Tuesday, November 23, 2021

The Origins of Thanksgiving Day

Every third-grader in America knows that Puritan colonists in New England celebrated Thanksgiving starting in the 17th century. But it took 300 years for the United States to make it an official national holiday with a consistent nation-wide schedule. In his book Thanksgiving: The Biography of an American Holiday, James W. Baker writes about some interesting stops along the way to our present-day observance. Here are some Thanksgiving factoids that you can use as conversation starters around the dinner table on Thursday.

Eating. Feasting was probably a part of the earliest Puritan celebrations, but the meal only came after a serious period of fasting and prayer. In fact, the first observances were not harvest festivals at all. Instead, Thanksgiving was an alternative winter holiday that the Puritans celebrated in opposition to "pagan" Christmas revelry that contained too much feasting and drinking. So Thanksgiving celebrations were really not about the food at first. Annual fasts were a way to think back about the past year and give thanks for all the blessings received from God, not just the ones that came from the ground.

Turkey was probably a featured dish from the beginning, and in the earliest days this required hunting. But by the time of the American Revolution overhunting made it difficult to find a bird in the wild. But this didn't stop some intrepid sportsmen. "Turkey shoots" allowed everyone to pay for a chance to shoot at a bird tied up to a stump, with the best shot taking the prize home. (And that was often the shooter who was most sober by that time of the day.)

 

School. Much of what we think we know about Thanksgiving came from elementary school curricula. Before the 1890s, Americans didn't really associate the day with Pilgrims and Indians. But post-Civil War America was fractured and in need of a unified identity. Americans experienced societal changes brought on by emancipation, reconstruction, mass immigration, and growing industrialization. Public schools saw that the stories of Pilgrims fleeing persecution fit their goal of bringing the country together, teaching national virtues such as individual liberty and freedom. The fact that these European settlers supposedly cooperated with Native Americans also fit the ethos of a country becoming increasingly multi-cultural. So schools packaged several holidays to create a new American identity: Thanksgiving, the Presidents' birthdays ("I cannot tell a lie"), Memorial Day, and Labor Day. Thanksgiving Day pageants at elementary schools became rituals that reinforced an idea of the "united" states.



Football. Before the NFL there was college football. The first Thanksgiving Day game was played in 1876 by the two best college teams from the previous year. This was pretty much the beginning of the modern game, coming shortly after Harvard had adopted rules changing the sport from a soccer-style contest to one that resembled rugby. (NPR's Only a Game once aired a story with more details about the development of football as a Thanksgiving fixture.) In 1891 Harper's Weekly reported that families used the Yale-Princeton game as an excuse to get out of the house and distract them from boring dinner conversations. Thanks, football.

Shopping. Many people lament that Thanksgiving has become "Black Friday Eve." But the holiday has been linked to Christmas shopping for a long time. Thanksgiving Day became a national holiday thanks to the advocacy of Sarah Josepha Hale, who wanted an official proclamation from Congress to consolidate all the various state and regional celebrations that fell on different days. In 1863 President Lincoln declared a national holiday on the last Thursday in November, but it would not officially become the law of the land until 1941, and only then after some wrangling with the retail industry. In 1939 the last Thursday in November fell on the 30th, which shopkeepers disliked because it created a shorter Christmas shopping season. So President Roosevelt moved it up a week to November 23. This outraged traditionalists who bemoaned that the holiday had been hijacked by consumerism. The same thing happened in 1940, with some states and territories refusing to move away from the traditional "last Thursday." (Texas couldn't decide and held two Thanksgivings that year, with one on each of the last two Thursdays of the month.) Finally, in order to reduce the chaos, Congress passed a law in 1941 that required Thanksgiving to fall on the fourth Thursday of November. You win, Walmart.

Church and Worship. Thanksgiving has long held an ambiguous place in the life of the church. The Puritans definitely used it as a time to gather in worship. But nowadays, since Thanksgiving falls on a Thursday, churches often completely ignore the day. Even if there is a mid-week service at your place of worship, meeting during Thanksgiving week runs the risk of interfering with travel plans. 

 
Giving thanks is a spiritual discipline that we're called to do regularly, not just once a year. Unfortunately, none of us gives thanks naturally. Gratitude is something we have to learn and practice often. But the good news is that the more we give thanks, the easier it is to recognize the blessings that we already have. It is like strengthening a muscle: the more we use it, the easier it is to exercise it in the first place. Giving thanks is a response to the good things God has done, but it is also a process that shapes us into being more generous and grateful ourselves. For a great essay on the transforming power of thankfulness, check out Martin Copenhaver's article in The Christian Century:


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