must revise essay to post soon on cre8
Nov. 24th, 2003 01:02 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dragonlady7http://www.csmonitor.com/2002/1127/p13s02-lign.html
http://earlyamerica.com/earlyamerica/firsts/thanksgiving/
http://www.plimoth.org/learn/history/thanksgiving/nativetrad.asp
http://www.new-life.net/thanks01.htm
Thanksgiving is an important holiday for Americans, and is traditionally devoted to family togetherness, centered around a large dinner. In many families it is traditional for each person at the table to take a turn saying what he or she is thankful for.
The history of Thanksgiving is a complex one, originating with some of the earliest English settlers of the New World. (An English settlement at Jamestown predates Plymouth, and the Dutch had been living in New York for some time, to say nothing of the Abenaki, Wampanoag, and Pequot tribes who had inhabited the region for centuries.)
The settlement at Plymouth was made up of about 100 people initially. Contrary to what schoolchildren are taught, only about half of the original settlers were fleeing religious persecution in England; the other half were seeking economic freedom. This is why the Mayflower Compact, signed just before landing to form a governing agreement, was so important-- the so-called Pilgrims were [i]not[/i] united under a common cause.
Of the approximately 100 who originally landed at Plymouth, only about half survived the first winter. Half of those remaining were under sixteen years of age, and only four of the adults were women.
With the help of the Wampanoag tribe, especially one man called Squanto who spoke English, the Pilgrims learned how to farm in the new climate and how to grow native crops. At harvest time in 1621, they managed to gather enough food to allow them to survive another winter.
What happened is unclear, but we do know that they held a harvest feast, as was customary in England, and about 90 Wampanoags showed up with their chief Massasoit, bringing five deer and other food. They feasted for three days and played many games, as was usual in English harvest festivals of the period. There were probably many prayers of thanksgiving offered up during the festival, not least by the Wampanoags whose culture is predicated on a sense of gratitude and understanding of the resources that make life possible. But no records of any of these prayers survive from the original festival, and it is unlikely they would have called it a thanksgiving.
It wasn't until the Civil War era that Abraham Lincoln declared Thanksgiving a national holiday-- in 1863, in response mostly to the publisher of one women's magazine, who lobbied tirelessly for the creation of the holiday. She it was who proposed the menu that has become traditional-- turkey, sweet potatoes, cranberry sauce, sweet corn, and mashed potatoes, with pumpkin pie for dessert.
The name of the holiday came from a separate tradition-- a Thanksgiving day was generally a day of fasting and prayer declared by a head of government in response to some event. George Washington declared several.
The date was finally set by Franklin Delano Roosevelt in 1941-- the fourth Thursday in November, to extend the Christmas shopping season and boost the economy.
So really, Thanksgiving is an amalgamation of a number of American and English traditions, with some borrowings from the Native American traditions of the local people: thankfulness, harvest celebration, patriotism, family togetherness, and capitalism.
Personally, I find it my favorite holiday, as it focuses the energy of the family inward, on each other, and provides a neat opening bracket to the winter holiday season.
http://earlyamerica.com/earlyamerica/firsts/thanksgiving/
http://www.plimoth.org/learn/history/thanksgiving/nativetrad.asp
http://www.new-life.net/thanks01.htm
Thanksgiving is an important holiday for Americans, and is traditionally devoted to family togetherness, centered around a large dinner. In many families it is traditional for each person at the table to take a turn saying what he or she is thankful for.
The history of Thanksgiving is a complex one, originating with some of the earliest English settlers of the New World. (An English settlement at Jamestown predates Plymouth, and the Dutch had been living in New York for some time, to say nothing of the Abenaki, Wampanoag, and Pequot tribes who had inhabited the region for centuries.)
The settlement at Plymouth was made up of about 100 people initially. Contrary to what schoolchildren are taught, only about half of the original settlers were fleeing religious persecution in England; the other half were seeking economic freedom. This is why the Mayflower Compact, signed just before landing to form a governing agreement, was so important-- the so-called Pilgrims were [i]not[/i] united under a common cause.
Of the approximately 100 who originally landed at Plymouth, only about half survived the first winter. Half of those remaining were under sixteen years of age, and only four of the adults were women.
With the help of the Wampanoag tribe, especially one man called Squanto who spoke English, the Pilgrims learned how to farm in the new climate and how to grow native crops. At harvest time in 1621, they managed to gather enough food to allow them to survive another winter.
What happened is unclear, but we do know that they held a harvest feast, as was customary in England, and about 90 Wampanoags showed up with their chief Massasoit, bringing five deer and other food. They feasted for three days and played many games, as was usual in English harvest festivals of the period. There were probably many prayers of thanksgiving offered up during the festival, not least by the Wampanoags whose culture is predicated on a sense of gratitude and understanding of the resources that make life possible. But no records of any of these prayers survive from the original festival, and it is unlikely they would have called it a thanksgiving.
It wasn't until the Civil War era that Abraham Lincoln declared Thanksgiving a national holiday-- in 1863, in response mostly to the publisher of one women's magazine, who lobbied tirelessly for the creation of the holiday. She it was who proposed the menu that has become traditional-- turkey, sweet potatoes, cranberry sauce, sweet corn, and mashed potatoes, with pumpkin pie for dessert.
The name of the holiday came from a separate tradition-- a Thanksgiving day was generally a day of fasting and prayer declared by a head of government in response to some event. George Washington declared several.
The date was finally set by Franklin Delano Roosevelt in 1941-- the fourth Thursday in November, to extend the Christmas shopping season and boost the economy.
So really, Thanksgiving is an amalgamation of a number of American and English traditions, with some borrowings from the Native American traditions of the local people: thankfulness, harvest celebration, patriotism, family togetherness, and capitalism.
Personally, I find it my favorite holiday, as it focuses the energy of the family inward, on each other, and provides a neat opening bracket to the winter holiday season.
