Thanksgiving
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Thanksgiving |
 |
The First Thanksgiving, painting by Jean Leon Gerome Ferris (1863 - 1930)
|
| Also called |
Turkey Day |
| Observed by |
Canada, United States |
| Type |
Cultural |
| Significance |
A celebration of being thankful for what one has and the bounty of the
previous year. |
| Date |
Second Monday in October (Canada), fourth Thursday in November
(USA). |
| 2006 date |
October 9 (Canada)
November 23
(USA)
|
| Celebrations |
Parades, Spending Time with Family, Eating Large Dinners, Football (Canada
and USA) games |
| Related to |
Christmas and New Year's Day
which conclude the American holiday season, and Columbus
Day. |
Headline text
Thanksgiving, or Thanksgiving Day, is an annual one-day holiday to give thanks
(traditionally to God), for the things one has at the close of the harvest season. In the United
States, Thanksgiving is celebrated on the fourth Thursday of November, and in Canada it is
celebrated on the second Monday in October. In the United
Kingdom, Thanksgiving is another name for the Harvest festival, held
in churches across the country on a relevant Sunday to mark the end of the local
harvest, though it is not thought of as a major event (compared to Christmas or ) as it is
in other parts of the world. This tradition was taken to North America by early settlers, where it became much more important.
Traditional celebration
United States
In the United States, certain kinds of food are traditionally served
at Thanksgiving meals. First and foremost, turkey
is usually the featured item on any Thanksgiving feast table (so much
so that Thanksgiving is sometimes referred to as "Turkey Day"). Stuffing,
mashed potatoes with gravy, sweet
potatoes, cranberry sauce, Indian corn, other fall vegetables, and pumpkin
pie are commonly associated with Thanksgiving dinner.
On Thanksgiving Day, families and friends usually gather for a large meal or
dinner. This results in Thanksgiving holiday weekend being one of the busiest travel periods
of the year.
In New York City, the Macy's
Thanksgiving Day Parade is held annually every Thanksgiving Day
in Midtown Manhattan. The parade features parade floats with specific
themes, scenes from Broadway plays, large balloons of cartoon characters
and TV personalities, and high school marching bands. The float that
traditionally ends the Macy's Parade is the Santa Claus float. This
float is a sign that the Christmas season has begun. Thanksgiving parades
also occur in many cities such as Plymouth, Houston, Philadelphia (which
claims the oldest parade), and Detroit (where it is the only major parade
of the year). Within the New York metropolitan area, the city of Stamford,
Connecticut holds an alternative parade to the Macy's parade (with different
characters on the balloons) the Sunday before Thanksgiving that has
attracted over 250,000 people in recent years. Because of the earlier
date, Santa Claus parades in Canada do not fall on Thanksgiving; the
only major parade on that day in Canada is the Oktoberfest parade in
Kitchener-Waterloo.
|
 |
|
Traditional Thanksgiving Dinner |
The American winter holiday season (generally the Christmas shopping season in the U.S.) traditionally
begins when Thanksgiving ends, on "Black Friday" (the day after Thanksgiving); this tradition has held forth since at least the
1930s. While the biggest day of shopping of the year in the U.S., as measured by
customer traffic, is still the Friday after Thanksgiving (the biggest by sales
volume is either the Saturday before Christmas or December 23), most shops
start to stock for and promote the December holidays immediately after Halloween, and
sometimes even before. Opponents of consumerism in some places
protest this behavior by declaring the day after Thanksgiving Buy
Nothing Day.
American football is often a major part of Thanksgiving celebrations in the
U.S. and likewise Canadian football in Canada. Professional games are
traditionally played on Thanksgiving Day in both countries; until recently
in the U.S., these were the only games played during the week apart
from Sunday or Monday night. In Canada, these are the only games played
on a Monday except for the Labour Day classic, and on the Civic Holiday.
In America, the tradition is referred to as the Thanksgiving
Classic. The Detroit Lions of the American National Football League
have hosted a game every Thanksgiving Day since 1934, with the exception
of 1939 - 1944 (due to World War II). The Dallas Cowboys have hosted every
Thanksgiving Day since 1966, with the exception of 1975 and 1977 when
the then-St. Louis Cardinals hosted. The Kansas City Chiefs hosted games
during their days in the American Football League, and will revive that
tradition in 2006 when they host the Denver Broncos on Thanksgiving.
Additionally, many college and high school football games are played
over Thanksgiving weekend, often between regional or historic rivals.
U.S. tradition associates the holiday with a meal held in 1621 by the Wampanoag and
the Pilgrims who settled in Plymouth, Massachusetts.
This element continues in modern times with the Thanksgiving dinner,
often featuring turkey, playing a large role in the celebration of Thanksgiving.
