Thanksgiving In Letters

Meeting Place of First Parish Church

Plymouth, Massachusetts

T is for Turkey

H for Holiness!

A for Adventure most bold!

N for November!

K is for Kirk!

S for Spring after the cold!

G for Gobbler!

I for Indian!

V for Voyage on the sea!

I for Ideals!

N for Northern!

G And Good for the letter G!

Letter T. To think of T connected with any other word than turkey would be terrible on this

special day. The turkey is king, and proud he is to head the line that spells Thanksgiving.

Letter H. The letter H recalls the holiness of those pilgrim fathers who worshiped with such faith. All they did and all they were was the result of their holy natures.

Letter A. The A, which is the beginning of the word adventures, is a letter that also must be remembered when we speak of the Pilgrims. It was an adventure to leave their ancient homeland, to cross a strange sea and to settle in a country which knew not the white man.

Letter N. November was the month in which they arrived. November was the month in which one year later they gave thanks for their fortune in this new land. November is the month in which we remember those brave fathers of early days.

Letter K. Some people say church. Some call it kirk. The Pilgrims called it meeting house. But church, or kirk or meeting house, it was the place where the Pilgrim fathers knelt and honored their God with great humility.

Letter S. As I said before S is for spring that comes after the cold. And for the Pilgrims this had a special meaning. They had lived through the winter. They had built homes. Now, they saw spring arrive, and with hopeful hearts they began to plant the seed.

Letter G. Always the Pilgrims could see strutting in the distance that noble bird, the turkey. G stands for gobbler. And little knowing the fame that would some day be his, the gobbler strutted to and fro.

Letter I. In their new home, the Pilgrims prepared to plant the gardens. But there was much for them to learn. A willing friend was the Indian. He offered wisdom and help. He told the Pilgrims about the corn.. His name, as we know, was Squanto.

Letter V. So the voyage that had started so hopefully ended with promise. Thanksgiving Day beheld the Pilgrims making merry and giving thanks that all had turned out so fortunately.

Letter I. It was their ideals that upheld the Pilgrims. It was their ideals that sent them across the sea, that made them endure the hardships and disasters. And it was those same ideals that have sent their names down in history to eternal flame.

Letter N. Plymouth Rock, where the Pilgrims landed, was far north of the spot where they had planned to land. But the winds carried the Mayflower away from the warmer south. That explains why they came to land at the northern shore where all was bare and barren.

Letter G. And so the story of the Pilgrims and the story of Thanksgiving has a good ending. So it is fitting that the letter G should complete that honorable word we have just spelled.

Members of the Wampanoag tribe helped the

Pilgrim settlers during their first years at Plymouth

An excerpt from "The Visit Of The Thanksgiving Letters"

 The Giant Book Of Thanksgiving

By Lenore Hetrick

(1935)