Thanksgiving

Today, November 22, is the Thanksgiving Holiday for 2012.  Thanksgiving remains one of the two really big holidays in the United States, although, as noted just below on this blog, it has now sufficiently diminished in importance that some major retailers are open today, trying to get a jump on Black Friday, the fairly recent introduction of a shopping bacchanalian event in anticipation of Christmas, sort of.  If we add Easter, it remains one of the three generally observed big Holidays in North American, with perhaps the 4th of July completing the series. Those four days are really the only days in the United States which most people have off.  Other days which were formerly commonly days off for most people, such as Memorial Day or Veterans' Day are less observed now.  I don't think anyone employed outside the Federal Government gets Veterans' Day off.

Thanksgiving's durability, up until now, is therefore worth noting.  There's something about it that keeps it going.

When we were kids were taught, back in the old days, that the holiday was thought up by the Pilgrims, those Puritan colonist who landed at Plymouth Rock, as an original day, celebrated with their Indian neighbors, to give thanks for their first harvest.  That's not really true.  I'm sure it's true that they celebrated a Thanksgiving, but then they would have for a variety of reasons. The most significant of those would have been that a Thanksgiving was the European norm.

Thanksgiving was a universally recognized religious celebration recognized in every European country.  The holiday gave thanks to God for the harvest.  At some point in Europe the celebration came to be formally recognized in the Catholic Church, centered date wise around the harvest in southern Europe, by a few days of fasting prior to the Church recognized holiday.  How the Reformation effected this I do not know, but I am certain that the Puritan colonists would have celebrated Thanksgiving in England and in Holland prior to every having celebrated it in the New World.  Indeed, as is sometimes missed, not all of the Mayflower passengers were Puritans by any means, and this is no less true for the other passengers on that vessel. They all would have come from a relatively rural English background and they all would have been familiar with a Thanksgiving Day.

Thanksgiving remained a generally recognized religious based holiday in North America well before it was established as a national holiday in the United States, and in Canada (on a different day).  In the United States, the first Federal recognition of the holiday came during the Civil War, during which time Abraham Lincoln sought fit to note it, in the context of the terrible national tragedy then ongoing.  While that may seem odd to us now, there were real efforts even while the war was raging to try to fit what was occurring into context, which would eventually lead to Decoration Day and Memorial Day (essentially the same holiday). During the war, noting what was occurring on Thanksgiving seemed fitting.  The holiday was seemingly moved around endlessly for many years, and even as late as Franklin Roosevelt's administration new dates for it were fixed, all generally in November. States got into the act too, such as Wyoming, with governors occasionally fixing the date.  The current date stems from a 1941 statutory provision.

 Family saying Grace prior to their Thanksgiving Day meal.

How the holiday has been celebrated has actually varied but little over the years, again up until recently.  A large family gathering has tended to be the norm. When turkey came in as the main meal, for most people, is unclear but it was a long time ago.  It's worth noting here that turkey and goose have been the big American festive meats for Christmas and Thanksgiving for a very long time, with goose again dating back to Europe.  Goose doesn't tend to appear on Thanksgiving tables, but it does remain on the Christmas dinner tables for some.

Lucky New Yorkers taking home live Thanksgiving turkeys.

It's interesting to note that up until the mid 20th Century the norm was to take a turkey home alive, and dispatch it at home.  This is rare now, as people have become somewhat delusional and wimpy about food, with some even going so far to believe that if they abstain from meat entirely, that they're not killing anything, a delusion which demonstrates a complete lack of knowledge of any kind of farming or food transportation (more animals die smacked by trucks on the road than most can begin to imagine).  That meant that the turkey was no doubt pretty darned fresh, as well as tasty.

Man bringing home Thanksgiving dinner.

Boy with plucked Thanksgiving dinner.

Connecticut farmer plucking turkey for sale.

Outside of a big gathering, for many people a church service was part of Thanksgiving, and for quite a few it still is.  Other than that, activities that occurred were, according to what I've read, games.  Various types of games seemed quite popular for such gatherings.  Thanksgiving football goes back amazingly far in the United States, and I've seen a poster advertising a college game that dates back to 1903.  If it dated back to 1903, I'd presume it went back somewhat further than that.

On Army posts, I'd note, this was also a date that was generally observed, and interesting records of food on hand, typically just what we'd now expect to appear on our tables, was common. Even late 19th Century Army posts in the American West made an effort to have appropriate food on hand for the holiday.

In a lot of rural areas this was also a day that men went hunting.  It still is in quite a bit of the rural West.  This had to be timed around the holiday meal, but morning hunts, often for waterfowl, were quite common.

Connecticut bird hunters, 1940s, on Thanksgiving Day.

At any rate, even given the intrusion of the shopping culture into the day, this holiday remains remarkably unchanged over the decades.  Even, perhaps, the centuries.  So, Happy Thanksgiving.

Note:

This entry is a rerun, as it was originally first run last year.