A series of pictures and factoids for Create's NaJoPoMo Challenge.

I really wanted to tell you about Thanksgiving. After all, the whole turkey-sacrifice business is so weird that it deserves at least an historical note. But due to anti-Yankee prejudice and lack of historical connections, I've never been to New England. And I promised not to show you anything I hadn't personally vetted. So Plymouth Rock is out.

Besides, Plymouth Rock is totally bogus. An historian of my acquaintance explained it to me, 'They just rowed around the harbour until they found a big enough rock, and christened it Plymouth Rock.' I'm sure he's right.

Leiden is out, too. The closest I've ever been is Amsterdam. The Pilgrims – aka, the Separatists – lived in Leiden for awhile, hiding out from English government persecution. Which might explain what I'm about to tell you.

You see, most people did not come to North America for religious freedom. They came for land, fur, fish (mostly cod), good hunting grounds, or a place to grow tobacco. This is not surprising. However, there were a few people who did come for religious freedom. These were the ones who got persecuted at home: my ancestors the Quakers, who couldn't afford all the fines any more, and were tired of being jailed for saying things like 'peace, man', the Pilgrims, ditto, and the people who built that tidy meetinghouse in the picture, the Pietists from Germany.

The Pietists were sweet people. They built a lovely little town near Pittsburgh, and made wine, beer, and good furniture. Unfortunately, they didn't believe in sex, so they died out.

The Pietists were German speakers. A lot of this religious-freedom business came from people who spoke German or Dutch. One of the reasons the Pilgrims went to New England was because, although they were welcome in tolerant Holland (where Leiden is), they were afraid of losing their culture. Their kids kept speaking Dutch at them. Since Dutch sounds more like a throat disease than a language, this was a bit distressing. Anyhow, the Dutch connection explains something else: Thanksgiving hymns.

We gather together to ask the Lord's blessing,

He chastens, ,and hastens his will to make known.

The wicked oppressing now cease from distressing,

Sing praises to his name, he forgets not his own.

Do you know that one? It's the most popular Thanksgiving song over here. The tune? It's a patriotic Dutch song, called Wilt heden nu treden. I'd give you a link, but hardly anyone sings it. They seem to prefer to blast it out on the organ. But here are the words and tune.

My point is that, yes, there were religious refugees in North American colonies: separatists, Quakers, freethinkers and nutcases. Some of them were Catholics, too. And yes, most of those religious refugees had the perfectly normal habit of holding Harvest Home dinners and inviting the neighbours. Some of those neighbours were local tribes. And yes, they frequently showed up with cranberry sauce and popcorn. After all, you don't come empty-handed.

So is that why the US has a national holiday called Thanksgiving? And why that holiday is associated with smugness, gluttony, and a rabid shopping season?

In a word, no. We got an official Thanksgiving holiday because of Abraham Lincoln. In 1864, he proclaimed a national day of Thanksgiving, on the grounds that anybody who was still alive in November,1864, ought to be well and truly thankful, because about half a million of their fellow-countrymen had already died. Since he wasn't their President in 1864, I imagine my Tennessee ancestors just shrugged and had their Thanksgiving dinner whenever they felt like it. Provided the Yankees hadn't stolen all the poultry.

Yes, the commercial interests, civil religion fanatics,and religious bigots have been borrowing the virtue of those dissenting refugees for a long time now. So what else is new? And they'll pig out, fill the TV with advertising, and feel smug about it, same as usual.

But if you're in the neighbourhood of Leiden, or the port of Plymouth, stop by and say a time-traveler 'hey' to the Pilgrims. You'd probably have liked them. They were a bunch of ordinary folk who couldn't afford the shilling fine every time they refused to listen to drivel at the C of E church. If somebody fined you 16 euros every time you skipped church, you'd move to South Holland, too. Or even cold Massachusetts.

And you'd probably feel thankful if you had a hot turkey dinner on a cold day.