Happy Thanksgiving!

  Susan Sarah here, on Thanksgiving Eve, as it were ...

Tomorrow American families will gather together, reuniting in small and large numbers to share a feast of turkey and trimmings (usually, unless you're in the ham crowd, or the Chinese food crowd, as a friend of ours prefers on Thanksgiving) -- maybe they'll watch parades and football, and at one point or another all of us will take a moment, or longer, to be grateful for the abundance, the plenty, and the blessings in our lives.

(and for the cutest Pilgrim teddies ever, go to www.vermontteddybear.com !)

Many of our American readers may be busy today and tomorrow, cooking, cleaning, shopping, entertaining, traveling, or some combination thereof – I am, too, with family coming to our house this year again (though my husband is off work today so I sent him to the grocery store this morning. Too many years I have been the one standing in those lines!).

Since this is a blog of historical writers, I thought I'd post a few historical tidbits appropriate to the occasion…

Traditionally the first Thanksgiving is accepted as the three-day event that was held in the autumn of 1621 in Plymouth, Massachusetts, when a group of 50 Colonists invited 90 Native Americans of the Wampanoag tribe to share a harvest feast in gratitude for surviving a year that included a harsh winter and a scarce growing season. The group feasted on wild turkey, duck, venison, lobsters, clams, fish, vegetables, and fruits. This of course included pumpkin. They held athletic displays and contests and a military review as well. By all accounts, everyone was amiable, had a great time, and stuffed themselves with great food.

One colonist, Edward Winslow, reported:

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 fruit of our labors. 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 they 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 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.

A few Thanksgiving firsts --

1621-- The first Thanksgiving – Autumn, 1621

1630 -- The first repeated Thanksgiving –  July,1630, when Gov. Winthrop declares a feast day:
“Wee must uphold a familiar Commerce together in all meekenes, gentlenes, patience and liberallity, wee must delight in eache other, make others Condicions our owne, rejoyce together…”

The first time Thanksgiving was declared a local holiday: November 13, 1775, Massachusetts Colony:
“We have thought fit…to appoint THURSDAY the Twenty-third Day of November…a Day of public THANKSGIVING, throughout the Colony….”

1789 -- The first national declaration of Thanksgiving:
President George Washington proclaims November 26, 1789 as a day of Thanksgiving:
"Being the day appointed for a thanksgiving I went to St. Pauls Chapel…but few people at Church…"
(George! They were all home sharing a sumptuous feast and watching foote-balle!)

1846 - The first campaign to establish a national day of Thanksgiving on the last Thursday in November:  Sarah Hale, editor of Godey’s Lady’s Book, starts a letter-writing campaign to the government.

1864 – Abraham Lincoln agrees with Sarah Hale, who is still writing letters (after how many years?!). The last Thursday in November holiday is established later that year.

1924 – Macy’s first Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York City.

1934 – The first Thanksgiving Day football game between the Detroit Lions and the Chicago Bears (Da Bears!).

1941 – President Franklin D. Roosevelt and Congress legislate the declaration of Thanksgiving as a national holiday to be held the last Thursday in every November (well, finally!)

1947 – President Harry Truman pardons the first Thanksgiving turkey at the White House, so that it would be spared and left to live a long, contented, unthreatened life on a wildlife farm (btw, I heard yesterday that Vice President Cheney named this year's pardoned turkeys "Lunch" and "Dinner"...).

In hundreds of years, things haven’t changed much for this unique and honored American holiday. We still feast on fowl (thankfully dispatched by someone else), we  usually have turkey, potatoes, cranberries, and pumpkin pie, we have reviews that are now in the form of parades, and the athletic contests are now football games. 

And we still take time to give thanks for our neighbors, friends, and families, and for all the good in our lives.

All in all, this very cool holiday is one of my personal favorites. Football is very big in our house and in our family, going way back to 1939 when my dad’s first cousin, Ed Longhi, was an early NFL draft pick from Notre Dame to Pittsburgh. I have such fond memories of the whole family gathering at my grandparents' house, or the home of an aunt or uncle, or some years our house, to have a great time catching up, reconnecting, cooking and playing together, and finally cramming ourselves with a grand feast prepared with the help of just about everyone (we all pitched in, even the guys). Then we would play games inside and outside, depending on the weather, and sit down to watch whatever football game was on TV. The hooting and carrying on over the game was always a real highlight, with shouting and funny remarks, guys and girls. None of us will forget the time my mother, who is no longer with us, was watching the game quietly as she usually did, when she suddenly leaped up and shouted “JesusMaryandJoseph, GET THAT BALL!” As I recall, that triune must have complied, because the game was won. *g*

The family has changed, the dynamics have shifted, the location of the feast alternates every year, and the menu stays pretty much the same, perfected by grandmoms and moms and a dad or two. Good memories are still made every Thanksgiving, and fond memories remain of those who are gone from our group. And we still gather together every last Thursday in November, and cherish it.

Tomorrow, if you are sitting down to a Thanksgiving feast (which we have learned in this blog -- see the comments below-- should fall on the FOURTH Thursday in November!), may you be surrounded by friends and family, may your day be loving and joyful and fun-filled, may your feast be fantastic -- and may the good memories and the thankfulness linger through the years.

