Thanksgiving

Did you know that the American holiday

Thanksgiving is Jewish? Well, almost.

That first Thanksgiving in Plymouth Colony, 1621, Christian Pilgrims

fashioned a celebration after the Biblical Feast of Tabernacles. The

Pilgrims learned about the feast in Holland, where they lived among Jews

who were expelled from Spain.

The Feast of Tabernacles, known today as Sukkot, is celebrated by setting

up temporary shelters, decorating with a harvest theme, inviting guests for a

meal, visiting others for a meal, and enjoying the abundance of fall foods.

Sound familiar?

And Mom’s cranberry stuffing? Stuffing one food into another is a Jewish symbol of abundance.

“You can’t serve too much food,” says Linda Burghardt, author of Jewish Holiday Traditions. “Could there be anything more Jewish than that?”

You don’t have to be Jewish to celebrate Thanksgiving, though. Across America, people of all faiths,

and no faith, come together on the same day to reflect on freedom, abundance, heritage and family.

It’s the country’s largest communal meal. That's something for which we can be truly thankful!