Lesson 152 - Thanksgiving 112322

The Bible Show
Lesson 152 - Thanksgiving 112322
11/23/2022
JD Hudson YouTube Channel
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01.) Psalms 136:1-3, 26 (Give thanks to God).
02.) Exodus 34:21-23 (Firstfruits harvest and Ingathering harvest).
03.) Leviticus 23:1-4, 9-21 (Pentecost).

04.) AbrahamLincolnOnline.org
http://www.abrahamlincolnonline.org/lincoln/speeches/thanks.htm
Proclamation of Thanksgiving
The year that is drawing towards its close, has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies.

No human counsel hath devised nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy. It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently and gratefully acknowledged as with one heart and one voice by the whole American People.

I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next, as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens. And I recommend to them that while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliverances and blessings, they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to His tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty Hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to restore it as soon as may be consistent with the Divine purposes to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquillity and Union.

In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the Seal of the United States to be affixed.

Done at the City of Washington, this Third day of October, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three (1863), and of the Independence of the United States the Eighty-eighth.

By the President: Abraham Lincoln

William H. Seward,
Secretary of State

05.)NPR.org
https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2012/11/21/165655925/how-did-thanksgiving-end-up-on-thursday
In 1789, President Washington declared Thurs., Nov. 26, as a "Day of Publick Thanksgivin," according to the National Archives. But in the years following, the date for the holiday was announced by presidential proclamation and celebrated on various days and months. When President Lincoln made his Thanksgiving proclamation in 1863, the last Thursday of November became standard.
On Dec. 26, 1941, Congress passed a law making Thanksgiving the fourth Thursday of November.

06.)Thrillist.com
https://www.thrillist.com/news/nation/why-is-thanksgiving-always-on-a-thursday-in-november
Put simply: Thanksgiving takes place during the fall to celebrate the harvest; on a Thursday in November to follow a precedent set by President Washington; and on November's fourth Thursday to simplify things on years with longer Novembers.

07.) Brittannica.com
https://www.britannica.com/story/thanksgiving-day-in-the-united-states
On the fourth Thursday in November, the United States celebrates the holiday of Thanksgiving, which has been an official national holiday since President Abraham Lincoln, after a campaign by magazine editor Sarah Josepha Hale, declared it as such in 1863. In the modern consciousness, Thanksgiving is strongly associated with the near-mythological story of the Pilgrims at Plymouth (the English colonists) and their Wampanoag Indian neighbors, who shared a meal to celebrate the harvest in 1621. However, days of thanksgiving on a variety of occasions have been celebrated throughout American history. Among them have been days for giving thanks to the Creator for the ending of droughts and wars or in celebration of other events, such as the promulgation of the Constitution.

After the establishment of the U.S. Congress, the designation of days of thanksgiving fell to the states, as the separation of church and state set out in the U.S. Constitution would be at odds with the celebration of a religious holiday at the national level. It took the Civil War—and with it the perceived need for a gesture to build national unity—for Lincoln to declare a day of thanksgiving for the U.S. in October 1863, to be celebrated the following month.

The story of the “first Thanksgiving,” however, is more complicated than that which is commonly taught in schools. The Wampanoag and Pilgrims did share a harvest feast in peace in 1621. Much of the food was provided by the Wampanoag guests, who included their leader Massasoit, the Pawtuxet interpreter and guide Squanto (who had lived in England after having been taken in slavery), and Massasoit’s son Metacom. Massasoit had established peaceful relations with the colonists that lasted for decades. That state of affairs, though, deteriorated after his death as a result of tensions from the Europeans’ poor treatment of Native Americans, cultural encroachment, and increasing desire for land. Metacom—called King Philip by the English—waged war against the colonists (King Philip’s War, 1675–76) and was killed in battle. He was beheaded and quartered. His head was displayed on a spear at Plymouth for many years.

Given the eventual spread of Europeans and other nonindigenous peoples across North America that began at the colonies of Plymouth and Jamestown (Virginia) and the disastrous effects of that historical tide on the native peoples of the continent, Thanksgiving is not a day of celebration for many Native Americans. The United American Indians of New England mark the annual Thanksgiving Day in an alternative way, as a “National Day of Mourning.”

