Should thanksgiving day be celebrated ?

Robert Aaron Bills

Before getting into the actual history of Thanksgiving, which may shock some people, let’s look at two “christian” arguments for keeping it:

‘I don’t keep Thanksgiving Day as a “holy day”, It’s a national day of giving thanks for

what the Creator has provided. It’s not a “holy day”.

Isn’t this the response many “christians” use for justifying “sunday”, “easter” and christ-mas?

Many who observe those thoroughly heathen / pagan days do not keep them as heathen days, but still observe them none the less.

The question is: Is it right to keep any of them? The catholic church expects all good catholics to be in “church” those days, and thanksgiving day, too. There are many protestant churches that also keep thanksgiving day as “holy”.

“Holy”, is qodesh, literally means, ‘set apart or sacred’ and in this case to Yahweh Elohim the Father in heaven.

Observance, by people groups setting it apart ‘to honor Elohim, ‘giving thanks’ to Elohim about this day is setting that day apart to Elohim. Now, of course, we should thank Yahweh Elohim every day for His graciousness toward us and His many benefits, but thanksgiving day is a “special” day set aside to give thanks to Elohim, yet, where does Elohim speak of it in Scripture? The question then becomes, “Does Man have authority to create ‘set apart days’ unto Elohim?”

Another defense of thanksgiving day is that even ‘if it’s from pagan / heathen times, we are at “liberty” to keep it because we are offering our thanks unto the creator and He will appreciate it.’

Elohim’s Word commands us to not be like the pagans and heathens, specifically stating that we’re not to offer up worship to Yahweh Elohim the way the pagans worshiped their gods (Deuteronomy 12:28-32). Many “believers” don’t realize that all ancient pagan / heathen peoples had their own ‘holy days,’ where they gave thanks to their gods for

the provisions that the gods allegedly gave them, thanksgiving day is one of them.

Why would anyone want to ‘honor Elohim’ in a way that is displeasing to Him?

Thanksgiving day is not a day ordained or authorized by Yahweh for His people.

What kind of a witness to the Living Elohim do believers proclaim who observe days that Elohim

has not ordained, but pass them off as His? Is this not how the ancient Pharisees acted when they made up traditions that went against the Word of Elohim, and proclaimed that the traditions were of Elohim? (Matthew 15:1-6.), many people still do this today as well, passing off traditions like they are from Elohim.

If it cannot be explained, from the Scriptures, why “religious” things are done, they shouldn’t be done because they are Pharisaical.

Just what is thanksgiving day? The “church” proclaims it as a (holy day), for the purpose of giving thanks to Elohim for the many blessings they have received, especially agriculturally.

That is exactly what we do for the seven days during Succot  (the Feast of Tabernacles).

Why is there a need for another harvest festival? Yahweh Elohim has already given us and commanded us also to observe Succot. (Lev. 23:33-44), thanksgiving day is an outright

erroneuos copy of Succot.

The counterfeiter has struck again! Did you ever wonder why the majority of those who claim to be Elohim’s people don’t keep the days He has designated as Set Apart? The majority is unfortunately deceived by satan, this ought to be a cause for concern.

Most history books would like to convince us that thanksgiving day goes back to only Plymouth Rock in the 1600s.

Plymouth Rock was not the first “thanksgiving day” though, “thanksgiving day festivals go back thousands of years.

Have you ever wondered why Canada has a thanksgiving day, but on a different date? This again is a pagan / heathen feastival day honoring the agricultural gods,

and 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 prominent among primitive peoples for many centuries.

‘The first thanksgiving 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.’

Notice the wording, not the first thanksgiving, but just the ‘first thanksgiving in the New World.’

‘In 1789…the protestant episcopal church in America announced the first Thursday in

November as a regular annual day for “giving thanks”.’

With that “thanksgiving day” on the first thursday in november, very close to Succot, which generally falls in october.

‘It was not until 1888 however, that the roman catholic “church” formally recognized the

day.

Throughout the country, ‘but especially in New England, where this modern custom originated,

the day is looked upon with great reverence.

This is also what happens for the december 25th Christ-mas and

easter.

How can this be a religious day? Isn’t that the same as a “holy” day? Where does Elohim, in Scripture, tell us to celebrate it?

