Throughout history, myths and legends have proven vital to the lives of nations and peoples, offering a sense of purpose, of place, of beginning, a spirit of endurance, of virtue, of pride, an idea of home, of family, of fatherland. The Iron Age tales of the warrior-hero Cú Chulainn, who singlehandedly defended Ulster from the armies of Queen Medb of Connacht in the famous Táin Bó Cúailnge (“Cattle Raid of Cooley”), inspired the Irish people with an image of courage and endurance as they suffered under long years of brutal British imperial occupation and, eventually, became an image of the nation’s bold warrior spirit when the Irish fought for their freedom in the early 20th century. Virgil’s “Aeneid” gave the people of Rome a history to proud of, linking them to the noble people of the fallen city of Troy, which could not be destroyed without trickery and deception, and placing the noble King Priam and his mighty son Hector as the forebearers of Rome.

Not all “national myths,” though, are quite so mythical. England had King Arthur, who, if not actually a real figure, as some scholars contend, was at least a composite of real historical figures. The lord of Camelot gave England’s Saxons a hero to look up to, a legend from the ages before the Norman conquest who embodied and exemplified wisdom, courage, gentleness, strength, justice, and chivalry, besting evildoers across the land, defending England from invasion, and seeking after the sacred Holy Grail. The epic “Song of Roland” relates the deeds of the eponymous Roland, a knight in the employ of the powerful Frankish ruler Charlemagne, who gives his life summoning help from the Frankish army against Muslim Arabs at the Battle of Roncevaux Pass. Roland’s sacrifice inspired centuries of a French warrior ethos, culminating in loyalty even unto death, and a deep fidelity to the Christian faith. Rodrigo Díaz de Vivar, better known as the knight El Cid, led Spanish Catholics in the Reconquista, reclaiming Spain from Muslim Moors who had invaded centuries prior, thus embodying the Reconquista spirit and a sense of national pride for generations.

America is not so old a nation as Ireland, England, France, or Spain, and still less an ancient empire like Rome. What is America’s national myth? It is true, the nation has countless historical heroes to honor, from George Washington and Thomas Jefferson to Daniel Boone and John “Johnny Appleseed” Chapman to Abraham Lincoln and Theodore Roosevelt, and so many more besides. But once a year, on the fourth Thursday in November, families and friends across the nation gather to celebrate Thanksgiving. It is in this much-anticipated day of feasting and fellowship that America’s national myth may be found.

Traditionally, Thanksgiving is linked to the landing of the Pilgrims at Plymouth Rock in the winter of 1620. It was a cold and brutal winter for the Pilgrims, who found themselves in an alien land, cut off from the comforts and conveniences that England had to offer, and left unmoored in the wild frontier that Eastern Massachusetts was at that time. Their landing-place had once been the home of the Patuxet Indians, who had been wiped out by plague years before. The Pilgrims nearly met a similar fate: only half of their population survived the winter of late 1620 and early 1621. The Pilgrims found themselves befriended by another nearby tribe of natives, the Wampanoag, who brokered a deal with the settlers, trading food and supplies in exchange for the rifle-armed Pilgrims’ protection against other hostile tribes. One of the natives, Squanto, a Patuxet Indian who survived the epidemic that killed his people, taught the Pilgrims how to plant foods like corn and the best places to hunt and fish. By the autumn of 1621, the surviving Pilgrims had brought in a good harvest and so hosted a feast, thanking God for the abundance He had given to them: food, friends, and a new world to call home.

While the feast of the Pilgrims is generally considered to be the origin of the Thanksgiving holiday, other colonists also gave thanks to God for bringing them safely to the New World. In 1619, a band of 38 English settlers arrived in what is today Virginia, at Berkeley Hundred, in what is today Charles City County. The London Company, which funded the settlers’ trip, decreed in its charter to the settlers “that the day of our ships arrival at the place assigned for plantation in the land of Virginia shall be yearly and perpetually kept holy as a day of thanksgiving to Almighty God.” Accordingly, upon arriving, the settlers hosted a religious celebration, praising God for their safe journey.

