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An American Thanksgiving Ceremony

By Theresa Camoriano

It has become very clear that we have failed to teach our children the lessons of America’s history.  Below is a ceremony to help us pass the lessons of our early history on to our children and grandchildren, and, I hope, to future generations as well.  This ceremony is intended to take place before the traditional family Thanksgiving feast but may be used in schools or other settings.  I hope you will make this a part of your family’s tradition and will spread the word and encourage others to adopt it too.  You have permission to reproduce this script and to modify it to suit your needs.  I would appreciate your letting me know what changes you have made or otherwise sending me comments to improve the script for the future.  Please send your comments to Editor@JeffersonReview.com.

In addition to following the script, you may want to have children act out more of the parts, maybe walking hunched over to get onto the ship with the low ceilings, or pretending to shoot deer and turkeys or to haul nets of fish, and so forth, in order to keep them involved and interested in the story.

The following supplies are needed:

1.     A pan of cornbread cut into one-inch squares

2.     Dried kernels of corn, divided into unequal numbers, into small paper or cloth bags, one bag for each participant.  Some bags should have only one or two kernels, while others should have five, others ten, and so forth.  (Dried corn kernels may be obtained at a feed store, or popcorn may be used.)

3.     Some cut up vegetables for dipping, such as carrot sticks or celery sticks, and two different dips – one vinegar and one salt water.

4.     A whistle

5.     A bell

6.     Candles for the table

7.     Pens for signing the Mayflower Compact  (You may want to buy feathers at a craft store and inexpensive pen refills and insert the pen refills into the feather shafts to make a sort of quill pen.)

The leader lights the candles on the table and says:

            We are gathering together today to celebrate the real American Thanksgiving!

Participants gather around the table and begin following this script: 

1^st participant:       Who were the Pilgrims who celebrated the first Thanksgiving? 

Next participant:  The Pilgrims were mainly extremely religious Christian families who had rejected the official religion of England and decided to practice their own version of Christianity.  That was against the law, and many of the Pilgrims had been punished and even imprisoned for their religious beliefs.  Some members of their group even were killed.  Let’s dip a vegetable stick into vinegar and eat it.  The sour taste will remind us of the difficult experiences the Pilgrims had in England. 

Action:          Everyone takes a vegetable stick, dips it into the vinegar, and eats it.  (Alternative:  Instead of dipping a vegetable into vinegar, you might use unsweetened chocolate or orange rind to experience a bitter taste and change the text to “bitter” instead of “sour”.)

Next participant:  The Pilgrims decided to go to America and establish a new settlement where they could be free to practice their religion in peace.  In August, 1620, they boarded two ships to begin their voyage.  The ships were called the Speedwell and the Mayflower.  Unfortunately, they had many problems.  They spent more than one month trying to repair their ships and to resolve disputes with the investors who were financing the trip.  The investors planned to make a profit from the furs and dried fish the Pilgrims would send back to them. 

Next Participant:  Eventually, the Pilgrims decided that the Speedwell was not fit for the trip.  Some of the Pilgrims gave up and went back home, while others piled into the Mayflower with their supplies.  On September 6, 1620, 102 pilgrims left Plymouth, England for America aboard the Mayflower.  They already were tired after having spent a month on the ship.  In the “tween decks”, which is the part of the ship where they lived, the ceiling was only five feet above the floor, so many of the adults, and even some of the children, could not stand up straight there.  It also was dark and damp and smelly.  They already had used up much of their food, but still they hoped for a safe voyage and looked forward to a better life in America.  Action:  The participant blows the whistle and calls, “All aboard the Mayflower! Next stop America!”

Next participant:  The voyage across the Atlantic Ocean to America was very difficult.  It took over two months from the time the Pilgrims left Plymouth, England on September 6 until they saw land at Cape Cod on November 9, 1620.  Along the way, there were strong storms that damaged the ship.  A main beam broke.  The Pilgrims repaired it, but still the Mayflower leaked, so they were cold and damp and miserable and developed coughs and colds.  But there also was some good news.  A baby boy was born on the trip, and his parents named him Oceanus.

