Light a Candle
in honor of the First Nations
of the Americas and Hawai'i

View the Thanksgiving candles lit right now.

With global warming, the devastation of the rain forests, and depletion of fossil fuels, we are on the brink of destroying the life of our planet.  We have accomplished this crime within the span of less than 200 years.  And yet, for millennia, the First Nations knew how to live in harmony with nature.  By colonizing at best and genocide at worst, we have deprived ourselves of their wisdom.

The time for a radical turning around has come.  In gratitude for the heroic acts of forgiveness which great leaders like Sitting Bull, Chief Joseph, and Buffalo Bird Woman have offered to their enemies, we light candles this Thanksgiving.  By this ritual, we commit ourselves to learn from the Wisdom Keepers who walked in harmony with Earth.

Share your thoughts in the special Thanksgiving forum.

This vigil began on Monday, November 6, 2006.
Since then, people from 16 countries have lit 407 candles.

"This Thanksgiving proclamation is important for the protection and care of Mother Earth…her land, air, and water.  The Native Peoples introduced the first settlers from Europe to their way of giving thanks.  Now we must realize that the greatest 'thank you' is to be good caretakers and stewards of this earth
and the gifts we have been given."
- Sister Mary José Hobday, OSF, Seneca elder, storyteller, author, professor, and Franciscan Sister

"This important initiative brings forth the true and deep meaning of a 'Thanksgiving Holiday' and urges us all to re-sacralize our lives and all our relationships, especially those with Mother Earth and her children who suffer so much when humans promote greed and violence in preference to awe, reverence, and sustainability."  
- Matthew Fox, President, Friends of Creation Spirituality