[PraiseNews] Christian folklore

[Ministry]

versus the Truth given by the heavenly Father through His
WORD... and lived as an example by His Son...

I received this "folklore" about "The Blessings of
Thanksgiving" and despite years of teaching about the real
history of all these pagan (idolatrous and unrighteous) holy
days, people continue to CLING to their pagan holi days
rather than learning about and embracing the TRUE holy days
instituted by the Almighty and commanded as an observance by
Him IN HIS WORD!

He is not pleased nor does He approve of the practice of
pagan worship regardless of the INTENTIONS or sweet sounding
names attached to those idolatrous practices.  Those who
reject HIS holy days instead  accepting the world (and the
devil's) holi days will be in for a rude surprise one day,
soon coming.

============

Thanksgiving (day) relative to True Disciples of YHWH and
His Son, the Messiah, the Lamb, the soon coming King.

Before getting into the actual history of Thanksgiving,
which may shock and surprise, let us look at two arguments
for keeping it: 'I don't keep Thanksgiving Day as a holy
day. It's a national day of giving thanks for what God has
provided. It's not a holy day.'

Is this the response people also use for justifying
Christmas and Easter? Many who observe those pagan days do
not even think of them as pagan holy days. Is it right to
keep them? The Catholic Church expects all good Catholics to
be in church those days and Thanksgiving Day also. Most of
the Protestant churches keep the day as holy days also.
(Holy meaning 'set apart' and in this case, for religious
observance, by attending church.)

Just what is Thanksgiving Day? The Church proclaims it a
holiday (holy day), for the purpose of giving thanks to God
for the many blessings we have received, especially
agriculturally. Quoting a 6 year old, after hearing the last
line, he said, 'That's what we do for the seven days of
Sucote (Feast of Tabernacles).' Out of the mouth of babes...

The common lie believed and spread amongst those calling
themselves Christian is Thanksgiving Day is an American
holiday and therefore is not pagan. We are at free to keep
it, and surely "God" will appreciate it.'

Why do we need another fall harvest Festival?! God has given
us Sucote (Lev. 23:33-44). It is obvious from the Scriptures
that His people are to keep (observe) Sucote, and then to
keep only 30 or so days later; another "harvest day of
thanks to God" is not only repetitious but very strange.
Thanksgiving Day is an outright copy of Sucote. The
Counterfeiter has struck again! Did you ever wonder why the
majority of God's People don't keep the days He has
designated as holy? The majority are deceived by Satan. The
majority also keep Thanksgiving Day. For those of us whom He
has called out of Babylon, this ought to be cause for
concern.

We are warned to not be like the pagans and heathens, to
not worship Him like they do (Deuteronomy 12:28-32).
Pagan people set up their own or have their own 'holy days.'
Never forget that fact.

Most history books would like to convince us that
Thanksgiving Day goes back to only Plymouth Rock in the
1600's. Plymouth Rock was not the first Thanksgiving Day
though. (Ever wonder why Canada has a Thanksgiving Day
also?) This pagan feast, honoring the agricultural gods,
goes back thousands of years, in one form or another.

'Thanksgiving Day, in the United States and Canada, a day
set apart for the giving of thanks to God for the blessings
of the year. Originally, it was a harvest thanksgiving, and
while the purpose has become less specific, the festival
still takes place late in autumn, after the crops have been
gathered.' Indeed, it is probably an outgrowth of the
Harvest-Home celebrations in England. Such celebrations are
of very ancient origin, being nearly universal among
primitive peoples.'1

For those of us who keep YaHWeH's set apart days, found in
Leviticus 23, consider: 'The Church' (read Catholic here}
proclaims thanksgiving a holiday (holy day), for the purpose
of giving thanks for the many blessings we have received.
For those whom He has called out of Babylon, this ought to
be serious cause for concern.

'The first Thanksgiving in the New World' (notice the
wording, not the first, but just the first in the New
World), 'however, was not merely a feast, there were prayers
and sermons and songs of praise; and three days had gone by
before the Indians returned to their forest and the
colonists to their tasks.'2

'In 1789...the Protestant Episcopal Church in America
announced the first Thursday in November as a regular annual
day for giving thanks.'3

'It was not until 1888 however, that the Roman Catholic
Church formally recognized the day.'4

Throughout the country, 'but especially in New England,
where the custom originated, the day is looked upon with
great reverence.'5 (This sounds like a holy day, or a day
set apart, to me. This is what happens on Christmas and
Easter.)

'Thanksgiving Day in Canada. The Dominion too, has an annual
Thanksgiving Day, which is celebrated in much the same way,
with family reunions and religious services.'6 (Note well:
'religious services.')

