Today, people across the United States are celebrating Thanksgiving, a day that conjures up images of turkeys, feasting, football and family celebrations. However when you look back as to why Thanksgiving came about, its original meaning is actually quite different and in my opinion its basis is even more beautiful. It holds at its core the same values of community that lie at the heart of Londolozi’s story too, which is why we’ve chosen to hop on this holiday bandwagon.
The very first Thanksgiving Day can be traced all the way back to 1621. Following the Mayflower’s arrival at Plymouth Rock in December 1620, the Pilgrims (religious refugees from England) suffered the severe loss of half of their original 102 colonists when their harvests failed. Their fortune was turned only with the grace of the local Wampanoag tribe, who taught the pilgrims how to grow corn, beans and squash; catch fish, and collect seafood and as a result the colonists survived the bitter winter and thrived in the harvest the following year. In celebration and as an act of appreciation, a three day long traditional English harvest festival was created. It brought these disparate groups together in a moment of united thanksgiving.
Since its conception, the meaning of Thanksgiving has undergone numerous transitions and today is more centred around the secular meanings of connection and gratitude. David Whyte, Irish poet and philosopher, explains gratitude as “seeing to the heart of privilege” and “the understanding that many millions of things come together and live together and mesh together and breathe together in order for us to take even one more breath of air, that the underlying gift of life and incarnation as a living, participating human being is a privilege; that we are miraculously, part of something, rather than nothing.”
So for Thanksgiving, we cast our eyes back over many years of cross-cultural and cross-generational friendships and show gratitude for where it is that we find ourselves today. Although this day and date are an official marker on which to celebrate these ideals, the true cause for giving thanks is the fact that this gratitude is lived and breathed daily at Londolozi.
Very nice, indeed. From thousands of miles/kilometers away, Happy Thanksgiving to the Londolozi family.
Love the photos and the commentary.
Lovely post, Amy. A welcome reminder of why the holiday is important and what needs to be lived every day. Londolozi’s philosophy is an example to us all.