感恩節的由來：五個鮮為人知的歷史事實 Five Forgotten Facts About The First Thanksgiving by Geoffrey Botkin

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感恩節的由來：五個鮮為人知的歷史事實

Five Forgotten Facts About The First Thanksgiving by Geoffrey Botkin

https://www.geoffreybotkin.com/

DeepL輔助英譯中

Five forgotten facts about that first Thanksgiving which can inform our gratitude.

關於第一次感恩節的五個被遺忘的事實，可以讓我們懂得感恩。

Point #1 The pilgrims were a really tough group of resourceful travelers, but they were totally unprepared to survive in the American wilderness. They had, of course, successfully evaded British government, soldiers, and authorities who wanted them, harassed and hounded out of their theological convictions, but they were willing to suffer for their convictions and they were really familiar with suffering. They migrated to a difficult cultural situation in Holland and then decided that building a nation from scratch might offer better opportunities for liberty and justice, especially for their own children.

【要點 1】五月花號上的朝聖者是一群非常堅強且足智多謀的旅行者，但他們完全沒有做好在美國荒野生存的準備。當然，他們成功地躲避了英國政府、士兵和當局對他們的通緝，躲避了對他們神學信仰的騷擾和追捕，但他們願意為自己的信仰受苦受難，他們對苦難十分熟悉。他們移居到文化環境艱苦的荷蘭，然後決定從頭開始建立一個國家，是為有更好的自由和正義的機會，尤其是為他們自己的孩子。

• pilgrims / ˈpil-grəm / n.指1620年搭乘五月花號抵達美國的英國移民
• resourceful / ri-ˈsȯrs-fəl / adj.機敏的，有本領的
• evade / ē-ˈvād / v.逃脫，躲避
• harass / hə-ˈras / v.騷擾，恐嚇
• conviction / kən-ˈvik-shən / n.堅定的信念或信仰
• migrate / ˈmī-ˌgrāt / v.移居
• from scratch 從頭開始

But then in prepping for life in a complete wilderness prior to the trip, they didn’t do it well. They knew it would be life-threatening. They were willing to take the risks and they prepared the very best way they knew how but they knew very little. When they anchored in Cape Cod, they caught only one fish. It was a bay teeming with fish, but they caught only one fish in the first four months they were there. The seeds they brought to plant for food were blighted by humidity and ruined on the ship. One of the first common houses they built on land burned down in an accident, forcing them back aboard the wet and unhealthy Mayflower. That’s where they had to live even even longer.

然而在旅行前，他們為在完全荒野的生活做的準備並不好。他們知道橫越大西洋到美洲大陸會有生命危險。他們願意承擔風險，也做了最好的準備，但他們卻了解的很少。當他們在鱈魚角停泊時，只捕到一條魚。那是一個盛產魚的海灣，但他們在那裡的頭四個月只捕到一條魚。他們帶來的種子因潮濕而枯萎，毀於船上。他們在陸地上建造的第一批普通房屋之一在一次事故中被燒毀，迫使他們回到潮濕、不健康的五月花號上。在那裡，他們不得不生活得更久一些。

• life-threatening / ˈlīf-ˌthret-niŋ / adj.威脅到生命的
• Cape Cod 鱈魚角（或譯科德角），美國東北岸馬薩諸塞州東南部伸入大西洋的一個海岬半島
• teem / ˈtēm / v.充滿
• blight / ˈblīt / v.毀壞，枯萎
• Mayflower 五月花號一艘英國船，於1620 年將一群英國清教徒從英格蘭運送到新大陸（美國）

Point #2 They died from scurvy and pneumonia all that first winter long. Now they all had scurvy from being more than two months at sea, and they were even then more months without fruits and vegetables in the wilderness. And then, add to that the previous months being homeless and without good food in England. Some had lived on the Mayflower several months before sailing as all arrangements were being finalized for the trip. So that first winter, approximately one pilgrim died every other day for the first three months until half were dead. Sometimes two or three died in a single day. During that time, they were so weak, only six or seven out of the entire group had the strength to even walk around, and on these fell the duties of getting firewood for the others, tending those fires, taking food to the others, cleaning bed pans, washing soiled clothes and linens, dressing and undressing the weak, and then trying to dig graves in the frozen ground. In whatever time was left, those who could tried to build more houses. They only had seven by the time spring came.

