Thanksgiving day is one of the biggest American holidays.
Many countries in the world have harvest festivals or Thanksgiving holidays similar to ours. However, American Thanksgiving day is special and different from all others. People are delighted with their abundant harvest, celebrate within their people, among their own people, and give thanks to their own God or Gods. Our Thanksgiving day, however, started in a quite different way. Four hundred years ago, more than one hundred people including men, women and children came to this region to seek a better life. They had not been expected or invited by the people of this land. From today’s standpoint, they were all undocumented immigrants.
After the treacherous journey, they arrived. The land was not flowing with milk and honey. The weather was… well typical New England weather, and the land hardly produced anything for them. Their lives were brutal. They struggled to survive. At that moment, the helping hands came from the totally unexpected side.
The Americans, to say the indigenous people accepted and stretched their hands to help this band of the uninvited, undocumented intruders. That was the crucial moment for the so-called pilgrims’ survival. The indigenous people of Wampanoag were generous, and the European settlers were thankful. In the early winter of the year 1621, thanks to the hospitality, solidarity and helps of the indigenous people, these European immigrants could survive the year, not only survived but also successfully settled down in the land and harvested the produce from the blessed land.
These two peoples, who had been total strangers to each other before, sat around one table and shared their meals on the first Thanksgiving day. Our Thanksgiving is a great example for what all humanity must aim to achieve. Acceptance, hospitality, helping each other out, sharing and celebration, and solidarity.
Many of us here also came from another area of the globe. Almost all of us belong to different cultures, ethnically, religiously and socially. Let us keep having among us what the Americans, whether they were indigenous or immigrants showed on the first Thanksgiving day. Let us keep the spirit of the American Thanksgiving going these days.
(Proofread by Miriam Cha)
