The Plymouth settlers connected their Thanksgiving to biblical traditions of Thanksgiving. Similarly, the civil war era observers connected this as well.
We seem hesitant to teach about this aspect as well as one other point: the Plymouth celebration was made possible by in effect a victory of capitalism over socialism, even though those ideas were not called out as such yet. In order to survive, the settlers had to change the terms of the Mayflower Compact to allow rewarding individuals who reaped successful harvests and who successfully hunted meat. The prior agreement required everyone to share all of their bounty which yielded low output leading to starvation. By rewarding producers, the yields greatly increased and only then was there enough for everyone.
We can give thanks for the opportunity to enrich our lives in many ways - gratitude is an important component of a happier attitude towards life.
The Plymouth settlers connected their Thanksgiving to biblical traditions of Thanksgiving. Similarly, the civil war era observers connected this as well.
We seem hesitant to teach about this aspect as well as one other point: the Plymouth celebration was made possible by in effect a victory of capitalism over socialism, even though those ideas were not called out as such yet. In order to survive, the settlers had to change the terms of the Mayflower Compact to allow rewarding individuals who reaped successful harvests and who successfully hunted meat. The prior agreement required everyone to share all of their bounty which yielded low output leading to starvation. By rewarding producers, the yields greatly increased and only then was there enough for everyone.
We can give thanks for the opportunity to enrich our lives in many ways - gratitude is an important component of a happier attitude towards life.