Where do the Scriptures tell us to celebrate it? (NOWHERE)

'When the corn crop was gathered in the fall of 1621,
Governor Bradford decreed a day of Thanksgiving.'8 (Please
note well the crop: corn. This will be important later in
the paper.)

'Thanksgiving is a day to give thanks for the harvest and
for other blessing of the past year...Gov. Bradford of
Plymouth Colony ordered the day for feasting and thanks.'9

'Although we have nationalized Thanksgiving, celebrations
were held in ancient times to give thanks for the bountiful
harvest. The Greeks honored Demeter, the goddess of
agriculture, with a 9 day celebration; the Romans honored
Ceres, Anglo-Saxons rejoiced with a feast to celebrate the
reaping of the harvest; and the Jews have given thanks for
the bountiful harvest with their 8 day Feast of
Tabernacles.'10

'Thanksgiving is a sports holiday...It is a religious
holiday (welcomes the Christmas season), as well as a civil
holiday (most offices and shops are closed).'11

The writer called it a 'religious holiday.' Why are God's
People keeping this day? Let us pull away and ask for His
Forgiveness, for walking in a pagan day of giving thanks
that Satan has set up.

'Thanksgiving is...a giving of thanks for divine bounty.
Churches of all denominations are open for services on this
particular Thursday every year...Quite as important as
worship on this day is the renewal of family ties.'12

'Pilgrims and Indians, turkey and pumpkin pie are so much a
part of the American tradition that it is hard for us to
realize that the beginnings of Thanksgiving go back not only
to the Old World but to the early world. The Pilgrims
frowned on all the holidays of merry England and refused to
celebrate even Christmas because they knew of its pagan
origins.'13

'In proclaiming a day of Thanksgiving after the crops were
gathered and before winter set in, they may have taken a
hint from the Old Testament, but they certainly did not know
that they were acting in a tradition which went back to the
time when men first began to sow and reap. Long before the
dwellers by the Nile learned to measure the year, or dreamed
of building pyramids, all people who grew grain gave thanks
at harvest time to the beings who had given them their daily
bread for the hard winter months. Moreover, these ancient
farmers sensed in the changing seasons and in the cycle of
seed to plant to seed again, the miracle of death and
resurrection and turned their wonder at it into legends.'14

'The Old Testament includes many references to harvest
festivals...It is recorded that Moses gave instructions to
the Hebrews for the celebrations of their harvest festival,
which was called the Feast of Tabernacles.'15

Yeshua (Jesus), observed Sucote (Tabernacles), every year of
His life.16 And with good reason, for He gave it to His
People Israel as a reminder of the food He provided for
Israel in the Wilderness, the present harvest, and the
spiritual Harvest to come, when God would feed His People
from His Son.

'Even before biblical times the ancient people of the
Mediterranean Basin held festivals at harvest time in honor
of the earth mother. The goddess of the corn ('corn' being
the European term for any grain; Indian corn (American
corn), is called maize), was always one of the most
important deities in the hierarchy of the gods, and her
child was the young god of vegetation.'17

'The ancient Semites called the earth mother Astarte...The
Phrygians called her Semele...The Minoans had an earth
mother for each district. All these local deities were
absorbed by the Greeks into the one great goddess,
Demeter.'18

'Besides eating, feasting, etc. the married women practiced
special rites. Under the cover of night, the women spent the
next day bathing nude in the sea and dancing and playing
games on the shore. Then they fasted, sang songs, then
feasted, sang, and had general gaiety. All this lasted over
a period of several days.'19

'The Roman harvest festival...was called the Cerelia, after
Ceres, the Roman goddess of the corn.'20

'With the acceptance of Christianity as the official
religion of Rome and the conversion of the barbarians who
had invaded the crumbling Empire, these pagan rituals were
frowned upon and even forbidden by law. However, the
peasants clung to them with a tenacity which has made the
word 'pagan' (originally meaning simply 'a villager'), a
synonym for 'heathen.' As late as the sixth century ... St.
Benedict ... found the local peasantry worshiping Apollo in
a sacred grove. Even after conversion, old habits and
beliefs died hard, and the church was too busy trying to
keep the flame of civilization alive to trouble with minor
heresies.'21

'The benevolent earth mother ... blended with the equally
benevolent mother of Christ. Folk memory of local deities
fused with the Christian tales of saints to provide patrons
for villages, and the white robed goddess of grain lived on
in various guises. To those who live close to the soil, the
harvest has an emotional and religious significance ...
their gratitude finds expression in rites in honor of the
being who they feel is most closely related to fruitfulness;
a being of warm earth, rather then cold heaven.'22