Let’s dip a vegetable stick into salt water and eat it to remember the tears of the Pilgrims as they left their friends and family behind in Europe and to remember the salty ocean water on which they sailed to America.

Action:                      Everyone takes a vegetable stick, dips it into the salt water, and eats it.

Next participant:  The Pilgrims had planned to land in the Hudson Bay area, which was in the northern part of the Virginia territory, but instead they landed in New England, which was farther north.  Since there was no official government or law that applied to them in New England, they decided to create their own government by writing the Mayflower Compact, which was signed by the men on behalf of themselves and their families before they set foot on the land.  They also elected their first Governor.  Please read the Mayflower Compact and add your own signature.

IN THE NAME OF GOD, AMEN. We, whose names are underwritten, the Loyal Subjects of our dread Sovereign Lord King James, by the Grace of God, of Great Britain, France, and Ireland, King, Defender of the Faith, &c. Having undertaken for the Glory of God, and Advancement of the Christian Faith, and the Honour of our King and Country, a Voyage to plant the first Colony in the northern Parts of Virginia; Do by these Presents, solemnly and mutually, in the Presence of God and one another, covenant and combine ourselves together into a civil Body Politick, for our better Ordering and Preservation, and Furtherance of the Ends aforesaid: And by Virtue hereof do enact, constitute, and frame, such just and equal Laws, Ordinances, Acts, Constitutions, and Officers, from time to time, as shall be thought most meet and convenient for the general Good of the Colony; unto which we promise all due Submission and Obedience. IN WITNESS whereof we have hereunto subscribed our names at Cape-Cod the eleventh of November, in the Reign of our Sovereign Lord King James, of England, France, and Ireland, the eighteenth, and of Scotland the fifty-fourth, Anno Domini; 1620.

Mr. John Carver                      Mr. William Bradford             Mr Edward Winslow 

Mr. William Brewster             Isaac Allerton                          Myles Standish

John Alden                              John Turner                             Francis Eaton

James Chilton                          John Craxton                           John Billington
Joses Fletcher                          John Goodman                        Mr. Samuel Fuller      

Mr. Christopher Martin           Mr. William Mullins                Mr. William White

Mr. Richard Warren                John Howland                         Mr. Steven Hopkins   

Digery Priest                           Thomas Williams                     Gilbert Winslow

Edmund Margesson                Peter Brown                            Richard Britteridge    

George Soule                          Edward Tilly                           John Tilly       

Francis Cooke                         Thomas Rogers                       Thomas Tinker

John Ridgdale                                     Edward Fuller                                     Richard Clark
Richard Gardiner                    Mr. John Allerton                    Thomas English          

Edward Doten                                    Edward Liester.

Add Your Signature                                                                      

Below is a copy of the text of the Mayflower Compact that Governor Bradford wrote in his diary.  The original Mayflower Compact has been lost.

Next Participant:  The Pilgrims continued to live in the cramped, dark, and damp Mayflower as they sent out small groups of men to explore the Cape Cod area.  Their food supply was low.  It was too late to plant any crops, and the winter was very cold and difficult.  Although they began building shelters on land on Christmas day, and they were able to hunt wild game during the winter, by the next spring, half of the Mayflower Pilgrims had died.  I will ring this bell five times, once for every ten people who died.  Action:  Ring the bell five times.

Next Participant:  The next spring (1621), they were able to plant crops.  The Indians taught them how to grow corn.  They also planted beans, squash, and other crops and hunted and fished.  The Pilgrims had a communal arrangement by which they all worked, and everything they produced went into a common storehouse and was shared equally by everyone.  Governor Bradford wrote:  They began now to gather in the small harvest they had, and to fit up their houses and dwellings against winter.

            Now open your bags and count out your kernels of corn to see how much your Pilgrim produced in the first harvest.  Each kernel of corn in your bag represents a bushel basket full of corn.

Action:          Each participant counts out his kernels of corn.  The leader goes to each person and asks how many bushels of corn that person produced.  He then takes the corn, saying, “Thank you for your        (insert the number)           bushels of corn”, and hands the person his equally small-sized piece of cornbread, saying, “Here is your cornbread ration for today.  We hope, if we are careful, we will have enough food to last the winter.”   

