Thanksgiving means ‘5 kernels of corn’

Do you associate the names Oceanus Hopkins, Peregrine White and Hezekiah Butterworth with the observance of Thanksgiving? Indeed, each name has significance in early American history…and the true meaning of the Thanksgiving holiday.

Oceanus, Peregrine and Hezekiah are rather distinctive first names, wouldn’t you agree?

Thanksgiving Day 2019 is Nov. 28, and it marks the start of the official countdown to the 400th anniversary observance to celebrate the Pilgrims’ arrival at Plymouth Rock in present-day Massachusetts in 1620.

In advance, it would behoove us all to brush up on the legends and lore associated with Oceanus, Peregrine and Hezekiah.

Oceanus Hopkins was on the Mayflower during its voyage from Plymouth in Devon on the southwest coast of England to the New World. The ship left port on Sept. 6, 1620, and the birth occurred Sept. 20. Parents Stephen and Elizabeth Hopkins chose to name their baby boy Oceanus, which is the Latin word for ocean. Sadly, the young colonist died at New Plymouth at age 6.

Peregrine White was also born aboard the Mayflower. His birthdate of Nov. 20, 1620, was just a few days after the vessel had arrived in America and was anchored off Cape Cod Hook, now called Provincetown Harbor. His parents, William and Susanna White, named their newborn child Peregrine, derived from a Latin word that means “a traveler coming from abroad.”

Peregrine White was fortunate to live a full life, contributing to the civic, military and religious interests of New Plymouth, helping the colony to survive and grow. He died in 1704 at age 83.

Hezekiah Butterworth was not one of the original New Plymouth colonists, but he did exhaustive research on the writings of Gov. William Bradford, who was the chosen leader of the new colony. Butterworth wrote a poem in 1898 titled “Five Kernels of Corn.” It tells the story of the first Thanksgiving observed in 1621.

The Thanksgiving & Co. website tells us that the first winter the Pilgrims spent in their new home was dagnabitt-ly bitter cold. “Food was in short supply. Some days, they only had enough food for each person to have five kernels of corn for the day.”

When spring came in 1621, they planted food that “grew and grew.” The website account continued: “The harvest was good, and they celebrated Thanksgiving with their native American friends. From then on, at each Thanksgiving feast, the Pilgrims laid out five kernels of corn on each plate to remind themselves of their blessings, and a simple legend was created.”

It goes like this:

The first kernel reminds us of the autumn beauty all around us.

The second kernel reminds us of our love for one another.

The third kernel reminds us of God’s love and care for us.

The fourth kernel reminds us of all our friends, especially our native brothers.

The fifth kernel reminds us that we are a free people.

Yvonne Pratt of Lancaster County, Pa., maintains a blog that is designed to preserve “America’s farmhouse heritage.” She says: “On Thanksgiving, we leave five kernels of corn by each plate, and guests use them to count off five of the year’s biggest blessings, giving specific thanks to God, from whom all blessings flow.”

Looking back, it was a minor miracle that 53 of the original 102 Pilgrims who came over on the Mayflower lived to attend the first Thanksgiving. They were the survivors who avoided disease and starvation and made it through the tough times that first winter.

Guests at the first Thanksgiving included 90 of the Wampanoag (WOMP uh NO ag) people from a nearby village, including their chieftain and king, Massasoit. The Native Americans had taught the colonists how to plant crops, fish and gather foods from the forests.

Colonist Edward Winslow, who worked as a printer in London, became the colonists’ official scribe. He wrote: “Our harvest being gotten in, our governor sent four men out fowling.” The fowlers shot ample waterfowl.

However, it was the Native Americans who supplied the majority of the food, including deer, turkeys, fish, beans, squash, corn soup, corn bread and berries, according to Nancy Eldredge of Plimoth Plantation, a living history museum in Plymouth, Mass.