Today is Thanksgiving. If your family is like mine, there is a concerted effort to get together today. We will eat the traditional food of the holiday – turkey, mashed potatoes with gravy, stuffing, sweet potatoes and pumpkin pie just like the Pilgrims did on the first Thanksgiving in 1621 with the friendly Wampanoag tribe from Plymouth.

Actually, the first Thanksgiving table was not filled with the foods we would call traditional fare. None of the foods I mentioned were present at that meal. What did they eat? We are not completely sure of all the foods there, but there are records showing they ate venison, fish (bass and cod), waterfowl and cornbread. They also likely ate a variety of vegetables grown in the area including squash, beans, carrots and onions. Some foods we associate with Thanksgiving were used by the Native Americans, but not in the form we eat them. Cranberries and pumpkins grow in that region, but in 1621, they did not have sugar to sweeten them, so they likely ate them boiled or steamed with other vegetables.

The fact is, the first Thanksgiving was very unlike our traditional holiday setting, and that is more than just the food. The people who traveled from England to Massachusetts were not really called Pilgrims. There were 102 passengers on the Mayflower. Of these, 41 were Christian separatists that we typically call Pilgrims. They were Protestants who were looking for religious freedom. They called themselves "Old Comers.” Ten years after they arrived, William Bradford, Plymouth Colony’s second governor, wrote about the Christian separatists who made the voyage in 1620 across the Atlantic, calling them "saints and pilgrims.”Over the years, others began to refer to them as Pilgrims. The word "pilgrim” means a wanderer. They had wandered from their former home to forge a new life. That trip lasted 66 days and was filled with rough waters and sickness in very close quarters. They arrived in November 1620, just in time for winter to set in. Living on the ship that winter, half of them did not survive. In the spring of 1621, the ship left and they moved into the Plymouth colony.

They had to make do with what they had and that was not much. With the help of the Wampanoags, they learned to fish and grow vegetables native to the area. That included corn, beans and squash. When they harvested their crops in the fall, they joined 91 Wampanoag men in a three-day celebration of thanks that they had survived. Of the 102 people who left on the boat, only 52 were still alive a year later. But this was more than just a time marking their survival, it was a time of reflection on the goodness that had been granted them. Together they had, by the grace of God, done what they set out to do.

Today you might be like me. You will sit down to a traditional Thanksgiving meal with your family without concern about whether there is enough for everyone to eat today and tomorrow. Before you partake of that Thanksgiving feast, take time to look around the table and think of the goodness that has been granted to you. Give thanks for it.