O Thanksgiving e suas origens - O que está na mesa? Leia ou Assista o vídeo.

Walmir Bastos
20 de out. de 2018
4 min de leitura

Atualizado: 22 de nov.

Leia ou assista essa história emocionante e conheça o drama dos primeiros colonizadores (Pilgrims) que chegaram a Plymouth Rock no Novo Mundo.

What is Thanksgiving?

"Thanksgiving Day" is a public holiday celebrated on the 2nd Monday of October in Canada and on the 4th Thursday of November in the United States. It is an extremely important date for North Americans, so the festivities are often extended throughout the weekend.

The following Friday after Thanksgiving became known as "Black Friday," and it is when the famous store sales take place as the kick off for the American's Christmas season.

What is celebrated during Thanksgiving Day?

In addition to being a day to give thanks to The Lord for the good things that happened along the year, American people also celebrate the memory of a feast held in the new world in 1621 which was attended by 50 settlers, the pilgrims, from Plymouth fields and 90 native Americans (Indians) from the Wampanoag tribe.

Os peregrinos celebrando a primeira colheita abundante no Novo Mundo na companhia dos índios Wampanoag e Patuxet. — The Pilgrims celebrating the first plentiful harvest with the Wampanoag Indians.

The feast was offered to the Indians as a way of thanking them for their help and guidance to farm in a world where products, climate and soil were unknown.

The result, an abundant harvest of beans, corn and pumpkin.

But was the Wampanoag Indians' help so essential to cultivate the land?

Yes. It is enough to say that the pilgrims who arrived in America in 1620 aboard the ship named the Mayflower literally starved in the first winter they faced.

The History of Thanksgiving

O Mayflower foi o navio que trouxe os primeiros colonizadores para o Novo Mundo — MAYFLOWER

In October, 1620 a sailing ship named Mayflower, dropped anchor off the shore of a land which is now known as the United States of America.

Aboard the ship there were 102 men and women who were mostly radical religious people who had come to the new world seeking the right to practice their faith.

It was freezing cold at the moment of their arrival so most of them decided to remain on the ship waiting for warmer weather for eventually setting up a community on the land.

Enquantos esperavam pela primavera para desembarcar muitos peregrínos morreram de frio, epidemias ou escorbuto. — Sick pilgrims on the Mayflower.

Unfortunately, in the meantime, many of them died from the cold, outbreak of contagious diseases and also of scurvy and only about half of the people who had come on the Mayflower survived to see the Spring.

When it finally came, they went ashore, built themselves cabins and established a new village.

However the sick and weak pilgrims, lacked the necessary skills to grow vegetables, hunt and fish in the new land and with the food they could produce, it was clear that they wouldn't be able to make it through the next Winter.

Luckily, when it seemed to be the end, help came. They were saved. But not by the American Cavalry but by the indians.

When everything seemed be lost, for their own astonishment, they received the visit of Squanto, a native of the land, AN INDIAN, originally from the Patuxet tribe.

As weird as it may have seemed mainly to them themselves, Squanto could speak English! But how? So far away from their Homeland, England!

Well, the fact was that Squanto had once been kidnapped by a British captain who had sold him as a slave which gave him the opportunity to learn English during the time he had spent in captivity.

Squanto eventually managed to run away and return to his tribe by getting a ride on an exploratory expedition ship.

With the help of Squanto working as an interpreter the Wampanoag and the Patuxet indians then taught the colonists how to grow corn vegetables and everything else they needed to survive in that strange land.

Squanto trabalha como intérprete entre os índios Wampanoag e os peregrinos. — Squanto helps them to communicate.

Now, knowing the right thing to do, our heroes succeeded in getting the essencial products for their survival and after their first harvest of corn, in November 1621, they organized a feast and invited the Wampanoag and Patuxet Indians to celebrate with them to say thank you for their valuable and crucial help.

And that celebration is considered as the first Thanksgiving.

What is the Thanksgiving symbol?

The of Thanksgiving symbol in the USA is the Cornucopia or Horn of Plenty which is the symbol of abundance and food, commonly represented by a horn-shaped basket, overflowing with green produce, flowers, nuts, fruits and other vegetables.

A Cornucópia, ou Chifre da Abundância, é o símbolo do Thanksgiving - Dia de Ação de Graças. — The Cornucopia or Horn of Plenty is the symbol of Thanksgiving.

But why a horn?

The horn is the phallus, the male sacred masculine which in turn is the symbol of God in some pagan cultures.

Yet, the inside of the horn is the sacred feminine, the womb. The fertile mother Earth.

Difficult words:

throughout - por todo Settler - colono pilgrim - peregrino crop - cultura agrícola starve (r. verb) - Literalmente morrer de fome guidance - orientação harvest - colheita feast - banquete weather - tempo (Meteorologia) set up - estabelecer outbreak - epidemia disease - doença scurvy - escobuto go ashore - desembarcar cabin - cabana de troncos weak - fraco lack - ter falta de skill - habilidade make it - conseguir chegar cavalry - cavalari

weird - estranho homeland - terra natal slave - escravo capitivity - cativeiro green produce - verdura horn-shaped - em formato de chifree overflowing - transbordando