Happy
Thanksgiving
THANKSGIVING. The classic representation of Thanksgiving—a crowded dinner table set in the open air on a golden autumnal
afternoon in Plymouth Colony, 1621—might
include some anachronisms such as apples, potatoes, corn-on-the-cob, and
cranberry sauce, but the gathered Pilgrims and their Wampanoag Indian guests are
sure to have one of the "great store of wild turkeys" if not the
geese, ducks, and venison that founded the historic feast, bowls of assorted
root vegetables, and pumpkin pies. It is an idyllic scene, but it has nothing
to do with how the Thanksgiving holiday historically began in America.
There
never was a true "first" American Thanksgiving from which all
subsequent celebrations derived. Thanksgiving did not originate in America at
all, but arrived with the intellectual baggage of New England's Puritan colonists. Having
banished the medieval roster of holidays includingChristmas and
saint's days, the reformers admitted only three holy days: theSabbath,
fast days, and Thanksgivings. Fasts and Thanksgivings subsequently appeared
independently in each of the New England colonies (except Rhode Island). Each was like an extra Sabbath
during the week, requiring church attendance and sober activity, but a big
dinner following the meeting was customary on days of thanksgiving and praise.
Eventually, fast days were relegated to the spring (when there was nothing to
eat) to petitionGod for
a successful season, while autumnal Thanksgivings celebrated the cumulative
blessings of the year, including the fruits of the harvest.
As Puritans metamorphosed into Yankees, the social and gustatory
character of the day overtook and then equaled the religious observation in
consequence. The preparation for the feast began weeks before with Sunday
readings of the governor's proclamation. Apples, spices, suet and lean beef
were chopped for mincemeat. Massive numbers of pies and tarts were baked of
mince, pumpkin, apple, cranberry, and other fillings, intended to last well
beyond the holiday. Livestock and fowl were slaughtered and prepared for the
spit, pot, or chicken pie (which might take six birds, bones and all). The
requisite turkey was gotten from the barnyard, market, or turkey shoot where
poor shots underwrote the costs of better marksmen. Charity was an important
holiday element. Food supplies, unprepared (including flour, rice, sugar, and
even turkeys) or cooked, were given to the poor by prosperous families and sent
to prisons by town officials.
As
Thanksgiving approached, family and friends assembled at the patriarchal
homesteads. Thanksgiving balls were very popular, and women made sure that
their clothes were the best and newest possible, despite grumbling about
impious frivolity among the more devout. On the day itself, the more
respectable attended morning service in the meetinghouse, before returning for
the customary feast prepared by the women and servants of the household. The
significators of a true New England Thanksgiving dinner were firmly established
by the time of the American Revolution: the all-important turkey
in place of honor, the massive chicken pie flanked by ducks, geese, and cuts of
"butcher's meat," plum pudding, bowls of vegetable and fruit
"sass" (sauce), and of course the pies. Following the dinner, the
company might relax around the fire with wine or cider, dried fruits, and nuts
to play games, tell stories, or in more pious households, to continue their
religious exercises in the private sphere and welcome the minister's evening
call. Alternately, sleighing visits to other households were popular, as were
dances and weddings.
Even before 1800, many households got their holiday foodstuffs
not from the family farmstead but in the marketplace. The food was processed,
prepared, and served by the housewife to as many family, friends, and
dependents as could be accommodated. Later, the emphasis shifted to kin rather
than community, but the classic Thanksgiving bill of fare, based on what was
available in November in colonial New England, remained sacrosanct. Over the
years the ideal of a home-prepared meal and informal family gathering has sent
generations of women seeking the advice of experts from Catherine Beecher to
Martha Stewart. Regional and ethnic variations were allowed, but the iconic
turkey, cranberry sauce, and pumpkin (or squash) pie consecrated all true
Thanksgiving meals.
The
first of ten national Thanksgivings was declared by the Continental Congress in 1777. After 1815, there were no
further presidential proclamations despite annual editorial pleadings by Mrs.
Hale in Godey's Magazine, but the popularity of the holiday grew
apace. By the 1850s, Thanksgiving was celebrated in almost every state and
territory, its national character assured. Abraham Lincoln declared two Thanksgivings in 1863,
the second in November being the first of our modern national holidays, but it
was not until 1941 after Roosevelt fiddled with the date with an eye to
Christmas sales that Congress established the fourth Thursday as a legal holiday.
Aside from packaged versions of traditional foods, expenses associated with
holiday travel, and a moderate amount of decorative kitsch, the holiday also
escaped the exploitive commercialism of other American holidays. Restaurants
take advantage of the holiday to sell turkey dinners, and those dedicated
purveyors of classic Thanksgiving fare, the armed services, do their best, but
Thanksgiving retains its strongly domestic focus.
In
light of their modern importance as the symbols of the holiday, it might be
asked. "What about the Pilgrims?" The fact is that the famous
description of the 1621 harvest festival in Mourt's Relation had been entirely
forgotten before being rediscovered in 1822 and identified as the "First
Thanksgiving" by Alexander Young in 1841. No one had associated the
Plymouth colonists and Indian guests with the holiday before. However, in 1841
the event resembled contemporary Thanksgivings, even if it had not been so
regarded by the original participants. The concept took time to catch on, as
the Pilgrims had other symbolic burdens to bear, and Thanksgiving still implied
family reunions, turkeys, and Yankee homesteads to most people. It wasn't until
a fictional account appeared in the bestselling Standish
of Standish (1889)
that the Plymouth association gained widespread popularity, and only after World War II did
the Pilgrims become the primary significators of the holiday.
