Gathering for Thanksgiving is a warm and joyful time for families and friends. Do you have any traditions for this day in which we give thanks? It is important to our family to remember why we celebrate, that Thanksgiving is not merely a day when we pile our plates full of food, but a celebration of the beginnings of our nation and how God has blessed it in so many ways!
Our Thanksgiving tradition is remembering the Five Kernels of Corn, calling to mind the very humble beginnings that the Pilgrims suffered through as they endured that first winter and spring on a meager ration of five kernels of Indian corn. How grateful those Pilgrims must have been to have made it through alive to the time of harvest. I can only imagine what a harvest celebration that must have been!
To commemorate our forefathers' humble beginnings in our nation's history, we place five kernels of dried corn at the each person's plate. The poem, "Five Kernels of Corn" by Hezekiah Butterworth is read aloud. The poem describes the tribulations of that first year in Plymouth, and the gratefulness for the mere five kernels of corn given to each person for their rations:
Five Kernels of Corn
by Hezekiah Butterworth
'Twas the year of the famine in Plymouth of old,
The ice and the snow from the thatched roofs had rolled;
Through the warm purple skies steered the geese o'er the seas,
And the woodpeckers tapped in the clocks of the trees;
And the boughs on the slopes to the south winds lay bare,
and dreaming of summer, the buds swelled in the air.
The pale Pilgrims welcomed each reddening morn;
There were left but for rations Five Kernels of Corn.
Five Kernels of Corn! Five Kernels of Corn!
But to Bradford a feast were Five Kernels of Corn!
"Five Kernels of Corn! Five Kernels of Corn!
Ye people, be glad for Five Kernels of Corn!"
So Bradford cried out on bleak Burial Hill,
And the thin women stood in their doors, white and still.
"Lo, the harbor of Plymouth rolls bright in the Spring,
The maples grow red, and the wood robins sing,
The west wind is blowing, and fading the snow,
And the pleasant pines sing, and arbutuses blow.
Five Kernels of Corn! Five Kernels of Corn!
To each one be given Five Kernels of Corn!"
O Bradford of Austerfi eld hast on thy way,
The west winds are blowing o'er Provincetown Bay,
The white avens bloom, but the pine domes are chill,
And new graves have furrowed Precisioners' Hill!
"Give thanks, all ye people, the warm skies have come,
The hilltops are sunny, and green grows the holm,
And the trumpets of winds, and the white March is gone,
Five Kernels of Corn! Five Kernels of Corn!
Ye have for Thanksgiving Five Kernels of Corn!
"The raven's gift eat and be humble and pray,
A new light is breaking and Truth leads your way;
One taper a thousand shall kindle; rejoice
That to you has been given the wilderness voice!"
O Bradford of Austerfi eld, daring the wave,
And safe through the sounding blasts leading the brave,
Of deeds such as thine was the free nation born,
And the festal world sings the "Five Kernels of Corn."
Five Kernels of Corn! Five Kernels of Corn!
The nation gives thanks for Five Kernels of Corn!
After the poem is read, we each take one kernel of corn and place it in the middle of the table, one at a time, and recall something we are thankful for. Memories and blessings abound as we all enjoy remembering how good the Lord has been!
I hope you'll create some traditions this Thanksgiving that will be meaningful to your family each and every year! I hope you'll share them with us by making a comment!
Copyright 2008 Domestic Legacies
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