Some of the details of the American Thanksgiving story are myths that developed in the
1890s and early 1900s as part of the effort to forge a common national identity
in the aftermath of the Civil War and in the melting pot of new immigrants.
Canada
In Canada, Thanksgiving is a three-day weekend (although some provinces
choose to observe a four day weekend, Friday - Monday). While the actual
Thanksgiving holiday is on a Monday, Canadians might eat their Thanksgiving meal
on any day of that three day weekend. This often means celebrating a meal with
one group of relatives on one day, and another meal with a different group of
relatives on another day. Although in English Canada Thanksgiving is often
celebrated with family, it is also often a time for weekend getaways for couples
to observe the autumn leaves, spend one last
weekend at the cottage or participate in various outdoor activities such as
hiking, fishing and hunting. The holiday is not as significant a family occasion
amongst French Canadians, however.
History of Thanksgiving in North America
Thanksgiving in the United States
The first official Thanksgiving was held in the Virginia
Colony on December 4, 1619 near the current site of Berkeley Plantation,
where celebrations are still held each year in November.
Pilgrims
The Pilgrims were particularly thankful to Squanto, the Indian who taught
them how to catch eel, grow corn and who served as an interpreter for them
(Squanto had learned English on a previous trip to Europe). Without Squanto's
help the Pilgrims might not have survived in the new world. The Pilgrims set
apart a day to celebrate at Plymouth immediately after their first harvest, in
1621. At the time, this was not regarded as a Thanksgiving observance; harvest festivals were
existing parts of English and Wampanoag tradition alike.
Several American colonists have personal accounts of the 1621 feast in Massachusetts:
William Bradford, in Of Plymouth Plantation:
|
" They began now to gather in the small
harvest they had, and to fit up their house and dwelling against
winter, being all well recovered in health and strength and had
all things in good plenty. For as some were thus employed in affairs
abroad, others were exercised in fishing, about cod and bass and
other fish, of which they took good store, of which every family
had their portion. All the summer there was no want; and now began
to come in store of fowl, as winter approached, of which this
place did abound when they came first (but afterward decreased
by degrees). And besides waterfowl there was great store of wild
turkeys, of which they took many, besides venison, etc. Besides,
they had about a peck of meal a week to a person, or now since
harvest, Indian corn to that proportion. Which made many afterwards
write so largely of their plenty here to their friends in England,
which were not feigned by true reports. "
| |
" Our harvest being
gotten in, our governor sent four men on fowling, that
so we might after a special manner rejoice together after
we had gathered the fruits of our labor. They four in
one day killed as much fowl as, with a little help beside,
served the company almost a week. At which time, amongst
other recreations, we exercised our arms, many of the
Indians coming amongst us, and among the rest their greatest
king Massasoit, with some ninety men, whom for three days
we entertained and feasted, and they went out and killed
five deer, which we brought to the plantation and bestowed
on our governor, and upon the captain and others. And
although it be not always so plentiful as it was at this
time with us, yet by the goodness of God, we are so far
from want that we often wish you partakers of our plenty.
" |
|
|
|
Edward Winslow, in Mourt's Relation:
The mention of ninety men in the Winslow account is of interest, as the
Native People present would have outnumbered the 50 surviving English at that
point. The two preceding passages are the only records of the event, but
historians presume that both groups were exposed to unfamiliar forms of celebration.
The Pilgrims did not hold a true Thanksgiving until 1623, when it followed a
drought, prayers for rain, and a subsequent rain shower. Irregular Thanksgivings
continued after favorable events and days of fasting after unfavorable ones. In
the Plymouth tradition, a thanksgiving day was a church observance, rather than a feast day.
Gradually, an annual Thanksgiving after the harvest developed in the mid-17th
century. This did not occur on any set day or necessarily on the same day in different colonies in America.
The Massachusetts Bay Colony (consisting mainly of puritan
christians)celebrated Thanksgiving for the first time in 1630, and frequently
thereafter until about 1680, when it became an annual festival in that colony;
and Connecticut as early as 1639 and annually after 1647, except in 1675. The
Dutch in New Netherland appointed a day for giving thanks in 1644 and occasionally thereafter.
The Revolutionary War to nationhood
During the American Revolutionary War the Continental Congress appointed one or more
thanksgiving days each year, except in 1777, each time recommending to the
executives of the various states the observance of these days in their states.
George Washington, leader of the revolutionary forces in the American
Revolutionary War, proclaimed a Thanksgiving in December 1777 as a victory
celebration honoring the defeat of the British at Saratoga. The Continental
Congress proclaimed annual December Thanksgivings from 1777 to 1783, except in 1782.
George Washington again proclaimed Thanksgivings, as President, in 1789 and 1795.
