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According to James Baker’s
novel, Thanksgiving: The Biography of an
American Holiday, the spring after their arrival in Plymouth, Mass., the
English settlers met Squanto of the Wampanoag tribe. Squanto, who after having
been kidnapped by an English sea captain, sold into slavery and then miraculously
escaping back to the U.S., knew how to speak English and acted as a translator and
guide for the colonists. He taught them how to grow crops such as corn. In
autumn 1621, the settlers and the Wampanoag tribe gathered for a three-day long
feast with food contributed by both sides: the wildfowl from the English and
five deer from the natives. But this wasn’t a spontaneous event. Both the
English and Native Americans had ideas and practices leading up to this day.
The English settlers dreamt
of their Thanksgiving day before they set sail on the Mayflower. The Puritans
celebrated spontaneous days of “thanks” and “fast” for God in England. Their
deeply religious nature and love for holidays may very well have played a role
in the creation of the event.
In addition, Chief Kevin
Brown of the local Virginia Pamunkey tribe emphasized how the Native Americans had
been practicing days of thanks long before the colonists arrive. In fact, each season had a day of thanks
determined by nature. They would give thanks in the fall when there was a
harvest moon and the sweet corn was green. In the summer, it was when the
strawberries were ripe.
Alas, the feast between the
Wampanoag tribe and Pilgrims is the traditional story of the “First
Thanksgiving.” However, over the years we have recreated our own perceptions of
Thanksgiving, borrowing and emphasizing certain events from the past, as well
as constructing the day to fit current values.
For example, our addition of
fall décor and the great harvest feast has been elaborated immensely throughout
the years, and has incorporated many parts of traditional New English dinners —
including foods like pies and turkey.
Pilgrims weren’t
incorporated into the holiday until the late 18th and early 19th
centuries with the creation of Forefather’s Day to remember the pilgrim’s
arrival to America on December 22, 1620. During and after the Revolutionary
War, Americans glorified the past, and decided they needed a day to remember
their forefathers- hence the creation of Forefather’s Day. In the late 1800s
during the Victorian era, people often romanticized the pilgrims and ultimately
focused on the happy ending of the feast, rather than the winter hardship of
their arrival. This was projected to the public through literature and art such
as Jane Austen’s Standish in Standish
(1889). With technological innovations such as the printing press, novels were
more accessible to the public and these ideas spread faster than they had
previously. Therefore, the image of the pilgrims at the Thanksgiving feast was
what was planted in the public’s mind and the holiday of Forefather’s day gradually
died out.
All the way through the 19th
century, the theme of religion was central to Thanksgiving. The colonists were
made up of English Puritans, and therefore the holiday was religious from the
start. The first event on the day’s agenda was always a 10am church service
where people could give thanks to God. Until around 1815, the fall holiday was
coupled with the spring fast to ask for forgiveness from God. In September
1789, The House of Representatives authorized the first thanksgiving by
proclaiming “a day of public thanksgiving
and prayer to be observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many signal
favors of Almighty God.” The irony was that
this resolution was passed the same day the Congress passed the First
Amendment, which stated, “Congress shall make no law respecting an
establishment of religion”(PBS).
Until the 1830s, Christmas
was perceived as a trivial holiday and therefore people were looking for a
winter religious holiday — Thanksgiving would fit the bill. After a big push
from Sarah Josepha Hale (a fervent Thanksgiving advocate), Abraham Lincoln
proclaimed “Thanksgiving” as a national holiday in 1863 to “to set apart and observe
the last Thursday of November next as a day of thanksgiving and praise to our
beneficent Father who dwelleth in the heavens” (Baker, Peggy). Although presidents in the past had declared
Thanksgiving a holiday, this was the first time a specific date was attached,
and the first time the holiday was addressed to such a large constituency. During
the Civil War both the Union and Confederacy celebrated “Thanksgiving” when
they each won a battle, using the holiday to justify that God was on their
side. However, once the war was over, Lincoln proclaimed the holiday to both
the North and South, bringing the whole country together.
In more recent years, we
have seen consumerism influence our beloved holiday. In November 1939, FDR moved Thanksgiving up
to the third Thursday in November after pressure from the National Retail Dry
Goods Association for an extra week of Christmas shopping. Confused and
outraged, for the next two years half of the United States chose to maintain Thanksgiving
on the last Thursday, while the other half switched the celebration to the
third November. In 1941, the country had enough and Congress signed legislation
enacting Thanksgiving as a national holiday celebrated on the fourth Thursday
of November (seen as a compromise between the two).
To this day we see the value
of consumption everywhere from advertising in the Macy’s Day Parade to the increase
of not one, but three football games.
Although capital is clearly present,
Thanksgiving is, of course, still a holiday for family and friends to come
together and show their gratitude. Today we highlight the message of two
different cultures coming together peacefully. We use this message as a means
of hope for a better future.
Alas, the evolution of Thanksgiving
shows how with each new decade different parts of the “first Thanksgiving” are
played out or added too. It is constantly changing to meet our current social
values.
For this reason I would consider
Thanksgiving the real Moveable Feast.
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| Delicious Pumpkin Pies from our Feast |
Works Cited
“Alcatraz is not an Island,”
PBS. ITVS. 2002. Web. 13 Nov. 2014.
<http://www.pbs.org/itvs/alcatrazisnotanisland/activism.html>.
Baker, James W. Thanksgiving: The
Biography of An American Holiday. Lebanon, NH: University of New Hampshire
Press, 2009. Print.
Baker, Peggy M., “The
Godmother of Thanksgiving: the story of Sarah Josepha Hale.” Pilgrim Society & Pilgrim Hall Museum.
2007. Web. 13 Nov. 2014.
<http://www.pilgrimhallmuseum.org/pdf/Godmother_of_Thanksgiving.pdf>.
“Lesson Plan: George Washington and
Religious Liberty.” PBS. The Claremont Institute. 2002. Web. 29 Nov.
2014. <http://www.pbs.org/georgewashington/classroom/religious_liberty3.html>.
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