Thanksgiving

Today’s Thanksgiving feast has its origins in an English Reformation tradition carried on by the pilgrims who arrived at Plymouth in1620. In an affront to the Catholic liturgical calendar, Puritans celebrated days of fasting and days of feasting—notably the day of feasting at the end of the fall harvest—in gratitude for God’s provision. In an age where consumption of food is often far removed from fields where it is produced, a growing number of evangelicals have reinterpreted the holiday as a time not only to thank God for abundance, but to examine where abundance comes from and the ethics of food, hunger, and environment.

Featured Articles

This Thanksgiving, Stop Idolizing the Pilgrims
This Thanksgiving, Stop Idolizing the Pilgrims
An evangelical historian teaches us how to think critically about the heroes of our past.
Eat, Drink, and Relax
Eat, Drink, and Relax
Think the Pilgrims would frown on today's football-tossing, turkey-gobbling Thanksgiving festivities? Maybe not.
The Impossibility of Thanksgiving
The Impossibility of Thanksgiving
Why gratefulness is more gift than duty.
Thanksgiving at Fair Acres
Thanksgiving at Fair Acres
A meal with my mother and other nursing-home residents opened a small crack in their stony detachment, and gave a brief glimpse of the kingdom of heaven.