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; but Yahweh’s covenant people give thanks for the bountiful harvest with an 8 day Scripturally sanctified Feast of Tabernacles called Succot.

 ‘Thanksgiving is…a giving of thanks for divine bounty. “Churches” of all denominations

are open for services on this particular thursday every year…almost as important as worship is

on this day is the renewal of family ties.’

‘Pilgrims, Indians, turkeys and pumpkin pies 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 Christ-mas because they knew of its pagan origins. The center piece of this day is a turkey at the center of the table; Turkey is an unclean animal therefore an abomination to partake of as food. In Leviticus 11:19 and Deuteronomy 14:18 we see that a “lapwing” is listed as unclean and an abomination to eat as food, this is the Hebrew word pronounced dookeefat which is a grouse. The grouse family includes turkeys, chickens (which were originally called a “jungle fowls”, pheasants, and quail among others.

Moses gave Yahweh’s Covenant people instructions for the celebrations of His harvest festival,

which is called the Succot (Feast of Tabernacles).

Yahushua the Messiah, observed Succot  (Tabernacles) every year of His life, and with good reasons; the Father Yahweh Elohim gave it to His people as a reminder of the food that He provided for in the Wilderness, and also the

‘present’ harvest and the spiritual Harvest to come, when Elohim  would feed His people from His Son Yahushua the bread come down from heaven.

‘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.

‘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.’

Astarte and Semele are also known as the Queen of Heaven and are fertility goddesses. In different countries the name of the goddess would change, but her functions would remain similar, if not identical.

‘Thanksgiving day’ was more than just filling a “horn of plenty”, thanking the goddess, eating food and playing sports:

‘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.’

‘The Roman harvest festival…was called the Cerelia, after Ceres, the Roman goddess of

the corn.

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 be given to our beneficent Father who dwells in the Heavens.

‘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.’

‘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.’

‘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.

It’s interesting that Yahweh Elohim uses the first sheaf to dedicate the forthcoming crop (Lev. 23:5-12), while Satan draws attention to the last sheaf for next year’s crop! Also, Yahushua is the First Fruits or First Sheaf of the Resurrection from the dead: ‘But now Messiah has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who

are asleep.’ (1st Corinthians 15:20)

 ‘Most countries had their own special way of celebrating the ‘ingathering,’ but they all

sprang from the same ancient foundation, the act of thanks offering which had to be performed

at the end of the harvest.

Of course, most Americans or “Christians” do not follow intently pagan / heathen rituals. Yet, does that make thanksgiving day right for them to observe? Is it acceptable for believers to celebrate Christ-mas as long as they don’t have a tree or yule log? Of course not.

Yahweh Elohim would not have His people to cling to any vestiges of practices that portray gods or spirits in food or any other thing to be worshiped. Yahweh Elohim has given us Succot. Our need to thank the Yahweh for His Provision has already been ordained by Yahweh Elohim in the Feast of Tabernacles.

This means that man does not have the right or the authority to ordain set apart days of thanks to Elohim, when Elohim has has already provided set apart days for giving thanks to Him.

Thanksgiving day originated in the darkness of the ancient past, and falls into the same category as two other pagan / heathen “holy” days: easter and christ-mas. Thanksgiving is not a day to thank the creator for all the blessings He has given to us, the seven days of Succot (Tabernacles) are for that purpose.

The “church” is oblivious to its marriage with paganism because it thinks it

can baptize those pagan days, ‘in the name of “Jesus”,’ and everything is alright then, but it’s not alright with Yahweh Elohim.

Following the real Messiah Yahushua means that He wants to change us, from the inside-out. We all come to Him with many things we learned growing up, like thanksgiving day, but there comes a time when we hear the Truth and need to separate from those ways and choose His Way. Those who truly want to know and walk in Yahweh Elohim’s Truth must separate themselves from all pagan / heathen days and ways and walk in the Light of the

Elohim of Israel, for He has called us out of darkness into His marvelous Light (1st Peter 2:9-10).

 We must follow Him, not a sanitized form of paganism. When we celebrate His set apart days we reflect to ourselves and the world the true Elohim who provides for our every need. When the pagan / heathen days are observed it’s not only sin against the Creator, and presenting a distorted and perverted picture of the One who is the Way, the

Truth and the Life (John 14:6).