| T.R | Title | User | Personal Name
 | Date | Lines | 
|---|
| 517.1 | Not a modern (comparatively) thing | KAOFS::S_BROOK |  | Mon Oct 14 1991 14:41 | 7 | 
|  |     Based on the religious festival of the harvest feast and as such
    dates much further back.
    
    Of course if we celebrated thanksgiving as late as you, we'd have
    frozen turkey for dinner (in a manner of speaking)!
    
    Stuart
 | 
| 517.2 | ...???... | OTOOA::ANDERSON | True Brit | Mon Oct 14 1991 14:45 | 5 | 
|  |     In England they have Harvest Thanksgiving, which speaks for itself.
    The Canadain holiday might be related to this.
    
    GNA
    
 | 
| 517.3 | And German settlers called it "Erntedanktag" | COVERT::COVERT | John R. Covert | Mon Oct 14 1991 15:20 | 6 | 
|  | The U.S. holiday is the same thing; the business with the Pilgrims is
just a bit of Massachusetts politicking.  The original English settlers
in Virginia also celebrated a Harvest Thanksgiving well before the Pilgrims
arrived, but the Pilgrims had a better public relations department.
/john
 | 
| 517.4 |  | POLAR::RICHARDSON | Sick in a balanced sort of way | Tue Oct 15 1991 09:43 | 4 | 
|  |     Wasn't thanksgiving day instituted as a holiday in the U.S during the
    civil war? I believe Abraham Lincoln made this declaration.
    
    Every soldier got a hot turkey dinner on the last Thursday of November.
 | 
| 517.5 |  | SIOG::EGRI |  | Tue Oct 15 1991 10:41 | 7 | 
|  |     I never could understand why they were called the "pilgrim" fathers.
    By definition, a pilgrim is a person who travels to a sacred place as an
    act of religious devotion. Weren't the American "pilgrims" running from
    religious persecution in England to seek refuge in America. So they
    should be called the "refugee" fathers. Eh?
    
    Ted.
 | 
| 517.6 | frames of reference | KAOFS::S_BROOK |  | Tue Oct 15 1991 13:39 | 2 | 
|  |     Look at it from their perspective ... it was a pilgrimage away from
    persecution ...
 | 
| 517.7 |  | R2ME2::HINXMAN | There has to be a better way | Tue Oct 15 1991 16:27 | 7 | 
|  | 	re .6
	There is some doubt about this. Some people claim that these people
	left England because they were not being allowed to persecute other
	people.
	Tony
 | 
| 517.8 |  | SIOG::EGRI |  | Wed Oct 16 1991 08:30 | 7 | 
|  |     Re: -1
    
    You're right. I got the story the wrong way around.
    
    Thanks.
    
    Ted
 | 
| 517.9 | Weren't after religious freedom | GEMVAX::HILL |  | Wed Oct 16 1991 09:40 | 7 | 
|  |     One thing that often seems to get overlooked is that these people lived
    in Holland for 10 years before setting sail to the New World. In
    Holland there was as much, if not more religious freedom than anywhere
    in Europe at that time. If all they wanted was to worship in peace they
    would have stayed in Holland.
    
    Tom 
 |