08.) AmericanIndianSource.com
http://americanindiansource.com/mourningday.html
Most school children are taught that Native Americans helped the Pilgrims and were invited to the first Thanksgiving feast. Young children's conceptions of Native Americans often develop out of media portrayals and classroom role playing of the events of the First Thanksgiving. The conception of Native Americans gained from such early exposure is both inaccurate and potentially damaging to others. Therefore, most children do not know the following facts, which explain why many American Indians today call Thanksgiving a "Day of Mourning".

Traditional hospitality and generosity have and continue to be constant Tribal virtues to be practiced at all times.
One of a series of feasts reaching back into the group memory has been seized upon by the current modern society. The Wampanoag feast, called Nikkomosachmiawene, or Grand Sachem's Council Feast. It was because of this feast in 1621 that the Wampanoags had amassed the food to help the Pilgrims thereby creating a new tradition, European tradition, known today as "Thanksgiving Day.” This Wampanog feast is marked by traditional food and games, telling of stories and legends, sacred ceremonies and councils on the affairs of the nation. Massasoit came with 90 Wampanog men and brought five deer, fish, all the food and Wampanog cooks.

Before the Pilgrims arrived Plymouth had been the site of a Pawtuxet village which was wiped out by a plague (introduced by English explorers looking to grab a piece of the New World land) five years before the Pilgrims landed. These Native peoples had met Europeans before the Pilgrims arrived. One such European was Captain Thomas Hunt, who started trading with the Native people in 1614. He captured 20 Pawtuxcts and seven Naugassets, selling them as slaves in Spain. Many other European expeditions also lured Native people onto ships and then imprisoned and enslaved them. These expeditions carried smallpox, typhus, measles and other European diseases to this continent. Native people had no immunity and some groups were totally wiped out while others were severely decimated. An estimated 72,000 to 90,000 people lived in southern New England before contact with Europeans. One hundred years later, their numbers were reduced by 80%. It was the English Captain Thomas Hunt's expedition that brought the plague, which destroyed the Pawtnxet. The nearest other people were the Wampanoag. In modern times they are often simply known as the Indians who met the Pilgrim invasion, their lands stretched from present day Narragansett Bay to Cape Cod. Like most other Tribal peoples in the area, the Wampanoag were farmers and hunters.

The pilgrims (who did not even call themselves pilgrims) did not come here seeking religious freedom; they already had that in Holland. They came here as part of a commercial venture. One of the very first things they did when they arrived on Cape Cod -- before they even made it to Plymouth -- was to rob Wampanoag graves at Corn Hill and steal as much of the Indians' winter provisions as they were able to carry. To the native people who had observed these actions, it was a serious desecration and insult to their dead. The angry Wampanoags attacked with a small group, but were frightened off with gunfire.

Text of Plaque on Cole's Hill
"Since 1970, Native Americans have gathered at noon on Cole's Hill in Plymouth to commemorate a National Day of Mourning on the US Thanksgiving holiday. Many Native Americans do not celebrate the arrival of the Pilgrims and other European settlers. To them, Thanksgiving Day is a reminder of the genocide of millions of their people, the theft of their lands, and the relentless assault on their culture. Participants in a National Day of Mourning honor Native ancestors and the struggles of Native peoples to survive today. It is a day of remembrance and spiritual connection as well as a protest of the racism and oppression which Native Americans continue to experience."

09.) Workers.org
https://www.workers.org/2008/us/day_of_mourning_1204/
Thanksgiving: A National Day of Mourning for Indians
Published Nov 24, 2008 9:19 PM

Following are excerpts from a statement written by Mahtowin Munro (Lakota) and Moonanum James (Wampanoag), co-leaders of United American Indians of New England. Read the entire statement at www.uaine.org.Every year since 1970, United American Indians of New England have organized the National Day of Mourning observance in Plymouth at noon on Thanksgiving Day. Every year, hundreds of Native people and our supporters from all four directions join us. Every year, including this year, Native people from throughout the Americas will speak the truth about our history and about current issues and struggles we are involved in.

Why do hundreds of people stand out in the cold rather than sit home eating turkey and watching football? Do we have something against a harvest festival?

