Germantown High School - Record Yearbook (Philadelphia, PA)

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e , '39 '- .I , GJ ll Season of mists and mellow fruitfulnessl Close bosom friend of the maturing sun 3 Conspiring with him how to load and bless With fruit, the vines that round the thatch-eaves run, A is the despription that Iohn Keats gave of Autumn, that bounteous and beauti- ful time of year when we commemorate Thanksgiving. Our holiday was first celebrated in this country with a harvest festival which lasted a week. This first Thanks- giving was not a religious ceremony, and no services were held other than the morning prayers and Sabbath worship. There was given a great three-day feast of wild turkeys, geese, ducks and water fowl, of codtish, clams and oysters, of barley loaves and Cornbread, of salads, fruits and pastries. Then for fear there would not be enough, tive Indians were sent out and they brought back five deer. There were about a hundred and forty persons, including ninety braves of Massasoit's company, who all had their share of supplies brought to them by the girls whose duty it was to keep the plates filled to overflowing. Between these meals, contests and games such as pitching ye barren and Hstoole-ball were held, and a grand hunt of the four prime shots who received the honor from the governor himself. This harvest festival was an inspira- tion to the New World citizens, which reanimated their spirits, drooping from previous failures of crops and other hardships. When the holiday was over Gllfklllllili 4DllRM?fllllINll Ulf wmawkseivime NANCY REYNOLDS, Bk. 10 they were better and braver men for having turned aside from their labors to rest. However, the idea of a special day of thanks and feasting does not belong to America. This dates back to olden times in Greece, Rome and Early England. In Greece the harvest festival, called the Tlzewmaphoria, was the feast of Demeter, goddess of the soil and harvests, and was celebrated in Athens by the housewives only. The Grecians chose two noblewomen to perform the sacred rites and tq prepare the feast. On the first day of the feast, which sug- gests our Thanksgiving dinner, the women went in a colorful procession to the cliff of Colias where the temple of Demeter was, and celebrated their Thanksgiving for three days. Follow- ing this was a three-day feast in Athens, which started sadly at first, but generally ended in a perfect riot of mirth and danc- ing. The symbols of the fruitful goddess were poppies, corn, fruit and a pig, while the symbols for our Thanksgiving seem to be a turkey and pumpkin pie. In Rome the goddess of the harvest was Ceres, and her festival, which occurs yearly on October fourth, was called the Cerelia. The word cereals or grains is derived from this. The holiday began with a fast among the common people who gave an offering of a sow and the first of the harvest to the goddess, and followed this by fantastic parades around the fields and rustic sports. The cere- monies ended with the usual Thanks- giving feast. fCoutinued on page 485 elI21le

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