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Teaching About Thanksgiving

Seasonal, Faith

Teaching About Thanksgiving

On this post, you can find some more ideas for teaching about Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving Celebrations in History

It can be good to learn about other groups of people who have also had some larger thanksgiving celebrations in history.

Sometimes we might not think about this much when we’re talking about Thanksgiving, but the Pilgrims actually did not begin the tradition of setting aside a day of thanksgiving to God and celebrating with other people around them!

The Biblical Feast of Tabernacles

Israel’s Feast of Tabernacles (also called “Ingathering”, “Succoth”, and “Booths”) is a thanksgiving celebration that has existed for much longer time. It’s also celebrated in the fall season, for example, to thank God for His care and provisions for daily needs (e.g. shelter, after harvesting food – Leviticus 23:39).

It was decreed as a seven days plus one day celebration (Leviticus 23:34, 36). And it was for the purpose of pausing to remember God’s provisions and deliverance (Leviticus 23:40, 43).

Jesus participated in the feast of tabernacles, recorded for us in John 7-9. (If you’d like to listen to a sermon (free audio) that mentions more about John 7, there is one at our Word in the Our Hearts ministry website on this page link; look for the one in that series for “Monday”. It is a personal favourite of mine which is one reason why we shared it there!)

In this book, “The Outpouring: Jesus in the Feast of Israel”, Elwood McQuaid comments that it is likely that the story of Mary who was sitting and listening to Jesus and Martha who was busy and frustrated (Luke 10:38-42) also may have occurred during the feast of the tabernacles (pp. 96-97).

McQuaid also includes these Bible references (among other ones) as fitting in with the understanding of the original readers of the Bible with regards to this particular fall feast: Isaiah 12:3, 1 Kings 8, and Zechariah 3:8, 6:12.

Israel’s feast of tabernacles was for giving thanks to God for not only providing dwellings and food for them but also that He has promised to dwell with them Himself (i.e. to tabernacle with them). And all people who have placed their trust in this true and living God can rejoice in that future hope (Revelation 21:3).

Of course, the giving of thanks was/is to be not just yearly, but also daily (e.g. Hebrews 13:15, Psalm 145:2).

What about the former land of the Pilgrims? Do British people have a “Thanksgiving Day”?

Some people might think of the British “national service of thanksgiving” as part of the background understanding of the Pilgrims who journeyed to America in the 1600s. The list on this link starts at a thanksgiving celebration as it related to the defeat of the Spanish Armada in 1588.

But there isn’t a specific annual day called “Thanksgiving” in the United Kingdom. Instead, the celebrations seem occasional, any time of the year.

Thanksgiving Celebrations in Canada

From what I’ve learned, here is a bit of the history:

  • 1578 – with Martin Frobisher, the English explorer and navigator who found Baffin Island (looking for Hawaii) and also landed on Newfoundland. He wanted to give thanks to God for surviving a long journey at sea.
  • 1600s – with Samuel de Champlain who held feasts of Thanksgiving called, “The Order of Good Cheer”. The feasts were shared in the Maritime area with the Native peoples as a token of good will between the groups.
  • October, 10, 1710 – in Port Royal, NS where a Thanksgiving town celebration was held to mark the return of the town to English control.

Those points above look similar to the British celebrations for their reasons as to “why celebrate” (safety and success).

But our Thanksgiving celebrations today in North America tend to lean towards the reasons of setting aside a time of thanksgiving for provisions (e.g. at harvest-time).

  • In 1879, a formal day of Thanksgiving declared by Canadian parliament to be for November 6. This annual date was changed after World War I when Thanksgiving and Armistice Day (Remembrance Day) were celebrated around November 11.
  • In January 1957, a declaration of the Canadian parliament was to set aside the second Monday in October to be a day of general thanksgiving for people in Canada to thank “God Almighty”.
  • (Source link 1, Source link 2)

Thanksgiving Celebrations in USA

The story of the Pilgrims coming to America is usually the one we think of when we consider the history of Thanksgiving. Here are a few video suggestions for teaching about the Pilgrims (even if some of these stories are not always historically accurate but instead, imaginative). Some of these might be found in a used store or somewhere online. (Use the titles as keyword searches.)

  • “Mouse on the Mayflower” (a 1968 cartoon video)
  • “A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving”
  • “The Story of the Mayflower and the First Thanksgiving” (a short video from “Freeschool” in this linked playlist. There may be other interesting titles in the list as well.)
  • There is a lengthy article summarizing the history of the pilgrims’ thanksgiving celebrations in the 1600s. To read it, go to the section of the article labelled, “Understanding Thanksgiving”.
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A Family’s Thanksgiving

example picture Thanksgiving story

My mom (Grace) sometimes drew her own pictures or enlarged other pictures by drawing them to make flashcard stories that she could use to teach her classes (for example, in Sunday School). Of course, she also would tell us those stories too!

Especially for Thanksgiving, for as long as I can remember, my mom told a lesson about Psalm 150 and sometimes followed that with an imaginary story about pilgrims and Thanksgiving that she had adapted from an old book she had on her shelf.

Here are the links to watch, if this interests you, a more-recent version of that Thanksgiving lesson for Psalm 150 and the story for children!

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Thanksgiving-Themed Music

Bible Visuals International offers song visuals for some hymns. An example is “Great is Thy Faithfulness” (non-affiliate link).

WordWise is a website my dad told us about. It has hymn stories in a devotional style with the history behind a song. An example is “I Sing the Mighty Power of God”. You can view the new hymn index on this page there.

There is an abundance of music which could be thought of as fitting with the theme of Thanksgiving time – far more than I could ever list! Below is a selection of some more song titles.

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Other Resources

There are PRINTABLES mentioned at the bottom of my post entitled, “Simple Ideas for Celebrating Thanksgiving” here.

You might find some Thanksgiving-related items in this shop category link.

The history storybooks about the pilgrims and Thanksgiving in our online shop are part of the Step 4 literature bundle and the Literature Bundle for Pre-teens (sorry – titles not available separately).

The artist of the fall tree pictured on this page is D.W. Emke, whose beautiful artwork we feature in our shop here. There are single pages as well as sets which can be used for crafts or rewards!

As examples…

set11
deer leaf

Happy Thanksgiving!

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The father of a righteous child has great joy; a man who fathers a wise son rejoices in him.
Proverbs 23:24
DailyVerses.net

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