THANKS FOR THIS!
People have been giving thanks for a good harvest ever since they’ve been growing things. It’s a natural impulse to thank your Higher Power when a growing season of brutal work ends with plenty of food to feed your family.
Let's just dispense with all those happy little myths about friendly Indigenous people joyfully feeding the Pilgrims. It’s entirely possible that some tribes did indeed help out the first settlers…and it’s undeniable that the new arrivals repaid them badly.
By the late 1600s, both Massachusetts and Virginia had official fall thanksgiving events, and as other colonies and states evolved, they followed suit. Dates were all over the late-autumn calendar, but by the end of the 18th century, everyone was settling on the last Thursday in November. It helped that it was close to “Evacuation Day,” the date the new nation celebrated the exit of the last British troops.
Thanksgiving’s biggest booster was Sarah Josepha Hale, a New Englander who spent 40 years advocating for a national holiday. In the heat of the Civil War, she found an appreciative audience in President Lincoln, who declared a nationwide Thanksgiving celebration on the last Thursday in November 1863. During Reconstruction, it was one of the few things everybody could agree on, and it became a settled part of the calendar.
Until FDR, that is.
One of the less well-known – and less successful – ways President Roosevelt tried to help pull the nation out of the Depression was to move Thanksgiving up to the next-to-last Thursday in November, in hopes of extending the holiday shopping season and consumer spending. Opponents called it “Franskgiving,” some states ignored it, and a few observed both. None of it had the intended effect, and after three years of confusion, Congress passed a joint resolution formally making Thanksgiving the fourth Thursday in November, and Roosevelt signed it in December 1941.
That, by the way, is why every once in a while we have a year like this one, where Thanksgiving hits almost a week early.
This, of course, is all about American Thanksgiving. Many other countries celebrate it at
different times. Those of with Canadian friends know about theirs: the first Monday in October, the day that we Americans observe Columbus Day (Indigenous Peoples’ Day in many areas). Other countries have celebrations across the fall calendar, from a mid-August ritual in Rwanda to a Liberian holiday that focuses on religion and relaxation, but not feasting on the last Thursday in October.
The form and date of the holiday may change, but the idea remains pretty consistent across cultures. It’s a natural human impulse to want to pause, gather our loved ones, and give thanks for our blessings, one that cuts across religious and cultural lines. Honestly, Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays for exactly that reason.
We may offer our thanks to different beings, in different ways, and many of us may not have that many blessings to count. But we can be thankful for the ones we do have.
It might just be the one thing we can (almost) all agree on!
.
Got a #ThrowbackThursday idea? Drop it in the comments!
Let's just dispense with all those happy little myths about friendly Indigenous people joyfully feeding the Pilgrims. It’s entirely possible that some tribes did indeed help out the first settlers…and it’s undeniable that the new arrivals repaid them badly.
By the late 1600s, both Massachusetts and Virginia had official fall thanksgiving events, and as other colonies and states evolved, they followed suit. Dates were all over the late-autumn calendar, but by the end of the 18th century, everyone was settling on the last Thursday in November. It helped that it was close to “Evacuation Day,” the date the new nation celebrated the exit of the last British troops.
Thanksgiving’s biggest booster was Sarah Josepha Hale, a New Englander who spent 40 years advocating for a national holiday. In the heat of the Civil War, she found an appreciative audience in President Lincoln, who declared a nationwide Thanksgiving celebration on the last Thursday in November 1863. During Reconstruction, it was one of the few things everybody could agree on, and it became a settled part of the calendar.
Until FDR, that is.
One of the less well-known – and less successful – ways President Roosevelt tried to help pull the nation out of the Depression was to move Thanksgiving up to the next-to-last Thursday in November, in hopes of extending the holiday shopping season and consumer spending. Opponents called it “Franskgiving,” some states ignored it, and a few observed both. None of it had the intended effect, and after three years of confusion, Congress passed a joint resolution formally making Thanksgiving the fourth Thursday in November, and Roosevelt signed it in December 1941.
That, by the way, is why every once in a while we have a year like this one, where Thanksgiving hits almost a week early.
This, of course, is all about American Thanksgiving. Many other countries celebrate it at
different times. Those of with Canadian friends know about theirs: the first Monday in October, the day that we Americans observe Columbus Day (Indigenous Peoples’ Day in many areas). Other countries have celebrations across the fall calendar, from a mid-August ritual in Rwanda to a Liberian holiday that focuses on religion and relaxation, but not feasting on the last Thursday in October.
The form and date of the holiday may change, but the idea remains pretty consistent across cultures. It’s a natural human impulse to want to pause, gather our loved ones, and give thanks for our blessings, one that cuts across religious and cultural lines. Honestly, Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays for exactly that reason.
We may offer our thanks to different beings, in different ways, and many of us may not have that many blessings to count. But we can be thankful for the ones we do have.
It might just be the one thing we can (almost) all agree on!
.
Got a #ThrowbackThursday idea? Drop it in the comments!
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James wrote: "Thank you, Kathleen, for a most informative and interesting history of the American Thanksgiving.HAPPY THANKSGIVING!"
Thank YOU! Happy Thanksgiving!
HAPPY THANKSGIVING!