Thanking
God for a bountiful harvest is not unknown in other parts of the world.
Apart from America, there are a number of religions and countries that
celebrate Thanksgiving Day in their own various forms during the harvest
season. The festivals are dedicated to thank the Lord for his blessings
and the abundance and prosperity that he bestowed upon us are their
underlying themes. We discuss here some of the similar festivals from
ancient Greece, Rome, China and Egypt and all the other places:In Ancient Greece:
An autumn festival held for three days known as Thesmosphoria was celebrated by the Greeks to honor Goddess Demeter, the deity of food grains. The interesting festival was related with fertility and thus, fertile married women used to build a home for the Goddess to stay on the first day and equipped it with all the comforts. They purified their souls and body on the second day by keeping a fast in her honor and then prepared a grand feast on the third day. Since, it came around harvest season, the specialties of the table included first fruits of the season, plump pigs, seed corn delicacies and yummy cakes.
In Rome:
The Roman festival known as Cerelia was celebrated annually on the 4th of October to honor Ceres, the Goddess of Corn and the offerings made to her included first fruits of the harvest and pigs. Other highlights of its celebration was a grand feast, music, parades, games and sports.
In China:
The festival similar to the Thanksgiving Day in China is known as 'Chung Ch'ui.' It is a three-day long harvest festival celebrated on the full moon day of the 8th Chinese month and was believed to be the birthday of the moon. The specialty of the festival was its round and yellow 'moon cakes' with an image of rabbit on them. Their feast featured roasted pigs and first fruits of the harvest. A legend says that anyone who sees flowers falling from the moon on this day is blessed with a good fortune. An interesting anecdote to these moon cakes narrates that at the times when Chinese were surrounded by enemies, their women used these moon cakes to deliver secret messages in the name of their rituals and thus, helped the men to win back their liberty.
Sukkoth:
The harvest festival of Jews is known as 'Sukkoth.' For more than 3000 years, the autumn festival also known by the names of 'Hag ha Succot' or 'The Feast of the Tabernacles' and 'Hag ha Asif' or 'The Feast of Ingathering.' This eight-day long festival is to remind the people of the hardships and sufferings of Moses and his follower Israelites while they were wandering in the desert for forty years. Succots were actually the makeshift huts or tents used by them that were built up of branches resembling the tabernacles of their ancestors. They used to hang fruits from the roof of these huts such as apples, grapes, corn, and pomegranates.
In Egypt:
The Spring harvest festival of Egypt was dedicated to Min, the deity of vegetation and fertility. Its highlights were a parade headed by the Pharaoh, a gala feast, music, dance and sports. The most interesting and unique feature of the festival was the mass grief, weeping and howling by the farmers to trick the spirit of corn into thinking that they were grieved to cut the corn and thus, prevent it from taking revenge.
Thanksgiving In Canada:
Canadians celebrate Thanksgiving Day similar to their neighboring Americans on the second Monday of October since 1879. In 2007 Thanksgiving Day in Canada will be celebrated on 10th of October.