'Even today a half pagan belief in the corn mother still
survives among the peasant's in many parts of Europe.'23

'The Pilgrims undoubtedly brought memories of such English
harvest home celebrations with them when they came to the
new world. They had also witnessed 'thanksgiving' ceremonies
during their sojourn in Holland ... The Pilgrims themselves
would have denied that the Thanksgiving feast in honor of
their first harvest in 1621 was evoked by memories of the
profane practices of the old world; however, all
revolutionaries, political or religious, once their goal is
accomplished, turn back to the patterns of the society in
which they have been reared, and the Pilgrims, at the time
of the first Thanksgiving, were no exception.'24

Abraham Lincoln declared on Oct. 3, 1863, after Thanksgiving
had become a national holiday, that all in the United States
should 'set apart' and observe the last Thursday of November
as a day of Thanksgiving and praise to our beneficent Father
who dwelleth in the Heavens.'25

'The day is fixed by proclamation of the president. It is an
annual festival of thanks for the mercies of the closing
year, celebrated by prayers and feasting.'26

'The earliest harvest Thanksgiving in this country was held
by the Pilgrim fathers at Plymouth Colony in 1621. But long
before the Pilgrims held their first Thanksgiving dinner,
harvest festivals were observed in this country. Among the
North Dakota tribes, the corn spirit was known as the 'old
woman who never dies.'27

'In Peru, the ancient Indians worshiped the 'Mother of
Maize' and tried every year to persuade her to bring in
another good harvest. In Europe, the Austrians also had a
'Corn Mother' doll, fashioned from the last sheaf of grain
cut in the field and then brought home to the village in the
last wagon.'28 (God uses the first sheaf to dedicate the
forthcoming crop, which Satan draws attention to the last
sheaf for next year's crop! (Lev.23:5-12) And Yeshua is said
to be the First Fruits or First Sheaf of the Resurrection
from the dead (1st Corin. 15:20: 'But now Christ has been
raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who are
asleep.').

'In Upper Burma, the friends of the household are invited to
the barn for a feast when the rice has been piled in the
husks on the threshing floor. After a prayer to the 'father
and mother' for a good harvest next year, 'then, much as we
do, the entire party celebrates this year's harvest with a
feast.'29

A substantial portion of our ancestors came from England in
1621. Looking into English history we can determine why they
celebrated this feast. 'Thanksgiving for the harvest is one
of the oldest and the most joyous festivals that man has
created.'30

'Most of the pagan customs that gathered round the harvest
season have either disappeared or have sunk under the weight
of Christian disapproval and have radically changed. Today,
the climax of the season is the picturesque but genteel
harvest festival celebrated in churches.'31

'However innocuous harvest rites are today, they are a relic
of the great drama of the season when the fruits of the
earth were collected and the means of life ensured for
another year, and the thankfulness had a hidden stratum of
cruelty.'32

'The leading role in the drama was taken by Ceres, the Roman
Corn Goddess. In Britain she was later known by several
names: the Maiden, the Harvest Queen, the Kern or Corn Baby,
the Kern Doll, the Ivy Girl, the Neck and the Mare.
Sometimes she was simply the stalks of corn and sometimes
she was represented by a sheaf dressed in many colored
clothes which were decorated with flowing ribbons and the
finest lace. Whatever her form, she dominated the banquets,
harvest suppers, and merry making of early times.33
(Remember the wicker horn baskets holding vegetables,
fruits, etc.?)

'The Kern Baby' an image, 'was made either from the last of
the corn left standing ... or from the biggest and ripest
ears to be found in the fields. The spirit herself dwelt in
the corn, and mere mortals shirked the responsibility of
cutting her down. So, often the act was left to chance. All
those present, threw their sickles at the lone sheaf from a
respectable distance and thus no one could be said to have
deliberately performed the act. In the depths of folk
memory, there was still the awareness of the death and
resurrection cycle. The vegetation deity of the remote past
needed to be propitiated by a human sacrifice.'34

'When the feast was over, the Kern Baby was taken to the
farm house and kept there until the next harvest supper. The
symbol of the previous years' harvest was ceremoniously
burned in the farm yard.'35

'The Kern Baby is by no means extinct, and can be seen in
some churches as part of the harvest festival decorations,
though she has been divested of her diving powers. At Little
Walthem in Essex and Whalton in North Umberland for example,
Kern Babies are attached to one of the pews, 'the custom of
crying the neck,' once prevalent in the west of England, is
still observed here and there, though now it is incorporated
in the harvest festival held in the church. The origin of
the word 'Neck' or 'Nack' is obscure. It may come from an
old Norse word for sheaf or corn or it may have a connection
with 'Nix', a water spirit that is supposed to be from where
we get Old Nick, one of the Devil's names.'36

