****** THE CACHE IS AT THE COORDINATES
LISTED!
In celebration of Thanksgiving, we
invite all of our geocaching family to "set the table" for a
Geocaching feast!
This is the BONUS CACHE in the series, that encourages you to a
virtual dinner of
Cranberries (GCRDNP),
Turkey (GCRDNY),
Pie (GCRDP4) and
Football - Internacional (GCZBF0)).
Now that you have completed the meal and the game, you will have
all you need to reflect on the Meaning of
Thanksgiving (GCRDPJ).
Here are the Coordinates:
N 29 31.903
W095 34.132
Now go get it!!
Good luck, and Happy Turkey Day!
The MEANING/HISTORY OF
THANKSGIVING:
Thanksgiving is closely related to
harvest festivals that had long been a traditional holiday in much
of Europe. The first North American celebration of these festivals
by Europeans was held in Newfoundland by Martin Frobisher and the
Frobisher Expedition in 1578. Another such festival occurred on
December 4, 1619 when 38 colonists from Berkeley Parish in England
disembarked in Virginia and gave thanks to God.
Prior to this, there was also a
Thanksgiving feast celebrated by Francisco Vásquez de Coronado
(along with friendly Teya Indians) on 23 May 1541 in Texas' Palo
Duro Canyon, to celebrate his expedition's discovery of food
supplies. Some hold this to be the true first Thanksgiving in North
America.
Another such event occurred a quarter
century later on September 8, 1565 in St. Augustine when Pedro
Menéndez de Avilés landed; he and his men shared a feast with the
natives. Most people recognize the first Thanksgiving as taking
place on an unremembered date, sometime in the autumn of 1621, when
the Pilgrims held a three-day feast to celebrate the bountiful
harvest they reaped following their first winter in North
America.
Two American colonists have personal
accounts of the 1621 Thanksgiving in Massachusetts: William
Bradford, in Of Plymouth Plantation:
"They began now to gather in the
small harvest they had, and to fit up their house and dwelling
against winter, being all well recovered in health and strength and
had all things in good plenty. For as some were thus employed in
affairs abroad, others were exercised in fishing, about cod and
bass and other fish, of which they took good store, of which every
family had their portion. All the summer there was no want; and now
began to come in store of fowl, as winter approached, of which this
place did abound when they came first (but afterward decreased by
degrees). And besides waterfowl there was great store of wild
turkeys, of which they took many, besides venison, etc. Besides,
they had about a peck of meal a week to a person, or now since
harvest, Indian corn to that proportion. Which made many afterwards
write so largely of their plenty here to their friends in England,
which were not feigned by true reports."
Edward Winslow, in Mourt's
Relation:
"Our harvest being gotten in, our
governor sent four men on fowling, that so we might after a special
manner rejoice together after we had gathered the fruits of our
labor. They four in one day killed as much fowl as, with a little
help beside, served the company almost a week. At which time,
amongst other recreations, we exercised our arms, many of the
Indians coming amongst us, and among the rest their greatest king
Massasoit, with some ninety men, whom for three days we entertained
and feasted, and they went out and killed five deer, which we
brought to the plantation and bestowed on our governor, and upon
the captain and others. And although it be not always so plentiful
as it was at this time with us, yet by the goodness of God, we are
so far from want that we often wish you partakers of our
plenty."
The Pilgrims did not hold Thanksgiving
again until 1623, when it followed a drought, prayers for rain and
a subsequent rain shower. Irregular Thanksgivings continued after
favorable events and days of fasting after unfavorable ones.
Gradually an annual Thanksgiving after the harvest developed in the
mid-17th century. This did not occur on any set day or necessarily
on the same day in different colonies.
Some, including historian Arthur M.
Schlesinger, Jr., point out that the first time colonists from
Europe gave thanks in what would become the United States was on
December 4, 1619, in Berkeley, Virginia. That was when the
thirty-eight members of The Stanford Company landed there after a
three-month voyage in the Margaret. Having been recruited from
Gloucestershire to establish a colony in the New World, the men
were under orders to give thanks when they arrived, so the first
thing they did was to kneel down and do so.
(1) Reference: 1 - From Wikipedia, the
free encyclopedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thanksgiving
MEANING:
We have such wonderful gifts to be
thankful for at this time of year. We should take the time to
reflect on them and share them with our loved ones.
HAPPY THANKSGIVING
EVERYONE!!!!!!!!!