Celebrate!
For those of us who live in the USA, Thanksgiving is our major holiday for November, and so Thanksgiving provides our theme for this month. But if you've already celebrated Canadian Thanksgiving, or if you're in a country where it's not a holiday at all, not to worry. Who says you need a holiday in order to give thanks?
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We Honor… |
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| Lydia Maria Child, author of the famous Thanksgiving song "Over the River and Through the Woods." Child was a well-known author in her day, who wrote novels as well as shorter pieces for women and children. Although she was a Unitarian, she was often dissatisfied with the Unitarian churches of the 1800s, which were not as open-minded as she was (or as they are today). Like most modern UUs, she felt that people should be open to learning from all religions, and that we should focus on the moral teachings of Jesus rather than on what she called "superstitious rubbish" like the stories of him performing miracles. She was excited when a group of Unitarians started the Free Religious Association in 1867, so that she could belong to a religious group that truly shared her views. Lydia Maria Child was a strong and outspoken opponent of slavery and supporter of women's suffrage (women getting the right to vote), and amongst other work she edited an anti-slavery newspaper and wrote a book designed to help freed slaves learn to read. Although her sweet song about the pleasures of an old-fashioned trip by horse carriage to enjoy Thanksgiving pumpkin pie with family is a classic, there's a lot more about this fiery lady for us to be thankful for!
Learn more about Lydia Maria Child. |
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Act!
Thanksgiving is the time of year when many food banks or food pantries rely on getting donations to help people who might not be able to afford food to enjoy their holidays. A good small November project is to go through your cupboards or make a special trip to the grocery store to collect canned goods or other foods that won't spoil to donate to your local food bank. Or, if you're up for a bigger project, organize your church, your school or your neighborhood to collect food to donate together. Or ask the food pantry for a list of items they would most like to have and make a flier with that information to hand out to people as they go into the grocery store. You can be outside waiting with a barrel or laundry hamper or bunch of bags to take donations of food for the food pantry. Of course, you'll need a grown-up with you on this project (preferably one who has agreed to drive the donations to the food pantry).
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Nurturing Your Spirit
One of the most important spiritual practices the world over is that of gratitude, being thankful for all of the countless gifts that life gives us. Maybe you'd like to make November Thanksgiving Month, rather than just celebrating Thanksgiving Day. No, I'm not suggesting you eat turkey every day for a month, let alone pumpkin pie. But there are lots of things you can do to practice giving thanks. For instance, you can:
Start a practice at bedtime or dinnertime of having every person in the family name one thing they are grateful for that day. Try to come up with something different every day!
Keep a gratitude journal, in which you write down all the things you are grateful for. How many can you come up with? Feel free to e-mail me your list at RE@clfuu.org, and let me know if you'd like it posted on this page.
Make a gratitude collage, cutting out pictures from old magazines (ask permission first!) that remind you of things you're thankful for and gluing them onto a piece of paper or posterboard.
Send thank you notes to family or friends, letting them know what you appreciate about who they are or what they do. |
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Practicing the Principles
Thanksgiving seems like a good time to focus on our seventh principle, "Respect for the interdependent web of all existence of which we are a part." Part of being thankful for life is to remember that we are a small part of a much larger whole, and that our lives depend upon many other lives. Maybe if you will be having a Thanksgiving feast you can figure out all the living beings involved in what you will be eating (not just the turkey, but also the cranberries, and the cows who gave milk for butter and the people who baked the bread and...). You can write a special thank you prayer that names them all, which you could share at Thanksgiving dinner. |
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Ask CLiF
Ask CLiF any questions you have about religion or living
a good life.
Dear CLiF,
What do religions think happens to you when you die?
—Amy
Dear Amy,
Well, that depends on the religion—and often on the particular person within the religion. But generally speaking, Hindus believe that you get reincarnated—born into another body, which might or might not be human depending on what your previous life was like. Christians generally believe that those who are "saved" go to heaven, while others go to hell—although not all Christians have the same beliefs about who is saved or how you get that way. (Some Christians think only those who accept Jesus as their personal savior are saved, while others think that those who live a good life but aren’t Christian don’t necessarily go to hell.) Muslims also believe that some people go to a wonderful paradise, while some go to hell, depending on the choices they made while they were alive. Buddhists believe in a variety of different heavens and hells, but that you aren’t permanently stuck in one place, but can "rise" or "fall." Jews sort of vaguely have an idea of heaven and hell, but aren’t nearly as interested in the whole subject as Christians and Muslims—Judaism (like UUism) is more focused on what you do while you’re alive.
—CLiF
Dear CLiF,
How do Buddhists use Buddhist symbols in their prayer and celebration?
—Danny
Dear Danny,
Wow, good question. I’m far from being an expert on this, but I think I can give you a start. For one thing, Buddhist symbols such as the lotus flower; the wheel; deer; colors including white, black, blue, green, red and yellow; hand shapes called mudras; and more are used in artwork which might appear in temples, where the symbols would remind worshippers of the teachings of the Buddha. But these symbols can also be used in active ways in worship. For instance Tibetan Buddhist prayer wheels have symbols on the outside and a sacred text, often "om mani padme hum," inside. Spinning these prayer wheel is believed to be as meaningful as reciting prayers, sending the good thoughts out into the world. Also, the mudras hand shapes are used in meditation and dance as well as in sculptures and paintings of the Buddha. The meaning of these different hand shapes, then, becomes part of the meditation or dance. If you’d like to, learn more about this.
—CLiF
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