Giving thanks

Americans have a holiday that is so integrated into their thinking, and so neatly aligned to religious thinking that most people assume it had some sort of religious origin (a bit like Christmas). That holiday (from the original "holy-day") is Thanksgiving - and they celebrate it next Thursday.

In fact it is not religious - it started as a collective sigh of relief that early settlers had survived! And it was a continuation of their European harvest thanksgiving parties: with the help of local indigenous experts, the European settlers had grown and gathered enough harvest to likely make it through the winter.

Down here in New Zealand we see Thanksgiving only in movies and television cliches where people are embarrassed by turkeys, sit around perfectly-set tables, and hold hands to say what they are grateful for.

I'm sure that is part of it - but it is also a time for families to forego the busy routines of their lives, and be together. In modern times that has become very significant for a lot of people.

On Thanksgiving day next week, again with no obvious religious intent, the staff of Garin College will welcome everybody who helped out during the year with plenty of food and drink so coaches, tutors, exam reader-writers, and all the rest can gather and be thanked.

Hundreds of invitations have gone out. Some people will come without an invitation.

People as young as our superb student sport and academic coaches - and as old as the school's famous workshop technician will come together as the community they are, to be thanked. The community will recognise that their cog is part of the whole well-oiled machine; they may feel separate when they zip into the school, do their thing, and zip off again - but in fact that well oiled machine would not run as well without them, without their contribution.

It is not a religious event any more than Thanksgiving - but "thanksgiving" is an English word that is a translation of the Greek word "eucharist". On a much earlier Thursday Jesus "gave thanks" for the fruits of the harvest, for creation and God's love, for friends, for life itself - then he blessed the bread and wine, and shared it with the instruction to keep doing this and to remember.

On Thursday next week we remember and celebrate - at least in America, and in Garin College New Zealand.