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But this was almost immediately replaced with “So what? We don’t really do Thanksgiving anyway.” And therein lay the foundation for that elusive story angle, the first brick, if you will, of a multi-level construction. To begin at the beginning, it is probably approp riate to examine the history of the American Thanksgiv ing holiday, a history that begins in 17th century Eng land with English Puritans who were unwilling or unable to adhere to the rites and rules of the Church of Eng land. Persecuted by the authorities and alienated from their neighbors, some of these Puritans decided that their only salvation lay in leaving England and establish ing a new life for themselves elsewhere. In 1608, a small Puritan congregation sailed to Holland, where, for a time, they enjoyed the religious freedom that they could not find in England. But economic factors and social factors associated with living in a foreign country with a foreign culture eventually led some of these expatriate Puritans to consider another alternative, emigration to the new world of America where they could establish a new community that would be intrinsically theirs, one not tainted by the religious persecution or by economic and social inhibitions imposed by a foreign culture. Those who opted for this alternative returned to Eng land and, after exhaustive planning and preparation, during which other English Puritans who had remained in England became interested in the idea of emigrating to America, a group of 100 or so boarded the ship May flower and set sail from Plymouth, England in Sept- meber 1620. The difficult ocean crossing was followed by a diffi cult winter in the new world. The emigres battled the elements, disease, hunger and hostile Indians. Those who survived did so through the help of friendly Indians who provided food and survival instructions and, no doubt, viewed the puritan community with more than a little amusement and wonder. And in November of 1621, these survivors, happy to be alive and happy to be free of religious persecution and foreign influences, chose to celebrate their survival and their freedom by a three- day holiday of prayer and feasting. It is easy to imagine the scope and nature of the conversations that dominated that first Thanksgiving celebrated in 1621. There was, unquestionably, the Pil grims’ very real awareness of having survived as indi viduals and as a community. The living thanked God for being alive and free and prayed for those who had died or were not free. And they were thankful for their fami lies and their friends and for the opportunities they had in the new world. And they shared stories of hardship and endurance and survival. And in later years, the sto ries of those terrible times were told to children and grandchildren who had not lived through those times. And thus a tradition was born. It is not necessary to recite the dates and presidential and congressional decisions that made the holiday an annual ritual in America; it is, however, important to note that the holi day has survived and endured and is still celebrated. Thanksgiving in modern America is celebrated by almost everyone in one fashion or another. The tradi tional celebration includes a gathering for family mem bers that rarely includes only the nuclear family; it is a holiday which brings together siblings and cousins and grandparents and in-laws from near and far for a sump tuous feast. It is, as the media invariably reports, the most heavily travelled weekend of the year. Television cameras are focused on crowded airports, train stations and highways; interviews with travellers going home for Thanksgiving dinner are a constant sidebar of Thanks giving related newspaper articles. In schools, hallways and classroom bulleting boards are festooned with cardboard cutouts of Pilgrims and turkeys and other symbols of Thanksgiving folklore; schoolchildren are often asked to write essays about the meaning of Thanksgiving Day in the context of their own life or in the history of America. In many American cities, the hol iday is marked by a parade and, somewhat crudely, by the onset of advertisement geared to the Christmas shopping season; in many of the Thanksgiving day parades, a jolly, redclad Santa marches alongside the Pilgrims and friendly Indians. But the high point of the holiday in most house holds is the Thanksgiving dinner itself. The centerpiece of the traditional American Thanksgiving feast is gener ally a huge stuffed turkey; side dishes include, but are not limited to, cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes and an assortment of vegetables. For those who can manage dessert, there is pumpkin pie. My first encounter with this traditional Thanksgiv ing dinner occurred when I was six or seven years old. I had, of course, seen pictures of Pilgrims and turkeys in school and had read stories about Pilgrims and Thanks giving Day in school books, but they did not have any thing to do with my life or my family or the Ukrainian American community in which I was raised. To me, the Thanksgiving weekend was just some free time from school, time that I thought might be fun to spend with my Jewish friend Rosalie whose family lived down the street from mine and who, I imagine, must have been rather shocked when I knocked at the door that Thurs day afternoon and asked if Rosalie could come out and play. Rosalie, it turned out, could not come out to play, but I was invited to come in and join the family at the table where an extra place was quickly set and where I was asked whether I wanted dark meat or white and whether I wanted stuffing or mashed potatoes, cran berry sauce or sweet potatoes or both. I remember eat ing things I had never eaten in my own home or any where else and remember being quite certain that all of this was part of some very exotic Jewish custom. I don’t recall how long I labored under this misconception, but I do recall being quite surprised that my Ukrainian godmother, at whose home we ate Thanksgiving dinner in later years, served most of the same foods. Amused at my own reminiscenses of my first tradi tional Thanksgiving, I wondered about the experiences ’’НАШЕ ЖИТТЯ”, ЛИСТОПАД 1994 21
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