Agathon Associates, will be closed Thursday, November 26th, in celebration of Thanksgiving Day, a major holiday in the United States. All government offices and most businesses will be closed for the day. Many business, other than retail, will also be closed on Friday, the 27th.
In other years Pilgrims, Plymouth Rock, Poultry, Pumpkin Pie, and large gatherings of friends and family would all be on the menu tomorrow as we Americans of every origin re-enact and re-interpret the story of that first Thanksgiving in 1621. Somehow, in the story of those Englishmen and women of a strict Calvinist religion, we find meanings to suit the needs of a multi-ethnic and multi-religious nation. Now in time of Great Sickness and Mortality we all shall scale back our festivities. Perhaps this year we shall especially note that out of 102 Mayflower passengers, merely 51 survived the first winter in New England.
Thanksgiving 2020 brings a special Four Hundredth Anniversary commemoration. Originally headed for the northern part of the Virginia Colony -- roughly in the area where New York City is now located -- they ended up landing off-course, up here in what would become New England. Being out of the bounds of any established colony, where a colonial charter formed the basis for civil society, the Mayflower passengers found themselves, technically, outside of the law. Their response? They would remain loyal subjects of the king, but they would create their own local laws. Pilgrims, who made the passage for religious reasons, and others who crossed the Atlantic for commercial gain, agreed to live together in the New World under equal laws created democratically "for the General good."
The Mayflower Compact was signed four hundred years ago on November 11, 1620 (Julian Calendar, the 21st in our Gregorian Calendar) on board the Mayflower at anchor in Provincetown Harbor. In it they agreed to: "solemnly and mutually in the Presence of God and one of another, covenant and combine ourselves together into a civil Body Politick, for our better Ordering and Preservation, and Furtherance of the Ends aforesaid; And by Virtue hereof to enact, constitute, and frame, such just and equal Laws, Ordinances, Acts, Constitutions and Offices, from time to time, as shall be thought most meet and convenient for the General good of the Colony; unto which we promise all due submission and obedience." And, thus, was established the first experiment in limited self-government in North America.
This Thanksgiving may God bless all the readers of the Textiles and Trade BLog with his bounty and with health of body and mind.
In addition to our prayers of Thanksgiving, may I suggest --
O Most mighty and merciful God, in this time of grievous sickness, we flee unto thee for succor. Deliver us, we beseech thee, from our peril; give strength and skill to all those who minister to the sick; prosper the means made use of for their cure; and grant that, perceiving how frail and uncertain our life is, we may apply our hearts unto that heavenly wisdom which leadeth to eternal life; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
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