Appleseeds articles from November 2007

Appleseeds archives from November 2007

Giving thanks.
November 1, 2007... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Long ago there were no supermarkets, no take-out food, and no pizza delivery. People lived by gathering, hunting, and growing all the food they ate. This way of life is not easy. You must work hard, and you must be...

New light from Green Corn.
November 1, 2007... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Each year, many American Indian communities gather together to celebrate and give thanks for the gifts of nature. The most important gift is corn. To give thanks for each year's corn crop, Green Corn Ceremonies have...

Surprise: the Pilgrims' first Thanksgiving.
November 1, 2007... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Every year on the last Thursday in November, Americans celebrate Thanksgiving. Most of us haven't grown any of the food we eat. But we are following a tradition. The tradition began with the Pilgrims in the year...

Cooking with the Pilgrims.(Fun Stuff)(Recipe)
November 1, 2007... We don't know exactly all the foods the Pilgrims ate at their harvest feast. But historians do know some of the things Pilgrims cooked in later years. These recipes are modern versions of foods the Pilgrims cooked. They come from Plimoth...

How many can you feed?(By the Numbers)
November 1, 2007... Imagine that you are planning a Thanksgiving feast long ago. You want to serve corn cakes made with the corn from your three fields. * By fall, your first cornfield has produced 120 ears of corn. * Your second field got less sun. It has...

Which First Thanksgiving?
November 1, 2007... Sometimes people say that the Pilgrims celebrated America's "First Thanksgiving." But they're wrong. For as long as people have lived in America, they have given thanks. For thousands of years, Native Americans gave thanks for good crops and...

Pocahontas celebrates: a Powhatan harvest festival.
November 1, 2007... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Suppose you were a Powhatan Indian living in eastern Virginia 400 years ago. How would you celebrate the harvest time? The Powhatans were the Virginia Indians whom English settlers met when they arrived in 1607. One...

A Song of Thanksgiving: this simple, inclusive prayer poem is based upon Native American traditions and universal beliefs that we give thanks to everything and, especially, the Creator. Everything in nature has a spirit and deserves kindness.(Reading Corner)(Poem)
November 1, 2007... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] O, Creator, O, Great Mystery, We gather here to give thanks For all that you share with us. We are your children in Love and gratitude. You bless our lives. Mother Earth and Father Sky, We dance and give thanks...

Giving thanks to the spirits: two Asian celebrations.
November 1, 2007... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] The hall fills with jingling and squeals of joy. Costumes flash pink, green, and yellow. Smells of spicy shrimp and fried pork fill the air. Welcome to the Hmong New Year! The Hmong people lived in Asia for...

Kwanzaa.
November 1, 2007... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Kwanzaa is a celebration of African American history and culture. It was created in 1966 by Dr. Maulena Karenga when he was a young scholar studying the history of Africa. Each year from December 26 to January 1,...

Saying "thank you" around the world.(Where in the World?)
November 1, 2007... Many people think that the word "prayer" means to ask for something. And it does. But praying is more than just saying "please." People all over the world believe that it is important to be polite to the gods, goddesses, saints, spirits, and...

Plenty! "600 million children will go hungry on Thanksgiving Day!".(Your Turn)
November 1, 2007... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] What if you saw this headline in your local newspaper? Every single day of the year, 600 million children around the world are hungry. They don't have enough food to eat. You may be thinking, "But I'm just one...

How Thanksgiving really became a holiday.
November 1, 2007... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Most of us think that Thanksgiving has been an American holiday ever since the Pilgrim feast in 1621. But Thanksgiving did not become a national holiday until 1863--some 242 years later. The holiday we know today...

Turkey talk.
November 1, 2007... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Who invented the turkey dinner? The Pilgrims, you say! You may be in for a surprise. It's probably true that the Pilgrims enjoyed turkey at their harvest feast in 1621. We know that four men hunted birds for the...

Cross facts.
November 1, 2007... You might think that the Pilgrims ate the same kind of Thanksgiving dinner that we do. Actually, their dinner would have been very different. Most Pilgrims had never heard of potatoes. Apples didn't naturally grow in North America, so there was...