While Christmas decorations began selling months before the first day of winter even began, Thanksgiving was once again not forgotten by Americans who rushed to grocery store aisles and packed highways, all in the name of turkey. Oh, yeah, and to celebrate family values or something. But what is this holiday we celebrate every year by gorging ourselves? As we settle back into our cluttered study desks and stress-induced all-nighters after our much needed Thanksgiving Break, I'll research into what it was that caused Thanksgiving and why we should be so thankful.
We all know the basic underlying story of the origin of Thanksgiving, at least a vague overview of it. Our image of Thanksgiving is that of something akin to events in 1621, the New England Colonists and Wampanoag Native American Indians held a three-day feast to promote brotherhood and equality all in the name of thanks and Kumbaya. Right? Well, it was more than a simple get-together of friends to get some munchies. The winter preceding the feast was brutal enough to half the population of the Mayflower passengers who had not enough supplies or preparation to bare against the conditions. The Wampanoag tribe, along with the Patuxet tribe, aided the colonists by educating them on how to work the land to nourish themselves.
At the time (some 50 years after Europeans first began colonizing), the Thanksgiving feast was not built to lead to a national or state holiday or holiday of any kind. It was not an event that had much significance during a time when conflicts arose quickly and steadfastly between Indians and Europeans.
While nowadays, Thanksgiving is a day for more earth-bound thanks to what one has, such as family and friends, there has been evidence that connects Thanksgiving to have been a Christian holiday as a day of thanks to God. Conversely, there has been evidence that the feast was held in thanks for the first harvest – no connection to religion.
Overall, the aforementioned "first Thanksgiving" (held at Plymouth Rock) that we attribute to our national holiday may not have even been the first Thanksgiving at all. There were multiple settlements that celebrated Thanksgiving festivities at different points and locations in America, not just the one that we commonly first think of.
According to History.com, "In 1565 … the Spanish explorer Pedro Menéndez de Avilé invited members of the local Timucua tribe to a dinner in St. Augustine, Florida, after holding a mass to thank God for his crew's safe arrival. On Dec. 4, 1619, when 38 British settlers reached a site known as Berkeley Hundred on the banks of Virginia's James River, they read a proclamation designating the date as ‘a day of thanksgiving to Almighty God.'"
Feasts were and still are often moments of celebration or moments of thanks. Providential holidays, being days of fasting or feasting as a means to praise God or celebrate harvest, have been organized all around the world since the dawn of time.
As reported by History.com, "In ancient times, the Egyptians, Greeks and Romans feasted and paid tribute to their gods after the fall harvest. Thanksgiving also bears a resemblance to the ancient Jewish harvest festival of Sukkot. Finally, historians have noted that Native Americans had a rich tradition of commemorating the fall harvest with feasting and merrymaking long before Europeans set foot on their shores."
The poster child of Thanksgiving, the turkey, was probably not the main and most highly anticipated dish on the menu for the first Thanksgiving, though.
"The feast consisted of fish(cod, eelsand bass) and shellfish (clams, lobsterand mussels), wild fowl(ducks, geese, swansand turkey), venison, berriesand fruit, vegetables(peas, pumpkin, beetrootand possibly, wildor cultivated onion), harvest grains (barleyand wheat) and the Three Sisters: beans, dried Indian maizeor corn and squash," according to Wikipedia.
Pumpkin pie and other commonly seen desserts on modern Thanksgiving tables were not featured due to a shortage of the necessary amount of ovens and sugar needed.
According to the National Turkey Foundation, close to 90% of Americans eat turkey every Thanksgiving
If you're wondering when Thanksgiving became an official national holiday, it stems back hundreds of years to our first president, George Washington, along with John Adams and James Madison, who in 1789 called for a day of the year for Americans to celebrate the nation's conclusion of the Revolutionary War and ratification of the Constitution.
It was not until President Abraham Lincoln proclaimed Thanksgiving a national holiday in 1863, finalized as every fourth Thursday in November, during a time when the Civil War was still in full effect. It is largely thanks to Sarah Joseph Hale, first woman editor of America's first women's magazine, "Ladies Magazine," and also author of the Nursery rhyme, "Mary Had a Little Lamb." For decades, Hale had sent letters to president after president, vying for the unification of each state to celebrate each other and appreciate what one has.
Now a widely celebrated tradition, Thanksgiving marks the end of fall and the start of the holiday season, including Christmas, Hanukah and more.
