DATE: Thursday, November 27, 1997           TAG: 9711260004

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B12  EDITION: FINAL 

TYPE: Editorial 

                                            LENGTH:   51 lines

THANKSGIVING TODAY AND YESTERDAY: SHARING ABUNDANCEON THIS DAY OF CARING, CONGREGATIONS AND CHARITIES ARE SERVING FESTIVAL MEALS TO THOSE WHO WOULD OTHERWISE BE LEFT OUT

The ideal American Thanksgiving is the happy, abundant middle-class feast depicted memorably in a famous, cherished Norman Rockwell painting. On a Rockwellish Thanksgiving Day, families - three or four generations - assemble to celebrate and express gratitude for life's blessings. Among those at the table are the family patriarch, a golden roast turkey and holiness.

It's an image that can be traced to the Pilgrims in the Plymouth Colony at their first harvest festival in 1621, a happening memorialized by tradition as ``the first Thanksgiving.''

After arriving from Europe in November 1620, the Pilgrims - Puritans who fled to the New World to escape religious persecution and worship as they pleased - were quickly besieged by a savage New England winter. They were ill-prepared, as Gov. William Bradford (see below) recounted in his history of the colony. Half the Pilgrim band perished of starvation, disease, cold.

Salvation came in the form of the Massachusetts Indian Squanto, who taught the Pilgrim survivors of the first winter to fish and cultivate corn. The crop at the end of the summer was plentiful.

The Pilgrims brought geese, ducks and fish to the table for the three days of feasting after the harvest was in. The Indians brought wild turkeys and venison.

That tale is a reminder that there's more to Thanksgiving than celebrating abundance with those near and dear. The holiday is also about sharing with those less fortunate, a custom that also dates to the events of 1621.

Not everyone is with family on Thanksgiving Day. Many families' members are scattered far and wide. Some are estranged from parents, siblings or other kin. Many are unable to get home. Some are on or under the sea or in distant lands. Many Americans are in nursing homes, hospitals, jails and prisons. And not everyone has a home.

Because the season prompts generosity and because it seems wrong when so many have so much that any should go Thanksgivingless, turkey dinners with all the trimmings are being served today by congregations and charities to people for whom today would otherwise be but another cheerless block of time.

Impoverished men, women and children are being fed by people who care about the welfare of others. Thanks to donations from the community, the Union Mission in Norfolk is serving a festive meal to the down and out. So, too, is the Salvation Army. Jaycees are delivering Thanksgiving baskets. Christ & St. Luke's in Norfolk, like many other churches within the region, is welcoming families and individuals to its Thanksgiving table. Food that decorates altars will be distributed to the needy as services end.

Have a happy Thanksgiving, Hampton Roads. And count among our blessings the spirit that inspires so many to strive to bring everyone to the table.

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