'Crying the neck: while the laborers were reaping the last
field of wheat, one of them went to each group of sheaves
and selected the best of the ears, which he then tied up
neatly, 'plaiting and arranging the straws most tastefully.'
When the laborer's work was done and the last of the wheat
cut, the entire company of reapers, binders and gleaners
would from a circle round the man with the neck. He then
stooped down, grasped the neck with both hands and held it
near to the earth. The people surrounding him removed their
hats and held them downwards too, a gesture of homage to the
soil which had nurtured the crops.'37

'Most countries had their own special way of celebrating the
'ingathering' but they all sprang from the same
pre-Christian impulse, the act of sacrifice which had to be
performed at the end of the harvest ... The cries when the
neck was held up were originally the wails of death, and the
shouting and dancing which followed captured the joy of
resurrection.'38

Now we are aware that most Americans do not follow the
rituals described above. Yet, does that make Thanksgiving
Day right for us to observe? Is it acceptable for me to
celebrate Christmas as long as I don't have a tree or yule
log? Of course not. For Yahveh would not have His People to
cling to any vestiges of practices that portray gods or
spirits in food to be worshiped. We, who are coming out of
worshiping Yeshua in the ways of Babylon, do not need to
cling to a poor copy of what our God has given us in Sucote.
Our need to thank Him for His Provision has already been
ordained by God in the Feast of Tabernacles.

Does Man have the right or the authority to ordain days of
thanks to God? Or, has Man been given that authority by God?
Yahveh answers whether or not Man can make his own religious
days in counter-distinction to His, whether in ignorance or
rebellion, when we see that the first king of the Northern
Kingdom of Israel, set up a day of festivity in the 8th
month, the 15th day (approximately about the time
Thanksgiving Day is celebrated in the United States). Sucote
occurs in the 7th month on the 15th day; generally
mid-October. In the book of 1st Kings 12:26-13:5 we read:

     'And Jeroboam said in his heart, 'Now shall the kingdom
return to the House of David: If this people go up to do
sacrifice in the House of Yahveh at Jerusalem, then shall
the heart of this people turn again unto their lord, even
unto Rehoboam, King of Judah, and they shall kill me, and go
again to Rehoboam, King of Judah.'

     'Whereupon the king took counsel, and made two calves of
gold, and said unto them, 'It is too much for you to go up
to Jerusalem: behold your gods, Oh Israel, which brought you
up out of the land of Egypt.'

     'And he set the one in Bethel, and the other put he in
Dan. And this thing became a sin: for the people went to
worship before the one, even unto Dan.'

     'And he made an house of high places, and made priests
of the lowest of the people, which were not of the Sons of
Levi.'

     'And Jeroboam ordained a feast in the eighth month, on
the fifteenth day of the month, like unto the feast that is
in Judah, and he offered upon the altar. So did he in
Bethel, sacrificing unto the calves that he had made: and he
placed in Bethel the priests of the high places which he had
made. So he offered upon the altar which he had made in
Bethel, the fifteenth day of the eighth month, even in the
month which he had devised of his own heart; and ordained a
feast unto the Children of Israel: and he offered upon the
altar, and burnt incense.'

     'And, behold, there came a man of God out of Judah by
the Word of Yahveh unto Bethel: and Jeroboam stood by the
altar to burn incense. And he cried against the altar in the
Word of Yahveh, and said, 'Oh altar, altar, thus says
Yahveh; Behold, a child shall be born unto the House of
David, Josiah by name; and upon you shall he offer the
priests of the high places that burn incense upon you, and
men's bones shall be burnt upon you.'

     'And he gave a sign the same day, saying, 'This is the
sign which Yahveh has spoken; 'Behold, the altar shall be
torn, and the ashes that are upon it shall be poured out.
And it came to pass, when King Jeroboam heard the saying of
the man of God, which had cried against the altar in Bethel,
that he put forth his hand from the altar, saying, 'Lay hold
on him. And his hand, which he put forth against him, dried
up, so that he could not pull it in again to him.'

     'The altar also was torn, and the ashes poured out from
the altar, according to the sign which the man of God had
given by the Word of Yahveh.'

Jeroboam not only set up golden calves to be worshiped in
place of Yahveh, and ordained ordinary men to the priesthood
(the Levites having left the northern kingdom, not wanting
to take part in the idolatry), but please notice the wording
of the Scriptures in relating how the new feast came to be.
The King James says that Jeroboam set up a feast in 'the
month which he had devised of his own heart.' The NIV
states, 'a month of his own choosing.' And we see that
Jeroboam instituted a feast 'like the festival held in
Judah' (1st Kings 12:32).