Of course not. But Thanksgiving in this country—and in particular in Plymouth—is much more than a harvest home festival. It is a celebration of pilgrim mythology.

According to this mythology, the pilgrims arrived, the Native people fed them and welcomed them, the Indians promptly faded into the background, and everyone lived happily ever after.

The pilgrims are glorified and mythologized because the circumstances of the first English-speaking colony in Jamestown were frankly too ugly (for example, they turned to cannibalism to survive) to hold up as an effective national myth.

The pilgrims did not find an empty land any more than Columbus “discovered” anything. Every inch of this land is Indian land. The pilgrims (who did not even call themselves pilgrims) did not come here seeking religious freedom; they already had that in Holland.

They came here as part of a commercial venture. They introduced sexism, racism, bigotry, jails, and the class system to these shores. One of the very first things they did when they arrived on Cape Cod—before they even made it to Plymouth—was to rob Wampanoag graves at Corn Hill and steal as much of the Indians’ winter provisions of corn and beans as they were able to carry.

They were no better than any other group of Europeans when it came to their treatment of the Indigenous peoples here. And, no, they did not even land at that sacred shrine called Plymouth Rock, a monument to racism and oppression which we are proud to say we buried in 1995.

The first official “Day of Thanksgiving” was proclaimed in 1637 by Governor Winthrop. He did so to celebrate the safe return of men from the Massachusetts Bay Colony who had gone to Mystic, Conn., to participate in the massacre of over 700 Pequot women, children and men.

About the only true thing in the whole mythology is that these pitiful European strangers would not have survived their first several years in “New England” were it not for the aid of Wampanoag people. What Native people got in return for this help was genocide, theft of our lands and never-ending repression. We are either treated as quaint relics from the past or are, to most people, virtually invisible.

When we dare to stand up for our rights, we are considered unreasonable. When we speak the truth about the history of the European invasion, we are often told to “go back where we came from.” Our roots are right here. They do not extend across any ocean.

National Day of Mourning began in 1970 when a Wampanoag man, Wamsutta Frank James, was asked to speak at a state dinner celebrating the 350th anniversary of the pilgrim landing. He refused to speak false words in praise of the white man for bringing civilization to us poor heathens. Native people from throughout the Americas came to Plymouth where they mourned their forebears who had been sold into slavery, burned alive, massacred, cheated and mistreated since the arrival of the Pilgrims in 1620.

But the commemoration of National Day of Mourning goes far beyond the circumstances of 1970.

Can we give thanks as we remember Native political prisoner Leonard Peltier, who was framed up by the FBI and has been falsely imprisoned since 1976? Despite mountains of evidence exonerating Peltier and the proven misconduct of federal prosecutors and the FBI, Peltier has been denied a new trial.

To Native people, the case of Peltier is one more ordeal in a litany of wrongdoings committed by the U.S. government against us. While the media in New England present images of the “Pequot miracle” in Connecticut, the vast majority of Native people continue to live in the most abysmal poverty.

Can we give thanks for the fact that, on many reservations, unemployment rates surpass 50 percent? Our life expectancies are much lower, our infant mortality and teen suicide rates much higher than those of white Americans. Racist stereotypes of Native people, such as those perpetuated by the Cleveland Indians, the Atlanta Braves and countless local and national sports teams, persist. Every single one of the more than 350 treaties that Native nations signed has been broken by the U.S. government. The bipartisan budget cuts have severely reduced educational opportunities for Native youth and the development of new housing on reservations, and have caused cause deadly cutbacks in healthcare and other necessary services.

Are we to give thanks for being treated as unwelcome in our own country?

When the descendants of the Aztec, Maya and Inca flee to the U.S., the descendants of the wash-ashore pilgrims term them “illegal aliens” and hunt them down.

We object to the “Pilgrim Progress” parade and to what goes on in Plymouth because they are making millions of tourist dollars every year from the false pilgrim mythology. That money is being made off the backs of our slaughtered Indigenous ancestors.

Increasing numbers of people are seeking alternatives to such holidays as Columbus Day and Thanksgiving. They are coming to the conclusion that if we are ever to achieve some sense of community, we must first face the truth about the history of this country and the toll that history has taken on the lives of millions of Indigenous, Black, Latin@, Asian, and poor and working-class white people.

