November Thanksgiving writing challenge
Johnny recently won the Halloween writing challenge, and in the comments of the announcement set a challenge to everyone else to write a thanksgiving story. The following was written by Johnny:
Johnny, winner of the Halloween writing competition
Thanksgiving Day is a national holiday celebrated primarily in the United States and Canada as a day of giving thanks for the blessing of the harvest and of the preceding year. Several other places around the world observe similar celebrations.
In the English tradition, days of thanksgiving and special thanksgiving religious services became important during the English Reformation in the reign of Henry VIII. That was in 1536.
The first Canadian Thanksgiving is often traced back to 1578 and the explorer Martin Frobisher. Frobisher, who had been trying to find anorthern passage to the Pacific Ocean, held his Thanksgiving celebration not for harvest but in thanks for surviving the long journey from England through the perils of storms and icebergs.
In the United States, the modern Thanksgiving holiday tradition is commonly traced to a documented 1621 celebration at Plymouth in present-day Massachusetts. The 1621 Plymouth feast and thanksgiving was prompted by a good harvest.
In it’s way, it is celebrated at different times, and for different reasons, in Germany, Australia, the Netherlands, and Liberia. So, it is certainly a concept neither originated nor exclusive to the United States.
So, here at Ongoing Worlds, we shall celebrate it with a call to all to submit, in 500 words or less, a tale or legend or event that has occurred in your world, or to your character, that might be cause for personal celebration. Or perhaps even a cause for celebration by the masses who people whichever world you have created or thrived within.
500 words. To what or whom does your character give thanks? I hope to be truly moved by the submissions. It is a hard thing to do, make another feel with your words. But, this isn’t a suggestion or an assignment or a game.
It is a challenge. I look forward to reading those who rise to it. Post your story in the comments below.
Deadline: November 27, 2014.
