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In fact, when people ask, "Is Thanksgiving a Pagan Holiday?" My answer must be "No." In historical fact, Thanksgiving never came from a pagan festival. We do know how such a festival emerged: modern Thanksgiving started with a harvest festival to which both the English pilgrims and the Wampanoag tribe were invited in 1621. But feeling grateful for what you have, and celebrating the bounty that the earth provides-that doesn't change at all. This concept threads through various cultures and white wealth through numbers, from the Celtic harvest festivals to the Roman festival of Ceres, and all parts of Native American tradition. Just so, while modern Thanksgiving today is not immediately of direct pagan descent, every time period and every spot on earth has surely had its heart feel warm with gratitude (and stomach fill up).
Religious studies scholars like Judith Sachs adored exploring vacations' origins with such zeal. Is Thanksgiving a largely festival? This question is really too interesting. The first 'Thanksgiving' as it has come down to us was celebrated in 1621 by the English Pilgrims and the Wampanoag tribe at Plymouth. It was basically a festival to mark a successful harvest season. The general theme of thanksgiving and repping a bountiful harvest exists throughout different cultures and religions all over the world; however, to say that it can be directly linked with any one particular pagan celebration might be an oversimplification. Many ancient world societies--the Celts, Romans and Native Americans, for example--had their own variations on harvest festivals, well before there was anything like Thanksgiving. However these links are thematic in nature, not what today's contemporary Thanksgiving is about.
I love holiday history and traditions, I always get a great deal out of that.So on the question of whether thanksgiving is a pagan festival?,the answer is absolutely not.The roots of Thanksgiving go back to 1621, and a party held by the pilgrims in Plymouth involving both Pilgrims and Native Americans. Naturally, many different cultures have their rich harvest festival celebrations as well as our own Thanksgiving Day. BaIt's simply not a pagan holiday.
As an enthusiastic reader of cultural histories and traditions, I often hold in my heart the beginnings of our modern customs. And while no one seems quite sure how our great-grandparents celebrated the harvest festival or the rites of spring, Thanksgiving, now an ordinary part of modern life as we know it in the United States and Canada. Where did it come from? That is a good question. At one point, someone asked me: `Is Thanksgiving a Pagan holiday?' Yes, Thanksgiving in the United States and Canada does not directly descend from Pagan practices. First formally recognized in the realm of history is a thanksgiving in 1621 celebrated with a feast by English Pilgrims and the Wampanoag tribe, marking the successful planting of their harvest. It is certainly true to say that thanks for crops harvested so carefully is a typical theme found in many ancient Pagan feasts. Tying the detailed pattern of all those practices directly over into contemporary Thanksgiving, however, needs to temper this somewhat with realism.