The myth of Thanksgiving, served up with dollops of European superiority and manifest destiny, just does not work for many people in this country. As Malcolm X once said about the African-American experience in America, “We did not land on Plymouth Rock. Plymouth Rock landed on us.” Exactly.

10.) Ancient-Origins.net
https://www.ancient-origins.net/history-ancient-traditions/american-tradition-thanksgiving-harvest-festival-roots-old-world-004694
Ancient Harvest Festivals

The ancient origins of Thanksgiving stem from the tradition of harvest festivals stretching back long before early European colonists reached the New World.

The shift from hunting and gathering to agrarian societies focused on the domestication of plants and animals during the Neolithic Revolution. A successful harvest was of major importance, dictating the stability and health of a community. Harvest celebrations marked the end of summer, and were a time of feasting and paying tribute to gods for bounty, prosperity and good health.

These harvest festivals were common around the globe in one form or another for millennia. It was believed by some early agrarian societies that cultivated crops contained spirits which caused them to grow. As such, it was seen as vital that the crops were harvested, or the spirits would languish in the plants, and eventually wreak revenge against the farmers. Harvest and ritual celebrated the release or defeat of these spirits.

A harvest festival honoring Min, god of vegetation and fertility was celebrated by ancient Egyptians. At the end of harvest (held in the springtime), a grand parade was said to be held in which the Pharaoh would feature. The Egyptian farmers would pretend to weep and mourn so as to fool the spirits that were living in the crop. This ruse was apparently to blindside the spirits so they wouldn’t suspect they were about to be harvested.

Ancient Greeks gave thanks to Demeter, goddess of fertility and harvest. Romans honored the goddess of agriculture, Ceres (from which the word cereal is derived) and another festival was held to honor gods of grain.

Ancient Celtic peoples had robust harvest festivals, and these traditions have continued for thousands of years.

In Jewish tradition, the holiday of Sukkot (Feast of Booths) is observed in the fall in which special meals are eaten from a booth, hut or sukkah, in thanks for the protection and care of god.

The ancient roots of harvest festivals stretch back to a time when hunger was a constant threat and societies felt at the mercy of the gods. Thanksgiving now is a thriving, modern holiday—a blend of religious and secular—celebrated still around the world in various ways, with honor being paid to the bounty of our lives, shared among strangers, family and friends.

11.) CreationCalendar.com
http://creationcalendar.com/StatuteFeastInfo/7-Thanksgiving.pdf
The Unvarnished Origin of Thanksgiving
Thanksgiving for the annual harvest is one of the oldest holidays known to man though celebrated on different dates. The Chinese and Hindus are said to have celebrated harvest feasts thousands of years ago. The ancient Greek harvest festival was called Thesmophora and celebrated Demeter, the founder and goddess of the harvests. The symbols of Demeter were poppies and ears of corn, a basket of fruit and a little pig. The Roman goddess of the harvest, Ceres (from whom we get our word cereal) had a festival, which occurred on October 4thand was called the Cerelia.

SYMBOLS OF THANKSGIVING OR SYMBOLS OF THE FRUITFUL GODDESS AND HER FERTILITY RITES
Cornucopias-In Greek Mythology, the horn of Amalthea (the name of the goat who suckled Zeus) became known as the cornucopia or horn of plenty. ISIS (the Egyptian faithful wife, mother, and goddess) was identified with Hathor, the HORNED COW Goddess. Horns are still used in pagan festivals today.

Harvest Queen- A name given to Ceres the Roman goddess of agriculture and crops or to a young woman chosen from among the reapers to whom was given a post of honor at the harvest home. Also the 1948 edition of The Universal World Reference Encyclopedia tells us,“Demeter, the Greek version of the Egyptian goddess Isis and Roman version of Ceres, is one of the principle Grecian deities, the great mother goddess, the nourishing and fertilizing principles of nature.”

Corn- represents Ceres, the corn goddess (agriculture and crops) or Xilonen -goddess of the new corn.

Poppies- Ceres corresponds with Isis of the Egyptians and Demeter of the Greeks. She is represented with a garland of ears of grain on her head, holding in one hand a lighted torch and in the other a poppy, which was sacred to her.
Piglet (Sow)- Demeter was presented with a cow and a sow as well as honey, poppies, corn and fruit indicating thanksgiving for a land of plenty. [Swine are an abomination to YHVH, see Isaiah 65:3-4.]

