Fraternity-Testvériség, 1965 (43. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)

1965-11-01 / 11. szám

FRATERNITY

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OFFICIAL ORGAN OF THE HUNGARIAN REFORMED FEDERATION OF AMERICA Edited by the Officers of the Federation

Published monthly, with the exception of the summer months, when the June-July and August-September issues are combined Subscription for non-members in U. S. A. & Canada $2, elsewhere $3 a year

Office of Publication: Expert Printing, 4627 Irvine St., Pittsburgh, Pa. 15207 Editorial Office: 3216 New Mexico Avenue, N. W., Washington, D. C. 20016

Volume XLIÍI NOVEMBER 1965 Number 11

LET’S BE THANKFUL!

This is the month of Thanksgiving Day . . . and there is no holiday in the world like our American Thanksgiving. It celebrates neither a savage battle nor the fall of a great city. It doesn't mark the anniversary of a great conqueror nor the birthday of a great statesman. It doesn’t commemorate the

writing of a historic document. The American Thanksgiving Day is the expression of a deep feeling of gratitude by our people for the rich productivity of the land; a memorial of the danger and hardships which we have safely passed; a fitting recognition of all that God and His Goodness has given us.

In early New England it was the custom at Thanksgiving time to place five grains of corn beside every plate as a reminder of those hard days in the first winter when the food of the Pilgrims was so depleted that only five grains of corn were rationed to each individual at a time. The Pilgrim Fathers wanted their children to remember the sacrifices, suffering and hardship which made possible the settlement of a free people in a free land.

The use of five grains of corn placed beside each plate was a fitting reminder of a heroic past. Symbolically let it

serve today as a means of recalling those great gifts for which we are grateful.

The first grain of corn might stand for the beauty of

nature which is about us: the four seasons, the sky, the trees, the flowers, the rain, the dew, the frost, nature’s long sleep

and then life again at Easter time.

The second grain might remind us of the great men and women of the past. They have lived in every age and in every country. In our own land great men have stepped, forward to