Don’t worry about the Puritans, we English didn’t like them much either. The Native Americans have a point. What you have turned Thanksgiving into, that celebration of family, is not so unusual across human societies. There are many analogues out there. What sets Thanksgiving apart is that you don’t just bend over backward to ensure, you positively insist, that no one break bread alone that day.
It is the most sweet, even glorious, aspect of your society. Please don’t ever lose it. To the matriarch near Lincoln, Nebraska: My apologies for not understanding before. Now I do, and from afar, I raise that slice of pumpkin pie to you and 330 million other Americans. That sharing of the cloak is always something to give thanks for.
“1980s, the day before Thanksgiving. Two young Englishmen are on a road trip” c’mon tell the interesting part. Did you really say “Those aren’t pillows”.
Martin of Tours is not mentioned in the King James Bible (of course I cannot answer for what you may have read at Downside) …
What the Bible says is “do not keep a poor man’s cloak, pledged to you for a debt, overnight because he needs it to keep warm” (or similar words selected by the translator who read Aramaic translated into Greek better than I). This is a fall-back to deal with suffering caused by those who disobey the command to pay wages to the poor before sunset.
A Christmas FYI
Received email about this yesterday, seems like a good deal:
Christmas cards: Supplied and posted for 65p + vat each (2nd class stamp is 65p)
https://www.selectabase.co.uk/2020/11/we-dont-see-christmas-cards-as-an-inconvenience/
It is interesting to consider the ‘founding’ of America. Folks often claim that the Pilgrim Fathers left England to start a new colony because of religious persecution. They ‘wanted to worship in their own way’.
What is not often realised is that the ‘Pilgrim Fathers’, as Puritans, were heavily into keeping the Sabbath Day holy, and doing nothing beyond attending Church. Restoration England was far less interested in this, and held Sunday to be a day or rest and relaxation. The Puritans wanted all such entertainment to be banned by law, and failed to obtain this – which was the reson for their exodus.
So, in fact, the Pilgrim Fathers wanted to persecute their fellow citizens for religious reasons, failed in their aim and flounced off in a huff….
I read it as a reference to Luke 3:11
Dodgy Geezer,
the Puritans didn’t really fail in their objective, Cromwell’s reign is proof of that. It was that by 1658 everyone had had enough of them. Inviting Charles Stuart back prevented another civil war.
Read a bit of American history and find out who were the only people to execute Quakers!
From Pcar’s link:
When the fuck did “creative” become a noun?
Q:When the fuck did “creative” become a noun?
A:1678
Or 1938 in the sense of “one who creates advertising copy etc”
@ Diogenes
Thanks – that makes better sense.