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:
Thanksgiving in Canada is celebrated on the second Monday in October every year and Canadians give thanks at the close of the harvest season. Thanksgiving in Canada will occur on October 12 in 2009.