The proclamation by President Washington in 1789, was a recommendation of a
resolution established by both Houses of Congress establishing the first
national Thanksgiving Day on November 26, 1789. The reason for establishing
Thanksgiving was "to recommend to the people of the United States a day of
public thanksgiving and prayer, to be observed by acknowledging with grateful
hearts the many and signal favors of Almighty God, especially by affording them
an opportunity peaceably to establish a form of government for their safety and
happiness. Now therefore I do recommend and assign Thursday the 26th day of
November next to be devoted by the People of these States to the service of that
great and glorious Being, who is the beneficent Author of all the good that was,
that is, or that will be--That we may then all unite in rendering unto him our
sincere and humble thanks--for his kind care and protection of the People of
this Country previous to their becoming a Nation--for the signal and manifold
mercies, and the favorable interpositions of his Providence which we experienced
in the tranquillity, union, and plenty, which we have since enjoyed--for the
peaceable and rational manner, in which we have been enabled to establish
constitutions of government for our safety and happiness, and particularly the
national One now lately instituted--for the civil and religious liberty with
which we are blessed; and the means we have of acquiring and diffusing useful
knowledge; and in general for all the great and various favors which he hath
been pleased to confer upon us." (signed) G. Washington, The Massachusetts Sentinel, Wednesday, October 14, 1789
President John Adams declared Thanksgivings in 1798 and 1799. President Madison, in response to resolutions of
Congress, set apart a day for thanksgiving at the close of the War of 1812.
Madison declared the holiday twice in 1815; however, none of these were celebrated in autumn.
A thanksgiving day was annually appointed by the governor of New York from
1817. In some of the Southern states there was opposition to the observance of such a day on the ground that it was a relic
of Puritanic bigotry, but by 1858 proclamations appointing a day of thanksgiving
were issued by the governors of 25 states and two territories.
Lincoln and the Civil War
In the middle of the American Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln,
prompted by a series of editorials written by Sarah Josepha Hale,
proclaimed a national Thanksgiving Day, to be celebrated on the final Thursday in November 1863:
| |
" The year that is drawing towards its close, has been
filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies.
To these bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that we are
prone to forget the source from which they come, others have been
added, which are of so extraordinary a nature, that they cannot
fail to penetrate and soften even the heart which is habitually
insensible to the ever watchful providence of Almighty God. In
the midst of a civil war of unequalled magnitude and severity,
which has sometimes seemed to foreign States to invite and to
provoke their aggression, peace has been preserved with all nations,
order has been maintained, the laws have been respected and obeyed,
and harmony has prevailed everywhere except in the theatre of
military conflict; while that theatre has been greatly contracted
by the advancing armies and navies of the Union. Needful diversions
of wealth and of strength from the fields of peaceful industry
to the national defence, have not arrested the plough, the shuttle,
or the ship; the axe had enlarged the borders of our settlements,
and the mines, as well of iron and coal as of the precious metals,
have yielded even more abundantly than heretofore. Population
has steadily increased, notwithstanding the waste that has been
made in the camp, the siege and the battle-field; and the country,
rejoicing in the consciousness of augmented strength and vigor,
is permitted to expect continuance of years, with large increase
of freedom.
No human counsel hath devised nor hath any mortal hand worked out these
great things. They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who, while
dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy.
It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly,
reverently and gratefully acknowledged as with one heart and voice by the
whole American people. I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every
part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are
sojourning in foreign lands, 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. And I recommend to them that while
offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular
deliverances and blessings, they do also, with humble penitence for our
national perverseness and disobedience, commend to his tender care all
those who have become widows, orphans, mourners or sufferers in the
lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently
implore the interposition of the Almighty Hand to heal the wounds of the
nation and to restore it as soon as may be consistent with the Divine
purposes to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquility and Union.
In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand, and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed.
Done at the city of Washington, this third day of October, in the year
of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, and of the
independence of the United States the eighty-eighth."
Proclamation of President Abraham Lincoln, 3 October 1863. |
|
Since 1863, Thanksgiving has been observed annually in the United States.
