Thanksgiving Pagan Symbolism
Celebratory Days Have their Own Imagery and Traditions
This late November holiday evokes visions of turkeys, maize or Indian corn, pumpkins, wheat stalk decorations and cornucopias. Why do they represent this holiday?
Many holiday customs and legends are based on those of Pagans. Christmas: trees, Yule logs, holly, ivy, presents…. Easter: eggs, rabbits, flowers…. Hallowe’en: trick or treat, Jack-o-lanterns, ghosts…. Each celebration has its own traditional food.
Some might think it’s stretching the imagination to also tie in Thanksgiving with Pagan customs, but both Christian and Pagan religions give thanks to God or their deities for the harvest. The Christian Pilgrim holiday is at the end of the gathering season.
Pagan Influence: Thanksgiving Menu
Christians celebrated Lammas, the first harvest, by going to church in August, leaving loaves of bread on altars and giving thanks. Michaelmas, honoring the archangel St. Michael, was held on September 29th. Festivals of gratitude were held near or on the Sunday of the Harvest Moon, the full moon closest to the date of the autumnal equinox, usually occurring in September, sometimes in early October.
Native Americans had celebrations of bountiful harvests. As Pagan Europeans immigrated, they brought their customs of harvest festivals: Lughnasadh, Mabon and Samhain. Both Pagan traditions, featuring special foods, later mixed these items with the Pilgrim’s day of thanks.
Meats
- Venison: Deer symbolizes innocence and gentleness. The doe represents subtlety and gracefulness: the stag, purification, independence and pride.
- Turkey: Called Ground Eagle by some tribes, is symbolic of harvest and shared blessings of Mother Earth.
- Rabbit: Although not specifically mentioned in contemporary accounts, was one of the foods available to the Pilgrims in 1621. Rabbit and hare’s keynotes are new life, fertility, intuition, balance and rebirth.
Vegetables, Fruit and Grains
There is scant information about flora symbolism other than flowers and trees. Some edible plants are symbolic while others are traditional with lore of their own.
- Apples: The Celts attributed the powers of rebirth, youth and healing to this fruit.
- Beans: The Three Sisters in Native American legend were Maize or Indian corn, beans and squash. After corn, oldest sister, was planted, beans were next so their vines could grow around cornstalks, then squash, the youngest, which grew close to the earth. The way they grew is symbolic of cooperative community survival and mainstays in the tribes’ diets.
- Maize: Ceremonies were held for both planting and harvesting corn. The New England tribes’ spring Green Corn ceremony was to ask for bountiful harvest. In August, also the month of the Celtic Lughnasadh, the Green Corn celebrated the first harvest.
- Cornmeal: Symbolizes fertility, healing and powers of people, animals, rituals and objects.
- Pumpkin: Represents Sun and, according to some Native American tribes, symbolic of personal power.
- Wheat: Celebrated abundance and was used in rituals to give thanks and pray bounty would last until the next year.
Cornucopias
The New World horn of plenty was a Native American basket shaped in the form of an upside-down tornado, filled with vegetables. They signified harvest’s abundance when it’s shared and thanks is given to the deities. Indians brought these to the Pilgrims to alleviate their fear of scarcity.
Related articles:
Mabon, Fall Equinox-Second Harvest
Sources:
Animal-Speak, Ted Andrews, (Llewellyn Publications, 2002)
The Dictionary of Native American Mythology, Sam D. Gill & Irene F. Sullivan, (Oxford University Press, 1992)
The Druid Animal Oracle, Philip and Stephanie Carr-Gomm (A Fireside Book, 1994
The Food Book, James Trager, (Grossman Publishing, 1970)
Sacred Path Cards, Jamie Sams, (HarperSanFrancisco, 1990)
Spell Crafts, Scott Cunningham & David Harrington, (Llewellyn Publications, 1994)
