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Thanksgiving: The religious and social festival
that converts every family mansion into a Family Meeting House."
Traditions define a holiday and make it special. In any generation, they form a link with the past and comprise a heritage for future generations, valued by the individual as a way to participate in something that endures beyond a single lifetime.
Thanksgiving gives an opportunity to feel this continuous contact of generations. The tradition of celebrating Thanksgiving Day is deeply rooted in American history.
American Thanksgiving Day began in Plymouth Colony in 1621, when the Pilgrims who had migrated to Massachusetts gave thanks that the new land had been good to them and that they had been able to harvest a good crop their first year.
Actually, days of thanksgiving, with their prayers and feasting, are far older than the time of the Pilgrims. The American celebration is an adaptation of Hammas (Loaf Mass) Day, August 1, which was celebrated in Britain if there was an abundant crop of wheat but not otherwise. Moreover, thanksgiving for successful crops is common enough to all agricultural peoples.
This holiday was proclaimed at various times in all regions of the English colonies and was popular. Time passed, and Thanksgiving changed from a regional holiday to a national one. The first officially designated day of Thanksgiving was in 1631 in Massachusetts. In 1789 President George Washington appointed the last Thursday in November as a national Thanksgiving Day.
In 1861, during the Civil War, President Lincoln in an attempt to bolster unionist spirit, proclaimed the last Thursday in November as an annual national Thanksgiving holiday.
Soon afterwards, the northern regions won the war and the union was preserved. As regionalism quickly faded, the tradition of the Thanksgiving Day feast celebrated nationally was accepted. The religious core of the holiday, however, was lost in the transition.
Nowadays the central traditions of Thanksgiving Day are too commonplace to need lengthy description here. Families gather for the holiday. Churches are open as they always are; ministers deliver Thanksgiving sermons. Football teams do battle on Thanksgiving afternoon. And, of course, the traditional turkey dinner is eaten by families across the land. But recent decades have added new twists to time-honoured traditions.
Television networks, aware of the large holiday audience provide special Thanksgiving programming from the early morning till late at night, beginning with the Thanksgiving parades and continuing with football.
In the evening, the networks broadcast popular family movies and other entertainment programs, but for many people football is the highlight of Thanksgiving on television. Indeed, 100 years and millions of enthusiastic fans have established football as an American Thanksgiving tradition.
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Americans would no sooner change the menu for
Thanksgiving dinner than paint the White House beige."
There are no more quintessential Thanksgiving dishes than pumpkin pie and turkey.
Pumpkins, native to the Western Hemisphere, came through the normal trade roots from Central and South America. They were used by the North American Indians centuries before Columbus reached the West Indies. They were boiled, baked in ashes, used in bread, and dried. In the beginning the Pilgrims stewed pumpkins and mixed them with Indian cornmeal to make bread, but they also filled the pumpkin shell with milk, sugar and spice, and baked it in the fireplace.
Today Pumpkin Pie is a part of most traditional Thanksgiving dinners. Recipes for this dish are endless, and methods of serving provide an equal variety.
Pumpkin pie, mince pie, chicken pie, etc. Pies, filled with meat, vegetables, fruit or custard are served in rich families and poor ones, and might appear at any meal. This pie abundance inspired Daniel Webster, the great New England statesman, to compose the following verse:
In Massachusetts, sad to say,
Until, at last, it makes you cry,
"What else is there that I can try?"
They look at you in some surprise
And feed you other kind of pies.
There is also no substitute for turkey with chestnut stuffing. The turkey is an American native first domesticated by the Aztecs in Mexico. Spanish conquistadors brought the birds to Spain, and it may be that the first English people who saw one thought that it came from Turkey. It's also possible that the name derives from the bird's call which sounds something like "Turk-turk".
Many of these foods had gained popularity because of their supposed connection to the Pilgrims. People understand that they eat symbols of their folk history, thereby regaining some of the qualities they believed their ancestors possessed. And they are clever enough not to tamper with this.
The legend of the Pilgrims and the first Thanksgiving became an important part of American folklore. The Pilgrims, refugees from religious persecution in Europe, were perfect models for new immigrants.
Today in the US, Thanksgiving is celebrated by many Americans whose roots do not stem from Britain and whose tastes therefore are quite different. Generally, it has been found out that roast turkey remains central to the meal but that the accompanying dishes are those of another cuisine. The Puerto Ricans will serve turkey, rice and beans, a pudding made of rice and coconut milk. The Greeks will add their traditional salad and condiments, namely feta cheese. Families from India, since most of them are vegetarians, tend to keep to their own cuisine. The Italians mix the menu, serving soup, roast turkey, ravioli, macaroni, pumpkin pie, wine and coffee. They cannot tolerate sweet potatoes. The Poles use turkey with various vegetables, but serve apple pie and lots of beer and whiskey.
Thanksgiving dinner is still considered as a national institute. But, the menu is immutable only in idealised memories of the Thanksgiving dinners of childhood. In reality, dishes that were unheard of a century ago appear on Thanksgiving tables nowadays, and dishes that were once a tradition have disappeared.
The traditions vary all the time. But it's comforting to know that although the details of some customs may change, Thanksgiving endures as a lodestar in a changing landscape.
Thanksgiving Grace:
Yes ma'm, no ma'm,
Thank you ma'm, please.
Open up the turkey's butt
And fork out the peas.
Compiled by Svetlana Anurova
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Test Your Knowledge of Thanksgiving!
