Thanksgiving is tomorrow, and I suspect that you are doing lots of things to get
ready for this special day. Let me suggest you add one more item to your to do list. Visit
the Probe website (www.probe.org) and download a copy of my Thanksgiving Quiz.
Thanksgiving is a wonderful time to gather as a family, but I also believe it can be
a great time to teach our children and grandchildren about America’s godly heritage. I
created this short quiz to be a conversation-starter around the Thanksgiving table.
Perhaps you share my frustration about how Thanksgiving is often a missed
opportunity. We used to go around the table before the meal and ask our children to tell
what they were thankful for. After a few years of hearing about how they were thankful
for their cat, their doll, their video games, I knew we needed to do something else.
The Thanksgiving Quiz was born out of that frustration. It has nineteen questions
and answers on the Pilgrims and the Mayflower Compact as well as some questions and
answers about the Christian heritage of America.
Who were the Pilgrims and why did they leave Europe for America? Why did
they celebrate Thanksgiving? What is the Mayflower Compact, and why is it significant?
What lessons did the Pilgrims learn about work and even free enterprise? How did the
Christian faith influence America? These are just a few of the sorts of questions that you
can ask around the table and give short answers.
Perhaps it is time to recapture the importance of Thanksgiving. On the
bicentennial celebration of the landing of the Pilgrims at Plymouth Rock, Daniel Webster
on December 22, 1820, declared the following: “Let us not forget the religious character
of our origin. Our fathers were brought hither by their high veneration for the Christian
religion. They journeyed by its light, and labored in its hope. They sought to incorporate
its principles with the elements of their society, and to diffuse its influence through all
their institutions, civil, political, or literary.”
It is my hope this quiz will help your family see the importance of Thanksgiving.