Showing posts with label USA. Show all posts
Showing posts with label USA. Show all posts

Wednesday, 23 November 2016

Thanksgiving - praise be to nature. That is all.

The fourth Thursday of November in the USA is 'Thanksgiving', their fixed celebration of seasons, harvest and plenty. Based on ancient, pagan, seasonal celebrations, now, high-jacked for religious / political gains, it wasn't always a fixed date. For millennia, early peoples would have been aware that the summer growing season was over and their journey in to winter was beginning and food stores would have to last

Thursday, 27 November 2014

'Thanksgiving' in the USA, another observance of seasonal change.

The fourth Thursday of November in the USA is 'Thanksgiving', their fixed celebration of seasons, harvest and plenty. Based on ancient, pagan, seasonal celebrations, now, high-jacked for religious / political gains, it wasn't always a fixed date. For millennia, early peoples would have been aware that the summer growing season was over and their journey in to winter was beginning and food stores would have to last them through the colder period. This happens worldwide through history.

Early settlers from other lands brought with them the harvest rituals that they observed. In these new lands, the end of the growing season would vary in time and severity depending on location, the more northerly 'states' having an earlier and harsher on set of winter. Canadian harvest rituals are much earlier. This movable feast, however, didn't foster the 'United' feeling that the 'States' were looking for. Abraham Lincoln fixed the date on which all the states would celebrate in order to a give the people a sense of unity (1863). Various tales and unsubstantiated myths