Thanksgiving: A Pagan Celebration in Disguise

Thanksgiving is often associated with a celebration of gratitude and a time to come together with friends and family to enjoy a meal. However, its roots can be traced back to various pagan festivals and cultural traditions. One of the earliest predecessors of Thanksgiving can be found in ancient Greek and Roman harvest festivals. These events were held to give thanks to the gods for a bountiful harvest and often included feasting, music, and dancing. Similarly, many pagan cultures throughout Europe celebrated harvest festivals to honor their deities and show appreciation for the abundance of food and resources. In the British Isles, the festival of Samhain marked the end of the harvest season and the beginning of winter.

In the British Isles, the festival of Samhain marked the end of the harvest season and the beginning of winter. It was a time to give thanks for a successful harvest and to prepare for the colder months ahead. The Celts would gather around bonfires, offer sacrifices to their gods, and share a communal feast.

Why we should not celebrate Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving Day is generally taught as an acceptable holiday to celebrate in the larger congregations of God. But this acceptance is based primarily on the belief that the Pilgrims created Thanksgiving. But the origins of Thanksgiving are a combination of superstition, myths and false Christianity, similar to Christmas, Easter, Halloween.

Summary of this paper

1. Thanksgiving was not started by the Pilgrims, this is now a well known fact, and is widely reported by historians as a myth
2. Two separate thanksgiving celebrations were brought to America, one a religious event, the other was a harvest festival
3. The harvest festival was a pagan celebration, the religious thanksgiving was from the Church of England
4. The King of England proclaimed days of thanksgiving during the American colonial period, without the influence of Pilgrims or Puritans
5. In the 1800s Sarah Hale marketed the idea of a universal national American thanksgiving holiday that combined the religious thanksgivings with the harvest festival thanksgivings
6. Sarah Hale specifically and repeatedly stated that she intended to combine God's harvest festivals with Thanksgiving Day
7. The cornucopia is a Greek & Roman religious symbol that can be traced back directly to the time of Jesus and further into the past
8. Removing the pagan elements does not change the pagan origins of any holiday
9. Our current justifications for observing Thanksgiving Day are based on misinformation and myths

The Samhain festival also had spiritual and supernatural elements, believing that the veil between the living and the spirit world was thinnest during this time. Another influence on Thanksgiving can be found in the traditions of ancient Norse cultures. The Norse people celebrated a festival known as "Harvest Home" or "Winter Nights." This festival was held to honor the Norse gods, particularly Odin, and to give thanks for the harvest. It involved feasting, drinking, and the lighting of bonfires to ward off spirits. When Europeans began to settle in North America, they brought their own cultural traditions and religious practices with them. In the early 17th century, English settlers held celebrations known as "harvest festivals" or "thanksgivings." These events were not specifically religious in nature but served as an occasion to give thanks for a successful harvest and to enjoy the fruits of their labor. Over time, these harvest celebrations merged with other cultural influences, including Native American traditions. The famous "First Thanksgiving" at Plymouth Colony in 1621 is a prime example of the blending of these different cultural practices. The Pilgrims joined with the Wampanoag tribe to celebrate and give thanks for the successful harvest. In 1863, President Abraham Lincoln proclaimed Thanksgiving a national holiday, solidifying the modern-day observance. Today, Thanksgiving is widely recognized as a time for gratitude and togetherness, but its pagan origins and multicultural influences remind us of the diverse traditions that have shaped this holiday..

Reviews for "The Pagan Connection: Thanksgiving and Ancient Harvest Festivals"

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The Pagan Origins of Thanksgiving: A Reminder of Earth's Bounty