Thanksgiving: The Creation of an American Holiday
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By David Booker Thanksgiving is one of the few holidays we celebrate that is uniquely American. Halloween and Christmas, Easter and New Year's have to one degree or another been Americanized, immigrating from abroad and then transplanted in American soil and culture. But Thanksgiving, like the Fourth of July, comes from America itself. The first official presidential proclamation was George Washington's 1789 Thanksgiving Proclamation. Written on October 3, 1789, and at the request of both houses of Congress, President Washington decided to “recommend to the people of the United States a day of public thanksgiving and prayer… and assign Thursday, the 26th day of November” as that day. Unfortunately, shortly after the proclamation was written it was lost for 130 years. While the Pilgrims were probably the first Europeans in America to celebrate three days of thanksgiving in 1621, for them it was not a yearly holiday. In fact, the next time the Pilgrims celebrated was in 1623, after they prayed for a break in an extended drought and received a long, steady rain. At both events, the Pilgrims' Indian friends were invited. In fact, without their Indian friends, the Pilgrims would not have been able to give thanks. They probably would not have survived. This makes Thanksgiving the first “multicultural” event. It wasn't until June of 1676 that another Day of Thanksgiving was proclaimed, this time by the governing council of Charlestown, Massachusetts. It was held on June 29th. October 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 on October 17th. But it was a one-time affair. This brings us to President George Washington's proclamation. But there was discord among the young states; many felt the hardships of a few Pilgrims did not warrant a national holiday. Even Thomas Jefferson, the third president of the U.S. (1801-09), scoffed at the idea of having a day of thanksgiving. A decade or so later, magazine editor Sarah Josepha Hale led the fight to formally recognize 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 writing letter to governors and presidents, Hale's desire became reality. In 1863, President Lincoln proclaimed the last Thursday in November as a national day of Thanksgiving. After Lincoln, every U.S. president proclaimed Thanksgiving. The date has been changed a couple of times, most recently by Franklin Roosevelt. He moved it to the next-to-last 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. In 1941, Thanksgiving was finally sanctioned by Congress as a legal holiday and set as the fourth Thursday in November. A few final notes: at the first Pilgrims' Thanksgiving, there was no record of turkey, as we know it, being served. At the time, the word turkey referred to almost any sort of wild fowl. This could have been wild duck or wild goose. Also, it was probably boiled pumpkin and not pumpkin pie that was served. The flour supply had long been depleted, so there were no pastries or bread. There was also no milk, butter, or cider. Potatoes were not eaten because many Europeans considered them poisonous. More than likely they ate things like fish, lobster, clams, venison, wild fowl, plums, berries, and dried fruit. As for the 1789 proclamation that was lost, it was eventually found in New York in 1921 and purchased for $300.00 for the Library of Congress, where it now resides. |