And for those blog visitors who are outside the USA, may your day be wonderful also!

~Susan Sarah (leaving you with a teensy bit of promo ;) ...

As Sarah Gabriel, www.sarahgabriel.com:

To Wed A Highland Bride                       

Avon, December 2007

"A lush, evocative fairy tale." -- Patricia Rice, Mystic Guardian

As Susan Fraser King, www.susanfraserking.com:

LADY MACBETH: A Novel

Crown Publishing, February 2008

"Compelling, vividly realized, fascinating." -- Rosalind Miles, I, Elizabeth

Comments

[Susan/DC]

I love Thanksgiving, and it's not just because it's one holiday where gluttony is not merely overlooked but is encouraged. The main reason I love it is because it is blind to gender, race, religion, national origin, and all those other protected class identifiers -- Thanksgiving is a holiday for all of us. And one of the things I am thankful for is to live in a country where there are such inclusive holidays.

[Ingrid]

I live in Europe, so this holiday is totally alien to me. But I can't help wondering; why tomorrow? 22 November is not the last Thursday of November. Why not on the 29th?
I hope you all have a wonderful time.
Luckily in my country football is not combined with any holidays. Watching football is not my idea of a pleasant way of spending an afternoon. We have a different kind of football, of course, but either kind seems a waste of time to me.

[Susan Sarah]

I agree, Susan, the all-inclusive nature of Thanksgiving, outside of religious or ethnic boundaries, is part of its enduring appeal. And it was a day when the culturally-uptight colonists reached out to the "savage" native inhabitants of the new world, which in itself is worth celebrating every year.

And Ingrid -- Thanksgiving is the third Thursday in every November, not the last Thursday -- my error, sorry! I've edited and corrected it. :)

Susan Sarah

[RevMelinda]

Hi Susan Sarah,
I don't mean to be a noodge, but Thanksgiving is always the FOURTH Thursday in November in the US. FDR declared this in 1939 or so.

My Dad remembers from his childhood that there was an "uproar" about this (at least in his community) because it had always been the last Thursday in November before that and it was Unthinkable to Change the Immutable Tradition!

(It was also another of the reasons, enumerated at great length, given by irascible, stubborn, and totally dear Great-Uncle Paul to illustrate the fact that FDR had Ruined America!)

Happy Turkey Day,
Melinda

[Susan Sarah]

Thanks for being a noodge, Melinda, I'll correct it once more! It's one of those holidays where I just look at the calendar to see where it falls...

Here's the crux of the problem (from an online encyclopedia)...

1863 -- Thanksgiving appointed as the date the last Thursday of November.
1939, 1940, and 1941 -- President Franklin D. Roosevelt proclaimed Thanksgiving the next-to-last Thursday in November. Conflicts arose between Roosevelt's proclamation and about half of those of state governors, and in 1941 Congress passed a joint resolution decreeing that Thanksgiving should fall on the fourth Thursday of November.

Yikes, no wonder it's confusing!!!

~Susan Sarah

[NinaP]

Hello All!

Great post, Susan/Sarah. Wonderful tidbits.

I'm sorry for being so absent. My head has been in my ms. Prepping for The Golden Heart. I don't even remember if I posted that I'm a full-time writer, now. It's quite the life, I must say.

Happy Thanksgiving to All!

Nina

[Jo Beverley]

Wench Jo here, wishing everyone here from the US a great Thanksgiving. Up here in Canada we did it a while ago, but as I'm trying to embrace the philosophy of gratitude, I try to make every day a day of giving thanks.

Thank you to the whole Wenche community, especially to you who make such interesting contributions.

Jo :)

[Jane George]

Hi Nina,
I know your GH pain well. I'm basting the turkey in a daze after staying up way too late for the past 3 nights. My entry goes in the mail tomorrow!
Congrats on quitting the day job and good luck in the GH!

Wenches, a HUGE thanks for all the fabulous reads!!!

Jane, who was sure she could find the Parade streamed on-line. Oh well.

[LorettaChase]

Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday, too, because it's for everybody. And Nina & Jane George, I know your pain, too. In between food prep, I've got a copy edit that must go out no later than tomorrow! But that's reason to give thanks, too, isn't it? Another story written, another book in production. Good luck to you both! But I will not wish you copy edits during holidays. *g*

[NinaP]

Hey Jane

Congrats on sending in your entry, early. Mine's going in next week. I can't stop fiddling with it.

Which category are you entering? I'll be in paranormal.

All the best to you, Jane. (Even if we will be competing.)

Nina

[Kayne Spooner]

First I want to thank Loretta for the pictures and links in her blogs. It really brings the history to life for me. Congrats on your well deserved win for favorite romance book of all time at ARR. I especially liked reading your post about Sebastion's son Damien and second chances at love.I wanted to enter the contest for the copy of the rerelease of Lord of Scoundrels. My question would be to hear more about your next book you are working on. Thanks.

[Jane George]

Thanks, Nina!

Yup, I'm paranormal, too. Nothing like riding an already crested wave, huh? lol

Here's to seeing both our names on the list of finalists! And even better, here's to contracts before March.

Jane, who's feeling optimistic. Yesterday, a perfect turkey, tomorrow, the world...