25/11/2021
Such a beautiful reminder! Gratitude for Mother Earth!
Food as Medicine and Ceremony of Thanks Giving
(Words Before All Else: Greetings to the Natural World)
“The Haudenosaunee have a beautiful tradition of expressing gratitude: a prayer that is offered every day and at special gatherings. The Thanks giving Address/Prayer "is an ancient message of peace and appreciation of Mother Earth and her inhabitants. The children learn that, according to Native American tradition, people everywhere are embraced as family. Our diversity, like all wonders of Nature, is truly a gift for which we are thankful.
When one recites the Thanks giving Address [prayer] the Natural World is thanked, and in thanking each life-sustaining force, one becomes spiritually tied to each of the forces of the Natural and Spiritual World. The Thanks giving Address teaches mutual respect, conservation, love, generosity, and the responsibility to understand that what is done to one part of the Web of Life, we do to ourselves."
—To read the entire Thanks giving Address (Prayer) go to http://danceforallpeople.com/haudenosaunee-thanksgiving-address/
About The Three Sisters: "Corn, beans and squash were among the first important crops domesticated by ancient Mesoamerican societies. Corn was the primary crop, providing more calories or energy per acre than any other. According to Three Sisters legends corn must grow in community with other crops rather than on its own - it needs the beneficial company and aide of its companions.... According to Haudenosaunee legend, corn, beans, and squash are three inseparable sisters who only grow and thrive together."
—http://www.reneesgarden.com/articles/3sisters.html
"Despite knowing this history [of the true origins of Thanksgiving], I still celebrate the holiday and many other Native people do, too. It’s an obviously welcome excuse to visit and celebrate life with loved ones. And yes, eat well. But, for me, it is an intensely personal holiday, not one meant to reenact the nascent racism and superiority complex of the Pilgrim navel-gazing story. It is the opportunity to practice the ancient invocation of both Algonquian and Iroquois people, the Thanksgiving Prayer, and autumnal harvest celebratory feast of our beloved and sacred indigenous foods.”
—from www.freepresshouston.com/thanksgiving-herstory/
A Wampanoag retelling of Thanksgiving,
https://indiancountrytoday.com/newscasts/steven-peters-11-04-2021
6 Things Every Non-Native Should Do On Thanksgiving,
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/ally-to-native-americans-on-thanksgiving_l_5ddc4237e4b00149f7223b30
Happy Thanksgiving! — with gratitude to Mother Earth, Water, the Ancestors, the Original Peoples of this land, and all of creation.
Art: Three Sisters by Sharifah Matsden.