【要點 2】第一個冬天，很多人死於壞血病和肺炎。在海上漂泊兩個多月，他們都得了壞血病。之後在荒野中，他們甚至有更多的月份沒有水果和蔬菜。再加上之前幾個月在英國他們無家可歸，沒有好的食物。有些人在五月號號啓航前幾個月就住在船上，因為當時所有的行程安排都已敲定。因此，在第一個冬天的前三個月里，大約每隔一天就有一名成員死去，直到死掉了一半的人。有時一天之內就死了兩三個。在那段時間里，他們非常虛弱，整個隊伍中只有六七個人有力氣走動，而任務就落在了這些人的身上：為其他人找柴火、生火、給其他人送食物、清洗便盆、清洗弄髒的衣服和床單、為虛弱的人穿脫衣服，然後努力在冰凍的土地上挖墳墓上。在剩下的時間里，有能力的人試圖建造更多的房屋。春天來臨時，他們只蓋了七間房子。

• scurvy / ˈskər-vē / n.壞血病
• pneumonia / nu̇-ˈmō-nyə / n.肺炎
• arrangement / ə-ˈrānj-mənt / n.籌備，準備，安排
• bed pan n.便盆

Point #3 When spring finally did come. the pilgrims were visited by benevolent Indians of the region, including Squanto, the only survivor of his Patuxet tribe. Squanto stayed then and lived with the pilgrims from that day on until the day of his death. He became their friend. He was kind of like a county extension agent. He was their professor of American agriculture and he was part of the pilgrim family. He spoke good English for reasons that would make a really great movie. Several years previously, he was kidnapped by an English businessman named Hunt. He was sold as a slave in Spain. Some Catholic monks bought him and began training him to live and think like a free man. Somehow, Squanto made it to England and learned good English and the ways of the British, and the ways of maritime business, until he could catch a ride on a ship back to North America. When he finally arrived at Cape Cod, he found his home town, his home tribe, he found that the entire tribe had been wiped out by a plague, and the scientists think now it was leptospirosis. Had this not happened, the pilgrims would never have been able to settle Plymouth. Because Plymouth was Patuxet land, the Patuxets would have killed the pilgrims. But that one survivor, Squanto helped the pilgrims make full use of all that land which had been cleared by the Patuxets, and it became a bountiful garden which amazed all the other tribes of Massachusetts.

【要點3】 當春天終於來臨的時候，當地善良的印第安人拜訪了他們，其中包括帕圖西特部落唯一的幸存者史廣多。史廣多從那天起就和朝聖者們住在一起，直到他去世。他成了他們的朋友。他有點像縣里的推廣員。他是他們的美國農業教授，也是朝聖者家庭的一員。他的英語說得很好，這點可以拍成一部非常棒的電影。幾年前，他被一個叫亨特的英國商人綁架。他被賣到西班牙當奴隸。一些天主教僧侶買下了他，開始訓練他像自由人一樣生活和思考。不知怎的，史廣多來到了英國，學會了一口流利的英語，學習了英國人的生活方式以及海上貿易的方式，直到他能搭上一艘返回北美的船。當他終於到達鱈魚角時，他找到了他的家鄉，他發現整個部落都被一場瘟疫消滅了，科學家們現在認為是鈎端螺旋體病。如果沒有這場瘟疫，朝聖者就不可能在普利茅斯定居。因為普利茅斯是帕圖西特人的地盤，帕圖西特人會殺了朝聖者。但是，史廣多這個幸存者幫助他們充分利用了被帕圖西特人開墾出來的所有土地，使之成為一個豐饒的花園，令馬薩諸塞州的所有其他部落都為之驚嘆。