Next Participant:  No matter how much food a Pilgrim produced, he received the same amount as everyone else.  The Pilgrims were thankful to God for the harvest, and they invited their Indian friends to a Thanksgiving celebration.  Let’s eat our cornbread in memory of the Pilgrims’ first harvest.

Action:          Everyone eats the small piece of cornbread.

Next Participant:  Shortly after the harvest, another ship, the Fortune, arrived with 37 passengers, which nearly doubled the size of the colony.  The Fortune did not bring food, so now they had to feed almost twice as many people with the same small amount of food.   They knew they would be going hungry that winter.  The Pilgrims loaded the Fortune with beaver skins, sassafras, and oak boards and sent them back to England to help pay off their debt to the investors. 

Next Participant:  Unfortunately, the next year’s harvest also was not very good, so the winter of 1622 also was difficult.  Governor Bradford worried how they would be able to grow enough food to keep everyone alive in the future. He found that the communal arrangement they were using did not work very well.  People were unhappy to receive the same amount of food, no matter how much they produced.  It did not make them want to work very hard.  

Next Participant:  Governor Bradford wrote in his diary: For the young men, that were most able and fit for labor and service, did repine that they should spend their time and strength to work for other men's wives and children without any recompense. The strong, or man of parts, had no more in division of victuals and clothes than he that was weak and not able to do a quarter the other could; this was thought injustice. The aged and graver men to be ranked and equalized in labors and victuals, clothes etc., with the meaner and younger sort, thought it some indignity and disrespect unto them. And for men's wives to be commanded to do service for other men, as dressing their meat, washing their clothes, etc., they deemed it a kind of slavery, neither could many husbands well brook it. Upon the point all being to have alike, and all to do alike, they thought themselves in the like condition, and one as good as another; and so, if it did not cut off those relations that God hath set amongst men, yet it did at least much diminish and take off the mutual respects that should be preserved amongst them.

Next Participant:  After two disappointing harvests and three winters of hunger, they finally decided to establish a private property system, giving each family one acre of land per person on which to grow food, and respecting each family’s right to keep the fruits of its own labor.  This made everyone much happier and more productive. 

Next Participant:  Governor Bradford wrote in his diary: So they began to think how they might raise as much corn as they could, and obtain a better crop than they had done, that they might not still thus languish in misery. At length, after much debate of things, the Governor (with the advice of the chiefest amongst them) gave way that they should set corn every man for his own particular, and in that regard trust to themselves; in all other things to go on in the general way as before. And so assigned to every family a parcel of land, according to the proportion of their number, … and ranged all boys and youth under some family. This had very good success, for it made all hands very industrious, so as much more corn was planted than otherwise would have been by any means the Governor or any other could use, and saved him a great deal of trouble, and gave far better content. The women now went willingly into the field, and took their little ones with them to set corn; which before would allege weakness and inability; whom to have compelled would have been thought great tyranny and oppression. The experience that was had in this common course and condition, tried sundry years and that amongst Godly and sober men, may well evince the vanity of that conceit of Plato's and other ancients applauded by some of later times, that the taking away of property and bringing in community into a commonwealth would make them happy and flourishing, as if they were wiser than God.”

Next Participant:  When the ship Anne arrived that summer (1623), bringing 60 more people into the colony, there was no worry about having enough food, and there continued to be plenty of food for everyone from that time on. 

Next Participant:  Since the time of the Pilgrims, we have mostly continued to respect individual liberty, private property, and the right of people to keep the fruits of their labor, because we know that, even though many years have passed and many things have changed, human nature has not changed.  As a result, we have continued to prosper and to have plenty of food for everyone.  Now, let’s give thanks for our own plentiful harvests and rededicate ourselves to carrying on the dreams and traditions of the Pilgrims.

Action:          Everyone sings:

My country ‘tis of thee,
Sweet land of liberty,
Of thee I sing.
Land where my fathers died!
Land of the Pilgrim's pride!
From every mountain side,
Let freedom ring!

Next Participant:  Happy Thanksgiving!  Let’s eat!

Action:          Have a feast!

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