Asatru and Thanksgiving - Are They Compatible?

It's that time of year again - Thanksgiving, and the beginning of what we habitually call "the holiday season." For some of us it will be a genuinely spiritual occasion, a time to be with family and to enjoy a meal while being, well, thankful. For others it will be just another stressful obligation to cook a meal we don't really want and to be sociable when we'd really rather be doing something else.

The historical Thanksgiving was a Christian event, a celebration in gratitude to the God of the Bible for the blessings he gave his early colonists in the New World. How should we who follow Asatru honor this festival? Are Thanksgiving and Asatru compatible?

When you think about it, Thanksgiving is just a variation on the old custom of the harvest festival. Sure, November is getting a little late for that, but the principle is the same: expressing joy at the reaping of what we have sown. Asatruar can get into that spirit as easily as anyone else - maybe easier, because we tend to be aware of the natural cycles around us. The rune "Jera" comes to mind at Thanksgiving; it means "year" or "harvest," and is an affirmation of the idea that we will prosper to the extent that we have done the right work at the right time - whether it's planting, tending, and harvesting a crop, or making a success of our efforts in the world of jobs and careers! It really does come down to cause-and-effect: effort brings reward.

But the early American pilgrims were thankful to "God." To whom or what should our own gratitude be directed? Certainly not to the God of the Bible. But this is a good time to recall that the word "god" is not a Semitic or a Mediterranean word, but a Germanic one! It comes directly from Gothic, where it originally referred to OUR Gods and Goddesses. It was used for the first time in the Gothic translation of the Bible to gloss what had previously been rendered Greek or Latin. When our pompous politicians stand at the podium and rave about "God," they are unknowingly showing their debt to those Germanic men and women who came before them, and who honored the Holy Powers of our people! So, to that extent, we, too can speak of God - in the original sense!

While we're being grateful, we should remember the life that died that we might eat. Life feeds on life, and while we must take life, we should not do so thoughtlessly. On the contrary, we should try to live our lives in such a way that we justify the death of the animal that decks our table at Thanksgiving, or at any other time - valuing that sacrifice by living lives of honor and right action! Factory turkeys live miserable lives and die miserable deaths. The least we can do is acknowledge that, and honor the bird by our lives and our deeds.

Thanksgiving can be a time of gluttony marking the beginning of the Great American Consumer-Fest...or it can be much simpler, more organic, tied to the Earth and to the cycles of Nature...an opportunity to get in contact with eternal truths. It's up to us, isn't it? This year, let's try to be a little less wrapped up in gadgetry and gimmickry, and more interested in the intangibles, in love and fellowship...and life!

Steve McNallen

Asatru Folk Assembly
http://runestone.org