This week across the United States, Thanksgiving is being celebrated. Many of us remember making a construction paper hat or headband in elementary school.

My first-grade teacher let us choose if we wanted to identify as a Pilgrim or as a Native American for our classroom “feast,” which was probably candy corn and marshmallows. We learned the story of that first feast in 1621 as we colored mimeographed turkeys and cornucopias.

Other countries also have Harvest Festivals. It’s a time to show gratitude and honor to those who cultivate our crops. Before supermarkets and delivery apps, people were dependent on whatever could be grown locally to feed their children and livestock.

In the United Kingdom, Harvest Sunday was October 5, 2025. In Canada Thanksgiving was observed on October 13, 2025.

That makes sense. When you think about Canada being so much further north, the growing season is shorter. It also falls on a Monday, and it is early enough that Christmas shopping is not a part of the weekend observation.

Many cultures have had some versions of the Harvest Festival. We even find those stories in the Bible.

Deuteronomy 26:1-4 are instructions about taking some of the first of the harvest and presenting it to the priest. In verses 5-10, the farmer remembers what has brought them to this day. Depending on your Bible translation, the farmer is described as a sojourner, foreigner, alien or pilgrim who left affliction in Egypt seeking a better life. The story wraps up at verse 11 like this: “Then you, together with the tribes and the aliens who reside among you, shall celebrate with all the bounty that the Lord your God has given to you and to your house.”

Almost all of us have an immigration story — or several — in our family tree. Yes, the Native Americans were here first. Others were brought to this continent against their will in slave ships. But most of us have stories of folk who traveled here with very few resources, hoping to find a better life for themselves and their children.

My own forebear, Patrick Collogan, left Ireland at the beginning of the potato famine and next shows up on a census in Galena, Illinois. In my family we say he was perhaps a very rare thing: an Irish Catholic only child. In an era when other families were coming from Europe in “chain migration,” Patrick did not connect with any family in the U.S. and no one ever came from Ireland to join him.

This week let us lean into gratitude.

For the folk who came in the generations before us who made sacrifices we will never fully understand.

For the people now who work long hours to provide us with food, shelter, education, utilities, transportation and healthcare.

Thank the workers you encounter in coming weeks.

The Bible tells us that every good and perfect gift comes from God.

“Lord, we thank you for all the good gifts you give to us. We thank you for your love and your patience with us. Amen.”

The Rev. Doresa “Dori” Collogan is pastor of Faith United Methodist Church, 2020 Superior Street, Webster City, and Kamrar United Methodist.