Historian Michael Gannon contended that the first Thanksgiving occurred over 50 years prior, in what is today St. Augustine, Florida, while others argue that the first Thanksgiving took place in Texas or in other parts of New England, including modern-day Boston. Some Catholics like to point to the first Mass celebrated by Christopher Columbus immediately upon arriving in the West Indies as the first Thanksgiving. (The word “Eucharist,” an integral part of the Catholic Mass, is literally translated as “thanksgiving.”)

Setting arguments of historical primacy aside, each of the Thanksgiving feasts shares a common trait: thanking God. This tradition was common throughout the history of Western civilization, tracing its roots all the way back to Scripture. In the Book of Samuel, Hannah offers a prayer of thanksgiving when she is with child, and even names her child Samuel, which means “Heard by God,” in gratitude for God answering her prayers (1 Samuel 2:1-10). The Psalms are filled with prayers of thanksgiving: David thanks God for delivering him from his enemies and for answering his prayers. When the Ark of the Covenant comes to Jerusalem, David orders the priests to thank God:

“Praise ye the Lord, and call upon his name: make known his doings among the nations. Sing to him, yea, sing praises to him: and relate all his wondrous works. Praise ye his holy name: let the heart of them rejoice, that seek the Lord. Seek ye the Lord, and his power: seek ye his face evermore. Remember his wonderful works, which he hath done: his signs, and the judgments of his mouth. O ye seed of Israel his servants, ye children of Jacob his chosen. He is the Lord our God: his judgments are in all the earth. Remember for ever his covenant: the word, which he commanded to a thousand generations. The covenant which he made with Abraham: and his oath to Isaac. And he appointed the same to Jacob for a precept: and to Israel for an everlasting covenant: Saying: To thee will I give the land of Chanaan: the lot of your inheritance. When they were but a small number: very few and sojourners in it. And they passed from nation to nation: and from a kingdom to another people. He suffered no man to do them wrong: and reproved kings for their sake. Touch not my anointed: and do no evil to my prophets. Sing ye to the Lord, all the earth: shew forth from day to day his salvation. Declare his glory among the Gentiles: his wonders among all people. For the Lord is great and exceedingly to be praised: and he is to be feared above all gods. For all the gods of the nations are idols: but the Lord made the heavens. Praise and magnificence are before him: strength and joy in his place. Bring ye to the Lord, O ye families of the nations: bring ye to the Lord glory and empire. Give to the Lord glory to his name, bring up sacrifice, and come ye in his sight: and adore the Lord in holy becomingness. Let all the earth be moved at his presence: for he hath founded the world immoveable. Let the heavens rejoice, and the earth be glad: and let them say among the nations: The Lord hath reigned. Let the sea roar, and the fulness thereof: let the fields rejoice, and all things that are in them. Then shall the trees of the wood give praise before the Lord: because he is come to judge the earth. Give ye glory to the Lord, for he is good: for his mercy endureth for ever. And say ye: Save us, O God our saviour: and gather us together, and deliver us from the nations, that we may give glory to thy holy name, and may rejoice in singing thy praises. Blessed be the Lord the God of Israel from eternity to eternity: and let all the people say Amen, and a hymn to God” (1 Chronicles 16:8-36).

This mighty prayer of thanksgiving, chronicling God’s promises throughout the ages, is echoed in the New Testament by Christ’s own mother:

“My soul doth magnify the Lord. And my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Savior. Because he hath regarded the humility of his handmaid; for behold from henceforth all generations shall call me blessed. Because he that is mighty, hath done great things to me; and holy is his name. And his mercy is from generation unto generations, to them that fear him. He hath shewed might in his arm: he hath scattered the proud in the conceit of their heart. He hath put down the mighty from their seat, and hath exalted the humble. He hath filled the hungry with good things; and the rich he hath sent empty away. He hath received Israel his servant, being mindful of his mercy: As he spoke to our fathers, to Abraham and to his seed for ever” (Luke 1:46-55).

