The 'thanks' heard 'round the world

You may think that we’re the only country who celebrates the end of harvest with jelly in a can and an oversized bird. We probably are. But the history of our annual holiday spans thousands of years—as long as humans have been cultivating the land.

Early records of harvest festivals come from all over the world: Greece, Italy, China, Africa, the Middle East, and the Americas. While they all had different gods and different cultures, every ancient race celebrated the culmination of a good harvest.

In Greece and Rome, festivals lasted for the better part of summer and fall to honor their separate versions of the goddesses of growth and life: Demeter / Cerelia. Throughout the warm seasons, parades and feasts were common along with music, games and sports.

The Egyptians celebrated their harvest during the spring (the end of their growing season) to honor Min, the god of vegetation and fertility. Egyptian farmers harvested the corn while pretending to be grief-stricken, in order to trick the spirits into allowing them to reap the plants. To celebrate the end of the “sadness,” a weeklong festival was held with parades, games, and feasting.

Further to the East, the Hebrew holiday Sukkot is celebrated for 8 days, during which huts are built and filled with fruits and vegetables. The huts pay homage to those that Moses and the Israelites lived in while they wandered the desert.

Since all of the original cultures celebrated some version of a harvest festival, the tradition carried on into modern times to every part of the world. Many festivals today, like those in Asia, have remained the same for thousands of years. The Asian festival of Chung Ch’ui doubles as a harvest festival and as a birthday for the moon. The three-day moon celebration is marked by feasting and spending time with family, and many people hike hills and mountains to get a good view of the moon.

While the original purpose for the festival has faded, many thanksgivings are still strongly religious. The English thanksgiving is based on the ancient Celtic festival Lughnasadh and morphed into a Christian celebration during the middle ages, when bread and other harvest items were donated to the Church. Other religious thanksgivings take place in Africa, where the Festival of Yams is common, and in India. India, like Egypt, has harvest festivals in the spring, with different regions honoring different harvests. The five-day festival includes flowers, games, bonfires, and throwing colored powder at others.

Austria, Portugal and Argentina all hold major festivals to celebrate wine season.

More secular harvest festivals take place in the Caribbean islands with Crop Over, which spans three weeks of feasting and entertainment to celebrate the sugar cane harvest. In Korea, Chu Suk is celebrated as a mark of respect for elders. The festival is a time of feasting, happiness, and being with family. Physical activities like wrestling, dancing, singing, and archery are very popular.

And, of course, there’s our own secular Thanksgiving. Although we’ve all watched the documentaries tons of times and know the history of the day, it’s worth noting that ours wasn’t a national holiday until 1863.

So when you’re sitting down to eat your pie on Thursday, remember to take a moment and throw a silent “thank you” to the god of your choosing. If you don’t, the pumpkin shortage may be even worse next year.

Next time: There’s still time to book a ticket to these beautiful, and traditional, Christmas wonderlands.

Julianna Satterly is a Coeur d’Alene Charter Academy graduate who worked as the Editor in Chief of her college newspaper at Washington and Lee University for 3 years. She’s lived in 3 states, visited 28 others, and has toured 13 countries. Contact her at juliannasatterly@gmail.com, or on Facebook or Twitter @jsattz.