Halloween has come and gone and now we can all start getting ready for the next holiday. Thanksgiving. It’s kind of the “middle child” of holidays since Halloween and Christmas are holidays aimed at pleasing kids. Thanksgiving is kind of like an adult holiday featuring football on TV, family camaraderie and gorging on food.

 

Thanksgiving was originally celebrated as a day of giving thanks for the blessing of the harvest and of the preceding year. It is commonly — but not universally — traced to a sparsely documented 1621 celebration at Plymouth in present-day Massachusetts. The 1621 Plymouth feast and thanksgiving was prompted by a good harvest and Pilgrims and Puritans, who began emigrating from England in the 1620s and 1630s, carried the tradition of Days of Fasting and Days of Thanksgiving with them to the New England area. 

 

Thanksgivings at our home growing up consisted of memories formed by my senses. The smells of the turkey roasting and the breads baking in the oven tantalized my nose. My mouth drooled over the thought of devouring the mashed potatoes and gravy — and the corn and the cranberries. My ears would perk up whenever I’d hear my mother say, “It’s just about done.”

 

My tips of my fingers would ache to the touch from trying to crack pistachios and walnuts to temper my growling stomach — all the while waiting to hear my mother’s voice. And then my eyes would practically grow teeth as I watched the browned bird escape its heated cavern — with dressing oozing out between the drumsticks onto the massive platter.

 

And I remember before any one of us got a fork full of white or dark meat to our mouths or a spoon full of cranberries on our tongues — my family would bow their heads and give thanks — thanks for the food, thanks for our health, thanks for our families and thanks for all our blessings.

 

That moment of realization of what Thanksgiving is all about, helped placate my grumbling stomach and re-focus my mind on what the holiday is really all about. It gave me the chance to put aside my selfish desires and think of others. 

 

And be thankful.

 

Simply thankful.

 

Just like they did on that first Thanksgiving day back in 1623 when Gov. William Bradford of the 1620 Pilgrim Colony in Massachusetts said, “All ye Pilgrims with your wives and little ones, do gather at the meeting house, on the hill — there to listen to the pastor, and render Thanksgiving to the Almighty God for all His blessings.”

 

It’s easy to think of the first born and the last. Let’s not forget the importance of the “middle child.”