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In America, it’s believed that the first Thanksgiving took place in 1621, but this was not the first time people gathered to give thanks for the Autumn harvest. In fact, people have been celebrating the harvest for millennia and our Thanksgiving meal is just a modern incarnation reflecting these ancient celebrations of autumn abundance.
Harvest celebrations were also important during Celtic and Anglo-Saxon Pagan times. In Britain these traditions evolved into a holiday called Harvest Home. Historically, the date of Harvest Home differed each year as it was celebrated when all of the autumn crops were finally harvested. The final cartload of food was paraded through the town and a big Harvest Supper was celebrated among the villagers.
In addition to Harvest Home, a separate religious holiday called the "days of thanksgivings" was practiced in the Church of England, in which people set aside one religious day of their choosing to "give thanks to God." We get the name “Thanksgiving” from this Christian tradition, while the feasting commonly associated with Thanksgiving largely derives from the Harvest Home celebrations.
Luckily for us Americans, our harvest Thanksgiving celebrations were never commandeered by the church and as such they remain pretty Pagan to this day.
Here in America, a lot of our imagery around Thanksgiving shows a shared meal between the Pilgrims and the Native Americans. It could be said that this rosy view of our first Thanksgiving meal together is largely misleading and helps to obscure the many atrocities the colonists committed upon the Native Americans. The Native Americans, like the ancient Pagan peoples of Europe, understood the importance of honoring and respecting the harvest. And during the first American Thanksgiving that took place in 1621, the Native Americans paused to give thanks to many spirits and deities that aided in the bountiful harvest.
Symbols
There are three key symbols that are common to Thanksgiving celebrations: the cornucopia (aka the horn of plenty), the turkey, and corn. All these symbols were viewed as very important among Pagan societies.
Let’s begin with the Cornucopia, an important symbol in ancient Greece and Rome. This symbol goes back to a story from Ancient Greece where a goat pulled off his horn and offered it to the God Zeus. This was a magic horn that would refill indefinitely with food and drink ensuring that Zeus would never go hungry.
The Cornucopia was also incorporated in statues and money across ancient Rome and was often used in representations of the goddess of grain Ceres and the goddess of luck Fortuna.
The Turkey, the centerpiece of the American Thanksgiving dinner. Many Native American tribes view Turkey as a symbol of fertility and abundance. As a totem animal, Turkey reminds us of the importance of our relationship with the land as the land is the source of our nourishment and sustenance. Turkey feathers are also viewed as especially important and are used in ritual wear and in smudging ceremonies. So when we eat Turkey at Thanksgiving we are celebrating & honoring the connection we have with our sacred land and the animal spirits.
Corn is often used as a symbol to represent Thanksgiving. Corn, also
called maize, was a key staple crop among the Native Americans and it
played an important role in their spiritual beliefs. In some tribes Corn
itself was seen as a spirit and often it played a role in ceremonies.