1939 to present
-
Main article: Franksgiving
In 1939, President Franklin D. Roosevelt
declared that Thanksgiving would be the next-to-last Thursday of November
rather than the last. With the country still in the midst of The Great Depression,
Roosevelt thought this would give merchants a longer period to sell
goods before Christmas. Increasing profits
and spending during this period, Roosevelt hoped, would aid bringing
the country out of the Depression. At the time, it was considered inappropriate
to advertise goods for Christmas until after Thanksgiving. However,
Roosevelt's declaration was not mandatory; twenty-three states went
along with this recommendation, and 22 did not. Other states, like Texas, could not decide and took
both weeks as government holidays. Roosevelt persisted in 1940 to celebrate
his "Franksgiving," as it was termed. The U.S. Congress
in 1941 split the difference and established that the Thanksgiving would
occur annually on the fourth Thursday of November, which was sometimes
the last Thursday and sometimes the next to last. On November 26 that year President
Roosevelt signed this bill into U.S. law.
|
 |
|
President Truman receiving a Thanksgiving turkey from members
of the Poultry and Egg National Board and other representatives
of the turkey industry, outside the White House. |
Since 1947, or possibly earlier, the National Turkey Federation
has presented the President of the United States
with one live turkey and two dressed turkeys. The live turkey is pardoned
and lives out the rest of its days on a peaceful farm. While it is commonly
held that this tradition began with Harry Truman in 1947, the Truman
Library has been unable to find any evidence for this. Still others
claim that the tradition dates back to Abraham Lincoln pardoning his
son's pet turkey. Both stories have been quoted in more recent presidential speeches.
In more recent years, two turkeys have been pardoned, in case the original
turkey becomes unavailable for presidential pardoning. Since 2003 the public has
been invited to vote for the two turkeys' names. In 2006, they were named Flyer
and Fryer. In 2005, they were named Marshmallow and Yam (who went on to live at
Disneyland); 2004's turkeys were named Biscuit and Gravy; in 2003, Stars and Stripes.
Since 1970, a group of Native Americans and others have held a National
Day of Mourning protest on Thanksgiving at Plymouth Rock in Plymouth, Massachusetts.
Thanksgiving in Canada
In Canada, Thanksgiving is celebrated on the second Monday in October. The
United States later set aside the same day as the federal holiday of Columbus
Day. Canadians give thanks for a successful harvest. The roots of the
Canadian holiday are different from those of the United States of America.
The history of Thanksgiving in Canada goes back to an English explorer, Martin Frobisher, who
had been trying to find a northern passage to the Orient. He did not succeed but
he did establish a settlement in Canada. In the year 1578, he held a formal
ceremony, in what is now the province of Newfoundland and
Labrador, to give thanks for surviving the long journey. This is considered
the first Canadian Thanksgiving, and the first Thanksgiving to have taken place
in North America. Other settlers arrived and continued these ceremonies.
Frobisher was later knighted and had an inlet of the Atlantic Ocean in northern
Canada named after him - Frobisher Bay.
At the same time, French settlers, having crossed the ocean and arrived in
Canada with explorer Samuel de Champlain, also held huge feasts of thanks. They even formed 'The Order of Good Cheer' and
gladly shared their food with their Native-Canadian neighbours.
After the Seven Years' War ended in 1763 handing over New France to the British,
the citizens of Halifax held a special day of Thanksgiving.
After the American Revolution, American refugees who remained loyal (United
Empire Loyalists) to Great Britain were exiled from the United States and came to Canada. They brought the customs
and practices of the American Thanksgiving to Canada, although as a liturgical
festival Thanksgiving in Canada also corresponds to the English and continental
European Harvest Festival, with churches decorated with cornucopias, pumpkins,
corn, wheat sheaves and other harvest bounty, English and European harvest hymns
sung on the Sunday of Thanksgiving weekend and scriptural lections drawn from
the biblical stories relating to the Jewish harvest festival of Succoth.
Eventually in 1879, the Canadian Parliament declared November 6th a day of
Thanksgiving and a national holiday in Canada. Over the years many dates were
used for Thanksgiving, the most popular being the third Monday in October. After
World War I, both Armistice Day and Thanksgiving were celebrated on the Monday
of the week in which November 11th occurred. Ten years later, in 1931, the two
days became separate holidays, and Armistice Day was renamed Remembrance Day.
On January 31st, 1957, the Canadian Parliament proclaimed:
| " A Day of General Thanksgiving to Almighty God for the bountiful
harvest with which Canada has been blessed ... to be observed on the 2nd
Monday in October.www
" |
The first Thanksgiving Day in Canada after Confederation was observed as a
civic holiday on April 5, 1872 to celebrate the recovery of the Prince of Wales (later King Edward VII) from a serious illness.
Before then, thanksgiving days were observed
beginning in 1799 but did not occur every year. Starting in 1879 Thanksgiving
Day was observed every year but the date was proclaimed annually and changed
year to year. The theme of the Thanksgiving holiday also changed year to year to
reflect an important event to be thankful for. In the early years it was for an
abundant harvest and occasionally for a special anniversary. After the First World War it was
for Armistice Day, while more recently and including today it has been a day of general thanksgiving.
See also
External links
Thanksgiving food links
Holiday
Recipes
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thanksgiving
November, 23 2006" |