In England, the autumnal feast was called Harvest Home and was derived from the druidical harvest feast. [The druids are the most openly Satanic in their form of worship.] This three-day feast began with a special service at the village church, which had been decorated for the occasion with fruit and flowers, afterwards followed a communal dinner. In America the celebration of Thanksgiving sprang up haphazardly and was celebrated, if at all, on different days in different parts of the country. Here in America,the Puritans originally shunned the Harvest Home (Thanksgiving). All Saint’s days were swept off the calendar as well as Christmas and Easter, on the grounds that these mixed “popish” rituals with pagan customs. Their religious beliefs as well as the austerity and difficulty of their lives in the rather primitive settlement, did not permit them the luxury of gay and merry holidays. Their severe living conditions required discipline and sacrifice.Later, Thanksgiving, a holiday thanking God for the harvest enabling them to survive the winter, seemed to them to be a more fitting celebration than the other more established feasts of the church.

The Plymouth Colony was not the first English Colony to land in America, nor were they the first to offer thanks.

The first Thanksgiving was held August 9, 1607, by colonists enroute to found the short lived Popham Colony at what is now Phippsburg, Maine. After their two ships had reached one of the George’s Islands off the Maine Coast, they gave “God” thanks for their “happy metinge and saffe aryval into the country.” The first permanent English settlement in America was founded at Jamestown, VA 1607. As early as December 4, 1619 the settlers set aside a day to give thanks for the survival of their small company. Their day of thanks continued to be observed on December 4, until 1622, when a conflict with Indians almost devastated the colony.

As much as we’d like to think of Thanksgiving as a pure and holy holiday begun by the Pilgrims in Plymouth in 1621 it is not the truth. On the contrary, the Pagan harvest festival can be traced to the land of Ancient Babylon and the worship of the Great Mother (whore).“The Christians took over the Roman holiday and it became well established in England, where some of the Roman customs and rituals for this day were observed long after the Roman Empire had disappeared. “In England the “harvest home” has been observed continuously for centuries. The custom was to select a harvest queen for this holiday. She was decorated with the grain of their fields and the fruit of their trees. On Thanksgiving Day she was paraded throughout the streets in a carriage drawn by white horses. This was a remnant of the Roman ceremonies in honor of Ceres. But the English no longer thought of Ceres or cared much about her. They went to church on this day and sang their Thanksgiving songs.” (Our Wonderful World by Grolier Incorporated, New York, 1966, Vol. 17, pp. 220.)

The Primitive Fertility Religions have been portrayed through “cute” stories which effectively HID the VILE, HIDEOUS MEANING behind them. This WORSHIP during the day of “Thanksgiving” is emphatically the Ancient Fertility Rites merely veneered with the so called “respectability” of Christianity! The fact remains, that it is still the Ancient Fertility Worship. But, you say, weren’t our Pilgrim Father’s righteous? The Pilgrims only served YHVH as far as they would. Definitely, the Pilgrims worshipped on Sunday and they definitely did not keep the Holy Feast Days as ordained in Leviticus 23. They did not keep the clean and unclean food laws as listed in Leviticus 11 and Deut. 14. As the Pilgrims studied the Bibles they had, they would have read of the Sabbath, Holy Feast Days and about the clean and unclean food laws for themselves. I ask you now, “Why did they not obey God by doing what he commanded in Ex 20, Lev. 11 & 23 and Deut. 14?” Like so many Christian churches and denominations today, the Pilgrims wanted to do it their way and not YHVH’s way. Is it any wonder then, that the Pilgrims would be just as deceived as the churches and assemblies of today--chasing after Baptized Paganism?

12.) 1 Thessalonians 5:14-23 (In everything give thanks).
13.) 1 Chronicles 16:8-12 (Give thanks unto the Lord).
14.) Mark 7:1-9 (Rejecting God to keep man's traditions).
15.) 1 Corinthians 10:13-14 (Flee idolatry).
16.) Luke 6:46 (Why call ye me Lord, Lord).
17.) Matthew 7:21-27 (I never knew you).