It’s A Time For Giving Thanks To God

Thanksgiving is a season filled with warmth, fellowship, family, and gratitude.  Of course, we associate the season with the delectable Thanksgiving feast – an American tradition that dates back to the sixteenth century, when Spanish settlers held their feast of gratitude for God’s providence as they successfully arrived in what is now Florida.  Other countries and cultures engage in various types of harvest festivals and commemorations, such as Sukkot - the Jewish Feast of Tabernacles, Dhanyavad divas in India, and Canada’s Thanksgiving Day, observed annually on the second Monday in October.  The Dutch city of Leiden celebrates Thanksgiving annually with a special service in the twelfth century Pieterskerk, where early Pilgrim leader and publisher John Robinson is buried.  Leiden was a sanctuary for a large group of Puritans, who fled the religious persecution of early seventeenth century England, to then eventually end up on our shores on November 21, 1620.  We’re all familiar with this story, as we have learned about the Pilgrims, their first interactions with Native Americans, and that first Pilgrim thanksgiving from probably before each of us was in kindergarten.