Thanksgiving
Day, a day that we celebrate the survival of our first year in the New World,
is an American institution- one of the few which we have originated and which
have become really NATIONAL. It certainly was not a national holiday in its
beginning, in fact it was not national for almost two decades! Looking back to
the first thanksgiving at Plymouth Rock in 1621 it was filled with religious
ceremonies, thanksgiving, and food. Now-a-days on the fourth Thursday of the
month of November, Americans gather for a day of feasting, football and family.
Good cheer and hospitality are some of its distinguishing characteristics
now-a-days, but was that always the case?
Did you know that Thanksgiving was not uniformly celebrated
until major efforts to nationalize it were undertaken late in the 19th
Century? George Washington in 1789 made a proclamation that Thursday, November
26th should be set aside as a day to give thanks and celebrate, but
it was not made into law. Over 70 years passed and only 14 of the states
observed thanksgiving as a holiday. But in 1863, on the same day that President
Washington made his proclamation, October 3rd, President Lincoln
made his own. With hundreds of thousands of soldiers away from home during the
civil war, and needing a way to unify the nation, Lincoln, in the middle of
war, put on his bravest face and decreed that
“harmony has
prevailed everywhere, except in military conflict!” He stressed abundance, unity, and invoked thoughts of past
holidays and memories, which struck a chord in the war torn Union. Despite Lincoln’s
proclamation in 1863 that made Thanksgiving a national holiday, few Americans
celebrated the holidays like the middle-class Protestants in New England and the Mid-Atlantic
states did. Southerners refused to recognize the “Yankee Holiday”, Catholics
opposed it on religious grounds, and the poor couldn’t afford a turkey.
At the close
of the 19th century, Thanksgiving had gone from humble beginnings to
an elaborate commercial gala! Men in rural Pennsylvania and New York City
masqueraded at parades and huge parties. Witnesses says that there were 150
people in horse drawn carriages, dressed in fancy costumes going from party to
party. It was such a sight, people flocked to see them. At the dawn of the 20th
century, things had become a little bit darker. Construction and mechanics had
improved by leaps and bounds. Street cars, tenement buildings, and immigration
had people leaving the busyness of the city. Thousands of people, all grouped
together, throwing their garbage in the street did not make the best living
conditions. Hordes of poor children dressed up in costumes, begged for money or
treats, and pulled pranks on Thanksgiving. Their so-called “ragamuffin parade”
or “Mummer parade” had its origins in the European traditions of Carnival or
Mari Gras that had been transported and transplanted by immigrants. Progressive-era
reformers, school superintendents, and the police disapproved of the children’s
cultural practice of begging and blackmailing. Upstanding church men and
charitable men, urged New Yorkers in 1911 to not allow this “malicious custom”
due to its undermining of family bonds and its lack of American national
identity. The cultural “authority” of these urban leaders led public school
teachers and settlement house workers to require students to write festive
poems, perform plays, and draw pictures of turkeys, pumpkins, and pilgrims. The goal of the school presentations and projects on
American history and culture were to instill a national identity and civil
religion in children. In turn, patriotic children were expected to instruct
their immigrant parents in dominant American customs and values. This custom
still holds out into our 21st century.
Today in many
American households, the Thanksgiving celebration has lost much of its original
religious significance; instead, it now centers on cooking, football, and
sharing a bountiful meal with family and friends. Turkey, a Thanksgiving staple
so universal it has become all but synonymous with the holiday, may or may not
have been present at the 1st feast in 1621. However, nearly 90
percent of Americans eat the bird on Thanksgiving. Football, being a sport that
we originated, seemed to fit well with Thanksgiving, although no one figured
out to put the two together nationally until George A. Richards in 1934.
Richards, the owner of the fledgling Detroit Lions, needing a way to draw
attention to his team from the overshadowing Detroit Tigers, contacted friend
and owner of the Chicago Bears to invite them to play at Detroit on
Thanksgiving Day. The event sold out within two weeks. He also owned a small
radio station and had a lot of industry ties to the big time NBC radio station
in which he used to nationally broadcast his game on 94 different stations
country wide. In 1966, Dallas owner Tex Schramm followed suit when he secured
an annual holiday game for the Cowboys. The Lions and Cowboys have since become
as much of Thanksgiving as pumpkin pie and stuffing.
So as we
gather together on this Thanksgiving, let’s get back to the humble origins. Be
grateful and find joy in the simple things. It is when we become grateful for
things, people, and events, you may notice that joy comes naturally. Thanksgiving, after all, is a word of action.