INSTRUCTIONS: It's easy. Just read each question and choose the right answer. You get one point for each correct answer. Try to get at least 7 points. To find the answers, just read The Thanksgiving Story on the next page. Good luck!
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What year did the Pilgrims have their first Thanksgiving Feast?
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What food was probably NOT on the Pilgrims' Thanksgiving menu?
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Biscuits
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Corn
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Fish
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Dried Fruit
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What food item probably WAS consumed by the Pilgrims at their first Thanksgiving?
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Pumpkin Pie
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Lobster
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Turkey
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Cheese
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In 1676, a Day of Thanksgiving was proclaimed to take place during what month?
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May
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June
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October
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November
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Which president didn't like the idea of having a national Thanksgiving Day?
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Washington
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Nixon
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Truman
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Jefferson
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Who is credited with leading the crusade to establish Thanksgiving Day?
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Sarah Jessica Parker
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Sarah Lee
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Sarah Josepha Hale
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Sarah Ferguson
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Which president established the date of Thanksgiving as a national celebration?
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Jefferson
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Adams
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Lincoln
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Wilson
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Which president moved the date of Thanksgiving twice?
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Lincoln
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T. Roosevelt
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F. D. Roosevelt
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Eisenhower
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The reason Thanksgiving was moved up a week was. . .
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To fulfil a political promise
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To ward off evil spirits
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To bring it more in line with historical accounts
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To lengthen Christmas shopping season
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The Thanksgiving Story
The Pilgrims set ground at Plymouth Rock on December 11, 1620. Their first winter was devastating. At the beginning of the following fall, they had lost 46 of the original 102 who sailed on the Mayflower. But the harvest of 1621 was a bountiful one. And the remaining colonists decided to celebrate with a feast - including 91 Indians who had helped the Pilgrims survive their first year. The feast lasted three days.
Governor William Bradford sent "four men fowling" after wild ducks and geese. It is not certain that wild turkey was part of their feast. However, it is certain that they had venison. The term "turkey" was used by the Pilgrims to mean any sort of wild fowl.
Another modern staple at almost every Thanksgiving table is pumpkin pie. But it is unlikely that the first feast included that treat. The supply of flour had been long diminished, so there was no bread or pastries of any kind. However, they did eat boiled pumpkin, and they produced a type of fried bread from their corn crop. There was also no milk, cheese, cider, or butter. But the feast did include fish, berries, watercress, lobster, dried fruit, clams, venison, and plums.
This first "thanksgiving" feast was not repeated the following year. In fact, it wasn't until June of 1676 that another Day of Thanksgiving was proclaimed.
On June 20, 1676, the governing council of Charlestown, Massachusetts, held a meeting to determine how best to express thanks for the good fortune that had seen their community securely established. By unanimous vote they instructed Edward Rawson, the clerk, to proclaim June 29 as a Day of Thanksgiving. The following is that proclamation:
The Holy God having by a long and Continual Series of his Afflictive dispensations in and by the present War with the Heathen Natives of this land, written and brought to pass bitter things against his own Covenant people in this wilderness, yet so that we evidently discern that in the midst of his judgements he hath remembered mercy, having remembered his Footstool in the day of his sore displeasure against us for our sins, with many singular Intimations of his Fatherly Compassion, and regard; reserving many of our Towns from Desolation Threatened, and attempted by the Enemy, and giving us especially of late with many of our Confederates many signal Advantages against them, without such Disadvantage to ourselves as formerly we have been sensible of, if it be the Lord's mercy that we are not consumed. It certainly bespeaks our positive Thankfulness, when our Enemies are in any measure disappointed or destroyed; and fearing the Lord should take notice under so many Intimations of his returning mercy, we should be found an Insensible people, as not standing before Him with Thanksgiving, as well as lading him with our Complaints in the time of pressing Afflictions:
The Council has thought meet to appoint and set apart the 29th day of this instant June, as a day of Solemn Thanksgiving and praise to God for such his Goodness and Favour, many Particulars of which mercy might be Instanced, but we doubt not those who are sensible of God's Afflictions, have been as diligent to espy him returning to us; and that the Lord may behold us as a People offering Praise and thereby glorifying Him; the Council doth commend it to the Respective Ministers, Elders and people of this Jurisdiction; Solemnly and seriously to keep the same Beseeching that being persuaded by the mercies of God we may all, even this whole people offer up our bodies and souls as a living and acceptable Service unto God by Jesus Christ.
October of 1777 marked the first time that all 13 colonies joined in a thanksgiving celebration. It also commemorated the patriotic victory over the British at Saratoga. But it was a one-time affair.
George Washington wanted to proclaim a National Day of Thanksgiving in 1789, but discord among the colonies prevented it. Many felt the hardships of a few Pilgrims did not warrant a national holiday. And later, President Thomas Jefferson scoffed at the idea of having a Day of Thanksgiving.
It was Sarah Josepha Hale, a magazine editor, whose efforts eventually led to what we recognize as Thanksgiving. Hale wrote many editorials championing her cause in her Boston Ladies' Magazine, and later, in Godey's Lady's Book. Finally, after a 40-year campaign of writing editorials and letters to governors and presidents, Hale's obsession became a reality when, in 1863, President Lincoln proclaimed the last Thursday in November as a national day of Thanksgiving.
Since then, the date was changed only once, by Franklin Roosevelt, who set it up one week to the third Thursday in order to create a longer Christmas shopping season. Public uproar against this decision caused the president to move Thanksgiving back to its original date two years later
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