• benevolent / bə-ˈnev-lənt / adj.仁慈的，善意的
• Squanto 史廣多，印第安人，帕圖西特部落唯一幸存者。曾被擄作奴隸，在歐洲為奴時學習了英語，回到美國時發現部族人死於感染病，後幫助五月花號的清教徒在北美生存下來。在史廣多的幫助下，清教徒們在當年獲得豐收，並提議設立一個感恩的節日，慶祝豐收，感謝造物主的恩典。此即感恩節的由來。
• Patuxet 美國帕圖西特印第安部落
• maritime / ˈmer-ə-ˌtīm / adj,海運的，航海的
• leptospirosis / ˌlep-tə-spī-ˈrō-səs / n.鈎端螺旋體病（一種急性全身性感染性疾）
• Plymouth / ˈpli-məth / 普利茅斯，位於美國的馬薩諸塞州。1620年11月，五月花號帶著清教徒抵達今天的普利茅斯灣，並簽訂了美國歷史上第一份政治性契約——《五月花號公約》。美國歷史上的第一個感恩節也在這裡慶祝。
• bountiful / ˈbau̇n-ti-fəl / n.豐富的，充實的
• Massachusetts / ˌma-sə-ˈchü-səts / 美國的馬薩諸塞州

Point #4 In five short months, the pilgrims went from conditions of sickness and starvation to the condition of over abundance of food security. This is what they were celebrating. It was not just a meal. It was a solemn commemorative gathering of thanksgiving to God, lasting several days. It was called just a mere ten months after the pilgrims explored Plymouth in an icy cold December. They were cold. They were sick. They were miserable.

【要點 4】在短短五個月的時間里，朝聖者從疾病和飢餓的環境中走了出來，變成了食品有保障的富足狀態。這就是他們所慶祝的感恩節。這不僅僅是一頓飯，這是一次向上帝感恩的隆重紀念聚會，持續了好幾天。朝聖者在冰冷的十二月探索普利茅斯，僅僅過了十個月，就舉行了這樣的聚會。他們很冷，他們病了，他們很悲慘。

• starvation / stär-ˈvā-shən / n.飢餓
• commemorative / kə-ˈmem-rə-tiv / adj.紀念性的
• miserable / ˈmi-zə-rə- / adj.痛苦的，不幸的

Point #5 This first Thanksgiving was a mark of genuine sincere faith in a real and personal and a kind and a loving God. It was formal acknowledgement of God’s mercy and grace to them. They were not bashful or shy about acknowledging this and proclaiming this. This was not a superstitious reaction to good fortune. It was a mature faith that they had, which marked their lives from days past and into the future. This mature and informed faith had grown over time. It kept them fighting for their freedom when they were being chased down by agents of the state in England and being chased out of their jobs in their homes, living as homeless fugitives for years and being laughed at by the politically correct. They were being stolen from and abused by the mob, until they regrouped in Holland, and it was there that they made a plan in faith to set up the foundations for a free society by taking new ground in the new world.

【要點 5】第一個感恩節是對信仰一位真實、親切、仁慈和仁愛的上帝的真誠的標誌。這是正式承認上帝對他們的憐憫和恩典。他們在承認和宣告這一點時並不感到羞愧。這不是對好運的迷信的反應，這是他們成熟的信仰，是他們從過去到未來生活的標誌。隨著時間的推移，這種成熟而明智的信仰在不斷成長。當他們在英國被國家追捕、被趕出家門失去工作、長年過著無家可歸的逃亡生活、被政治正確者嘲笑時，這種信仰讓他們為自由而戰。他們被偷竊，被暴徒辱罵，直到他們在荷蘭重新集結。在那裡，他們懷著信念制定了一項計劃，要在新世界開闢新天地，為自由社會奠定基礎。

• genuine / ˈjen-yə-wən / adj.真誠的，由衷的
• superstitious / ˌsü-pər-ˈsti-shəs / adj.迷信的
• fugitive / ˈfyü-jə-tiv / n.逃亡者

So check the notes below for source documents on first-hand accounts that are rarely quoted by teachers or historians. Here are some good resources to use in further study:

因此，請查看下面的拓展資源，瞭解教師或歷史學家都很少引用的第一手資料。以下是可進一步學習使用的好資源：

• Of Plymouth Plantation: 1620-1645, Modernized & Abridged, Mayflower Quadricentennial Edition (Mayflower Quadricentennial Editions – https://amzn.to/36aLKxy ) 中文譯作：《普利茅斯開拓史》作者：威廉·布拉福德
• Mourt’s Relation: A Journal of the Pilgrims at Plymouth Paperback – September 1, 1986 (https://amzn.to/2HJ3siy )
• Meet the Puritans: With a Guide to Modern Reprints Hardcover – February 1, 2007 (https://amzn.to/3fBBZvu )