I came across a heart-warming Thanksgiving story

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If you’re not a fan of large family gatherings and big sit-down dinners, then be thankful you are not an American. Thanksgiving Day in America takes place on Thursday next, 25th November and that’s the time for families in the States to get together to eat turkey until they explode, have a few beers and fall asleep for the afternoon with only a short break to digest that before doing it all again at Christmas.

Thanksgiving is a big deal for our friends across the pond, it’s just like Christmas Day but without the presents. Family get-togethers don’t always go smoothly though. Johnny Carson, the famous TV host is quoted as saying; “Thanksgiving is an emotional time. People travel thousands of miles to be with people they see only once a year. And then discover once a year is way too often.” They still persist with it though and they’ve been doing it for a while now, since the 1600’s in fact.

It started in 1620, when a small ship called the Mayflower left Plymouth in England, carrying 102 passengers, a mixture of English and Dutch mainly, all headed for America in the hope of finding a new life for themselves. It was a lot more difficult to get to that part of the world in those days and it was a gruelling two months before they arrived in Massachusetts and dropped anchor.

It was wintertime and the weather was so bad that most of the passengers stayed on the ship where they endured terrible conditions. Half of them died of various illnesses before they even got the chance to set foot on their promised land. The survivors eventually made it ashore to set up camp and a year later they reaped their first corn harvest which they celebrated with a feast that lasted three days. That turned out to be the beginning of what was to become ‘Thanksgiving’. They weren’t the first people to give thanks for a successful harvest though.

Our pagan Celtic ancestors celebrated a harvest festival in the autumn called Samhain. It lasted from sunset on October 31 to sunset on November 1 and during that time they partied. They lit bonfires, had feasts, and offered food to the spirits who they believed controlled everything, including the weather. The offerings were to encourage the spirits to look favourably on them, keep them safe and provide a successful harvest. So, we were at this caper long before our American cousins.

Thanksgiving is all about sharing a meal with family and friends. The turkey takes pride of place and has become synonymous with the holiday and as part of the tradition now, the president of the United States “pardons” a Thanksgiving turkey each year, sparing it from slaughter and sending it to a retirement farm. Many don’t survive though.

Americans eat roughly 535 million pounds of that meat on Thanksgiving, served with stuffing, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, cornbread, cranberry sauce and pumpkin pie. The average American will consume about 4,500 calories on the day, or about 3,000 for the meal and an additional 1,500 for snacking. That’s a fair amount of grub.

It’s a busy and costly time of the year too and just a short few weeks after Thanksgiving, they get to do it all again for Christmas and the New Year. Not everyone is a fan though because it also presents lots of opportunities for family arguments which is why Andy Borowitz, an American writer said; “Those of you who cannot be with family on Thanksgiving, please resist the urge to brag.”  

On a more positive note, I came across a heart-warming Thanksgiving story which hasn’t been attributed to anyone in particular and as far as I can tell it was written anonymously but the message is a positive one.

A blind boy sat on the steps of a building with a hat by his feet. He held up a sign which said: “I am blind, please help.” A man passing by noticed there were only a few coins in the hat, so he took a few coins from his pocket and dropped them into the hat. He asked the boy if he could take his sign for a miniute.

The boy gave It to him, and the man turned it around and wrote some words on the reverse side of the sign. He handed it back with that side showing so that everyone walking by would see the new words.

Soon the hat began to fill up. A lot more people were giving money to the blind boy and in the afternoon the man who had changed the sign came to see the boy and asked him how things were going. The boy recognized his voice and asked, “Were you the one who changed my sign this morning? What did you write?”

The man said, “I only wrote the truth.  I said what you said but in a different way. I wrote: Today is a beautiful day but I can’t see it.”

Both signs told people the same thing, but the first sign simply said the boy was blind. The second sign got people thinking about how lucky they were to have their sight. It reminded them how fortunate they were and that was what made the second sign more effective.

The moral of the Story is to be thankful for what you have. Think differently and positively and when life gives you a hundred reasons to cry, show that you have a thousand reasons to smile. Prepare for the future without fear and keep the faith.

The most beautiful thing is to see a person smiling. And even more beautiful, is knowing that you are the reason behind it! And on that note, Happy Thanksgiving to our American friends.