to the popular image of a gallant adventurer, and he spent a lot of his time in the brig or breaking up various mutinous plots against him. The first arrivals were not "PILGRIMS" but businessmen who had signed up to go on a "get rich quick" scheme. There were only a few women on the first voyage, brought as servants, so the colony could not perpetuate itself until the second group of boats arrived the following year. Among the first arrivals were blacksmiths and people skilled in metalworking- they actually thought they were going to mine gold. They make a big deal out of that in the cartoon version, but it is really true. They had heard rumors that in the new world, gold was plentiful, as it had been in Mesoamerica where the Spanish had been fortunate enough to exploit first.... over 100 years earlier(!). For most of the 1500s only the Spanish and Portuguese had the fortitude to make transatlantic voyages.

As for the drama, Jamestown was where Pocohontas interceded on behalf of the white men and saved John Smith's life. She became the intermediary between the whites and the natives, and later married John Rolfe, who arrived from England on a subsequent voyage, and who is responsible for the cultivation of tobacco as a cash crop. She later took a trip to England where she died within the first year, catching all the European germs to which she had no resistance. At the Jamestown landing site, the second of two Jamestown sites, near the site of the original fort, there is a plaque that commemorates her life and death. It was erected in 1907, the 300th anniversary of the landing- this year we went there on the 400th anniversary, as did the Queen of England, and Prez Bush (see below).

As for the Pilgrims, I grew up in Massachusetts, and went to Plimoth Plantation for a field trip. It is very different than Jamestown. Jamestown really was a commercial operation from the start. The Pilgrims in Massachusetts were fleeing religious persecution and arrived there with the intent of staying and raising families. I'm not an expert on Plymouth (current spelling) by any means, but does anyone remember the story of Miles Standish, Priscilla Mullins, and John Alden? Everyone had to read the poem by Longfellow when in grade school, right? I don't remember much about the poem, but according to wikipedia, it talks alot about the wars with the Indians, so that hardly feeds into the idea that there was some "hoax" about the Pilgrims living happily ever after. I'm pretty sure as far back as the 1800s people were very well aware that in Plymouth as in Jamestown, the early years of the first settlements were not easy.

Also, one more thing I want to mention before I forget, since I have been to Jamestown a lot more recently than I went to Plimoth as a boy in 6th or 7th grade... in the Jamestown visitor center, they have a display that shows the time line of the Indian conflicts of the 17th century. The period from 1607 to 1699 was a time of almost constant war, and then in the last decade of the century, most of the natives died inexplicably from some plaque, possibly smallpox. In the beginning of the 1700s, when George Washington was born, the land that is now the entire state of Virginia was settled very quickly because the native resistance just disappeared almost overnight! But as for the 1600s, again, nobody believes in any myth about Pocahontas saving the day and then everybody got along. If you ever go to the "tidewater" area of Virginia, and visit Williamsburg and Jamestown, pay attention to the geography. What made it an attractive place to land was that it is a PENINSULA- bordered by the James river on one side and the York river on the other. So it was possible for the settlers to defend their fort by building palisades a few miles upriver from the fort, then posting sentinels to watch for Indian raiding parties. They also had to post patrols along the shoreline, because the natives would take their canoes over at night and make raids. This is very well documented- so again, where is the "hoax?" Anybody who has taken the time to research this stuff knows it was a long hard struggle.

I have been more concerned recently about the "hoax" being perpetrated in our public schools, in the interest of political correctness.... seems in the local elementary schools, they were not allowed to call a party a "Hallowen party" but had to call it a "harvest festival" instead. But HELLO- WAIT A MINUTE!! We already have a "harvest" holiday- it is called THANKSGIVING! Halloween is NOT the "harvest" festival, even though it takes place in October, and some cultures celebrate "Octoberfest" etc. Halloween is a quasi-religious pagan holiday, which became popular in the new world because of the various cultures who brought their traditions from Europe, and then it morphed into the current secular night when we dress up as monsters to get candy. It has NOTHING to do with the HARVEST!! Yet that is what they were teaching to little kids this year!!

Actually, October 31 is the eve of November 1 which is one of the cross-quarter points in the astronomical calendar, which in the Druid/Pagan/Wiccan proto-religion were celebrated as the beginning of the seasons rather than the equinoxes/solstices. The other cross quarter points are Feb 2 (Groundhog Day), May 1 (May Day), and August 1 (Lughnasa). We don't have a secular version of Lughnasa, at least not in the USA, but it falls between July 4th and Labor Day- it really is the astronomical start of autumn, when the sun starts setting earlier at the most rapid rate of the year. But I digress...

Hope you had a great Thanksgiving?! I'm interested to hear how people celebrated the holiday. We were in Philadelphia at grandmother's house, literally. One of the things we did was to retrace the steps of some of the scenes in the movie "National Treasure"- from the graveyard at St Peter's Church where they filmed a shoot-out scene, to Independence Hall. My whole family is very excited about the sequel "National Treasure, Book of Secrets" that opens Dec 21! More on that later, if anyone is interested.

Bye 4 now,
Chris M in DC