Thursday, November 22, 2007

Corn of plenty

http://www.columbusdispatch.com/live/content/local_news/stories/2007/11/22/0_TRADITIONS_--_page_1.ART_ART_11-22-07_A1_AR8HQUD.html?sid=101

[The Columbus Dispatch] 22 Nov 2007-- True to the spirit of the Pilgrims, those gathering today at the Johanssen home in Gahanna will spend a few hours giving thanks for the many blessings in their lives.

"We build it into the Thanksgiving ritual," said the Rev. John Johanssen, the family patriarch and rector of St. Alban's Episcopal Church in Bexley. "We're known to have a leisurely meal."

He introduced the "ageless tradition" to his family in the early 1990s, after hearing about it from a fellow priest.

Before any food is placed on the table, each person receives five kernels of Indian corn on his or her salad plate -- signifying the daily food allowance for settlers in the year before the first Thanksgiving feast, he said. ("Then, when the Colonists celebrated the first Thanksgiving with the bounty of the harvest, this was a sobering reminder of how much they had to be thankful for.")

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