ALT-1 The History of Thanksgiving
As a Brit, exposed to lots of Americans, I understand what Thanksgiving is but I've never really got to the bottom of why it happens, when the first one was, what's it all for?
So far, none of the Americans I've asked seem to know or at least, be prepared to tell me. The answer I'm given is usually something non-committal like this.
"Uh it's a day when you celebrate your family, so all families everywhere try to get together and have a meal* together."
- Deep-fried turkey according to British TV chef, Heston Bluminthal (yikes that can't be true can it).
Well yeah, I know that's what people actually do but why? Thus far, my American friends have been seriously non-committal about elucidating further...
So now... for all you people out there from the rest of the world who may be wondering, like me, what an earth it was all about - other than getting all the guilt about trying to visit every member of your family (and failing) at Christmas out of the way first so you can actually enjoy it - I give you, with a lot of help from the internet the origin of Thanksgiving.
Basically, it appears to come from a cross between a conventional harvest festival and the relief of the Pilgrim Fathers when, after serious hardship which had whittled their numbers down from 105 to 43, they finally realised their settlement was going to make it. The Pilgrim Fathers were actually dissidents.
The mainstream group they belonged to, the Puritans, had seized power in Britain and kept it for some years, during which time the country had been a republic. During their tenure the theatres were closed and music banned on the grounds that such frivolities were the work of the devil.
The Pilgrim Fathers were a splinter group from the fringes of the Puritan movement. Many of them were leaving a Britain which was too politically hot for them, to start a new, perfect biblical state in the new world. Their religious beliefs were very cut and dried and fairly extreme think Christian Right. No grey, no moderation, just black or white and absolute conviction that they and no one else, knew the mind of God.
The first feast lasted 3 days and celebrated their first harvest - 1621 - which, thanks to a little help from their native American friends, was abundant. There is some debate as to whether the Native Americans were friends or whether their help was due to a belief system which honour bound them to help others in trouble.
It is suggested that 91 native Americans were invited to the first feast - although, again, there is some confusion here as to whether the Native Americans did come to the feast or were invited on a different occasion to discuss land rites.
The next year, no feast but things carried on ticking over nicely until year three when a grim drought looked set to put the kybosh on their harvest and therefore, by default, them. They gathered to pray for rain and when it came the next day, Governor William Bradford declared another day of thanksgiving. Popular myth has it that they invited the Native Americans again and once again, they had a big slap up feast to celebrate their deliverance.
After this, nothing much happened until 1676 in Charleston, Mass, when the town, looking for a means to give thanks for the way their community was prospering declared June 29th was a day of thanksgiving.
Again, nothing much happened, subsequently, until one year after the war of independence, 1777, when there was another Thanksgiving day this time, in grateful acknowledgement for independence and victory in the war against those pesky limeys. Ah ha! I'm beginning to understand some of the reticence at coming forward with an explanation to me, a Brit... that and the fact it's even more complicated than the origins of the kilt... and we're only half way through...
George Washington declared a thanksgiving day, to mark the deliverance of the Pilgrim Fathers in 1789 but it still didn't really catch on, dissenters included Thomas Jefferson. So, eventually, in 1817, the state of New York, started to celebrate Thanksgiving every year and other states followed suit. This still wasn't enough though.
It was up to a lady called Sarah Josepha Hale, a magazine editor who enjoyed the dubious notoriety of being the author of "Mary had a Little Lamb" who, using the power of PR, persuaded the nation to take Thanksgiving to their hearts as a national holiday. It was her life's work and she wrote editorials promoting it in the splendidly quaintly named "Boston Ladies' Magazine" and "Godey's Lady's Book".
By 1863 President Lincoln could stand it no more and gave in, declaring the third Thursday in November as Thanksgiving day, a national holiday. After that, Franklin D Roosevelt tried to mess with it once - something about more shopping days before Christmas - but nobody was having that and the day remained fixed.
So it sounds like my American friends are cagey because there is a certain "we whooped the brits arses" aspect to it, because despite starting on reasonable terms with the Native Americans there is evidence to suggest that it only took the Pilgrim Fathers a generation to get genocidal... which I guess, is kind of awkward and most importantly, because it seems pretty complicated, so they could be forgiven for not knowing.
What I've outlined here, is mostly the official story. I've added a couple of links to two of the main sources I used as well as one to a site which gives the alternative view.
Thanks to these sites for furninshing me with a lot of useful information: http://www.askmen.com/toys/special_feature_60/63_special_feature.htmlhttp://nostalgia.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thanksgiving
And to this site for providing an excellent outline of an alternative view.http://www.angelfire.com/biz2/turquoisebutterfly/thanksgiving.html