Yahveh was angry with Jeroboam for doing this. The picture
is very clear. We should not ignore the word of God in
showing us that it was a substitute festival which would
occur a month after Sucote, the time of 'Thanksgiving.'

Is it possible that Jeroboam was instituting in the northern
kingdom the 'Thanksgiving' of his day? He had lived outside
the Land of Israel in the days of King Solomon and had come
into contact with the pagan celebrations of the people in
Egypt (1st Kings 11:40). Was he just 'borrowing' from them?
It is Satan who copies with the intent of leading God's
People astray. The Prophet Daniel spoke of Satan changing
the 'times and the Law' in Daniel 7:25:

     'And he shall speak great words against the most High,
and shall wear out the saints of the most High, and think to
change times and laws: and they shall be given into his hand
until a time and times and the dividing of time.'

Thanksgiving Day was not acceptable to God 3,000 years ago.
How could it be such today? The faithful general Joshua, was
instructed to keep all the instructions that God had given
to Israel, so that he and his sons after him would be
blessed by Yahveh forever, doing what was good and right in
the Eyes of Yahveh his God:

     'When Yahveh your God has annihilated in front of you
the nations that you are to dispossess, and when you have
dispossessed them and made your home in their country; be
careful you are not caught in a trap: do not imitate them
once they have been destroyed in front of you, or go
inquiring after their gods saying, 'How did these nations
worship their gods?, I will go and do the same.'

     'This is not the way for you to behave towards Yahveh
your God. For Yahveh detests all this and hates what they
have done for their gods; even burning their sons and
daughters in the fire for their gods.'

     'Whatever I command you, you must be careful to do. You
shall not add to, nor take away from it.' (Deuteronomy
12:28-32)

If the ancient pagan peoples celebrated their form of
Thanksgiving Day, why do Christians observe it? We must
separate ourselves from all pagan days and walk in the Way
of the God of Israel. For He has called us out of darkness,
into His marvelous Light. He is our God and we must follow
Him. When we celebrate His Holy Days, we reflect to the
world the True God who provides for our every need. When we
celebrate pagan holy days 'in honor of Jesus' we present a
distorted and perverted picture of the One who is Truth.

We dishonor Him when we celebrate any but His Set Apart
Days! Exo 20:7 Thou shalt not take the name of YHWH thy
Elohim in vain; for YaHWeH will not hold him guiltless that
taketh His name in vain.

Taking His Name in vain means to be called by a name that
people associate with  HIM but to MISREPRESENT Him by living
a life, practicing religion, speaking and behaving in a
manner which is not consistent with His commands, character
and the life of His Son.  It is a life... which is VAIN -
worthless - good for nothing and He will not hold
GUILTLESS... (His words) those who live such a religious lie
REGARDLESS of their intentions.

The TRUTH will make you free... praise YHWH!


END NOTES

    1. World Book Encyclopedia, 1942 Edition, article entitled,
    Thanksgiving Day.
    2. Ibid.
    3. Ibid.
    4. Ibid.
    5. Ibid.
    6. Ibid.
    7. Ibid.
    8. Ibid.
    9. Special Days: History, Folklore, and What Not by Sharon
    Cade, 1984.
   10. Ibid.
   11. Ibid.
   12. We Gather Together: The Story of Thanksgiving, by Ralph and
   Adeline Linton, 1949.
   13. Ibid.
   14. Ibid.
   15. Ibid.
   16. Deut. 16:16: 'Three times in a year shall all your males
   appear before Yahveh your God in the place which he shall
   choose; in the Feast of Unleavened Bread, and in the Feast of
   Weeks, and in the Feast of Tabernacles,...'
   17. We Gather Together: The Story of Thanksgiving, by Ralph and
   Adeline Linton, 1949.
   18. Ibid.
   19. Ibid.
   20. Ibid.
   21. Ibid.
   22. Ibid.
   23. Ibid.
   24. Ibid.
   25. Ibid.
   26. Organic Gardening and Farming, Nov. 1975, page 132ff, the
   article entitled, Thanksgiving Day.
   27. Ibid.
   28. Ibid.
   29. Ibid.
   30. A Year of Festivals: A Guide to British Calendar Customs, by
   Geoffrey Palmer and Noel Lloyd, 1972.
   31. Ibid.
   32. Ibid.
   33. Ibid.
   34. Ibid.
   35. Ibid.
   36. Ibid.
   37. Ibid.
   38. Ibid.