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Likewise, Zechariah thanks God after his speech is restored and his son is born (Luke 1:67-79). These are all prayers of thanksgiving for the wonders which God has worked and the good that He has given. The Pilgrims, of course, were celebrating a bountiful harvest, but half of their number had died over the course of the winter. Fathers no doubt had to watch their sons and daughters shiver in the cold throughout the night, never to awaken in the morning. Mothers, to be sure, likely went without food themselves to ensure that their children were fed, while the mothers themselves wasted away to nothing. Even in the midst of these hardships, even with these losses fresh in mind and heavy in heart, the Pilgrims still chose to thank God. This practice, too, is rooted in Scripture.

When the faithful Job loses his wealth, his health, and his children over the course of a single day, he still gives glory to God: “Then Job rose up, and rent his garments, and having shaven his head fell down upon the ground and worshipped, and said: Naked came I out of my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return thither: the Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away: as it hath pleased the Lord so is it done: blessed be the name of the Lord” (Job 1:20-21). When the prophet Jeremiah is left to die in a cistern, he likewise gives honor to God, even in the midst of his hardship: “The mercies of the Lord that we are not consumed: because his commiserations have not failed. … They are new every morning, great is thy faithfulness. … The Lord is my portion, said my soul: therefore will I wait for him. … The Lord is good to them that hope in him, to the soul that seeketh him” (Lamentations 3:22-25). When God tells Habakkuk of troubles and woes ahead, he does not despair, but gives glory instead: “For the fig tree shall not blossom: and there shall be no spring in the vines. The labour of the olive tree shall fail: and the fields shall yield no food: the flock shall be cut off from the fold, and there shall be no herd in the stalls. But I will rejoice in the Lord: and I will joy in God my Jesus” (Habakkuk 3:17-18).

Perhaps the greatest examples, though, of giving thanks to God even in the midst of suffering come from Christ Himself, who is the model of perfect virtue for all Christians. On the very night He was betrayed, mere hours before He was to suffer His passion and death, even death on the anguishing and ignominious cross, Christ gave thanks to God for the Passover meal He shared with His apostles: “And taking the chalice, he gave thanks, and gave to them, saying: Drink ye all of this” (Matthew 26:27). Even while hanging, tortured and bloodied, mocked and reviled, upon the cross, Christ praised God the Father and asked for blessings, even upon his executioners: “And Jesus said: Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do” (Luke 23:34).

Thanksgiving Day is more than just a feast, and more even than a time to gather with family and reminisce over the past year. It is America’s national myth, a unifying force that gives the people of this great nation a sense of identity and purpose. And what is that purpose? What is that identity? Cú Chulainn taught the Irish courage, the “Aeneid” gave Romans pride, King Arthur led the English in chivalry, Roland inspired the French to live and die for their faith, and El Cid embodied the Reconquista. What then do Americans learn from the Pilgrims? What of Thanksgiving?

The lesson of Thanksgiving is twofold. The first lesson is the more obvious of the two: where other peoples’ national myths have taught them the virtues of courage or chivalry or inspired a spirit of martyrdom, the American national myth instills in its people a spirit of gratitude. It is good to thank God, not just when there is an abundant harvest, but even in the midst of scarcity, even in the presence of suffering: God is good, and He is owed thanksgiving for this reason alone, whether He blesses us with good gifts or purifies us with suffering. The earliest foundations of this great nation speak to that truth and have become a source of pride, joy, and identity for the people of this nation.

But the second lesson of Thanksgiving recognizes that this great nation was founded not as an outpost of England or France, not as a purely political entity, but has from its inception been rooted in reliance upon God and praise for His mighty works. “The year that is drawing toward its close has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies. To these bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the source from which they come, others have been added, which are of so extraordinary a nature that they cannot fail to penetrate and even soften the heart which is habitually insensible to the ever-watchful providence of Almighty God,” Abraham Lincoln wrote, in his proclamation honoring the first Thanksgiving. “No human counsel hath devised, nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy.”

This nation, its founding, its existence through nearly two-and-a-half centuries, and the well-being of its people are the gracious gifts of the Most High God. He is owed thanks by the people of this great nation, in good times and in bad, for He has been watching, guiding, and protecting this nation ever since the Pilgrims first stepped off the dock in England and onto the deck of the Mayflower all those many years ago.