Thanks and Giving by Matt Cost

What is Thanksgiving? The history dates to a feast shared between the Pilgrims and the Wampanoag people in 1621. As history is merely an interpretation of the past, the exact dates and how it all went down are all a bit vague. The spirit in which it is celebrated revolves around the first successful harvest after the first difficult winter for the Pilgrims that decimated their group of a hundred to merely fifty survivors.

The first national proclamation of Thanksgiving was issued by the Continental Congress in 1777 and was observed by General Washington to honor the defeat of the British at Saratoga. The observation of this day flittered around for another nearly hundred years until the mid-point of the Civil War when Abraham Lincoln proclaimed that the final Thursday of November to be day of thanks and giving, replacing Evacuation Day, which had been a yearly celebration of the day the British left America following the Revolutionary War.

In 1939, President Roosevelt changed Thanksgiving to a week earlier in an attempt to give merchants a longer period of time to sell their goods before the Christmas Holidays and a few years later Congress ratified that it would be observed on the fourth Thursday of November. Twenty years ago, we changed it to the fourth FRIDAY in an effort to gather family together outside of other commitments.

Turkey has long been a Thanksgiving mainstay, but that like everything else, is fluid and adaptable to personal preference, taste, and attainability. In the book The Martian, Mark Watney celebrates very happily with potatoes, the first real food he has had in some time. The tradition, food, and spirit of Thanksgiving is relative to each individual and their reality of the moment.

Traditions of Thanksgiving are parades and football. The Macy’s Parade dates back to 1924 and football games have been a staple of this day since the inception of the National Football League. The president has received a turkey every year since 1873, mostly for marketing purposes. John F. Kennedy was the first president to pardon the turkey when he said he wasn’t going to eat the bird. George Bush made it official in 1989 and every president has followed suit since.

The spirit of Thanksgiving is what can be celebrated by all. I believe that the day holds a different meaning for all people. It can be a religious observance, a celebration of America, or simply a nod of thanks for the gifts we are bestowed and the ability to give to those less fortunate than ourselves.

For whatever it means to you, Happy Thanksgiving.

About the Author

Matt Cost was a history major at Trinity College. He owned a mystery bookstore, a video store, and a gym, before serving a ten-year sentence as a junior high school teacher. In 2014 he was released and began writing. And that’s what he does. He writes histories and mysteries.

Cost has published five books in the Mainely Mystery series, with the fifth, Mainely Wicked, just released in August of 2023. He has also published four books in the Clay Wolfe Trap series, with the fifth, Pirate Trap, due out in December of 2023.

For historical novels, Cost has published At Every Hazard and its sequel, Love in a Time of Hate, as well as I am Cuba. In April of 2023, Cost combined his love of histories and mysteries into a historical PI mystery set in 1923 Brooklyn, Velma Gone Awry. City Gone Askew will follow in April of 2024.

Cost now lives in Brunswick, Maine, with his wife, Harper. There are four grown children: Brittany, Pearson, Miranda, and Ryan. A chocolate Lab and a basset hound round out the mix. He now spends his days at the computer, writing.