Thanksgiving is an American favorite. With the traditions of family, friends, food, football, and The Last Waltz in some households, it is always a day like no other. This year, however, we are being asked to pare down Thanksgiving. Don’t travel. No large gatherings. Don’t sit too close. Wear a face mask. At the same time, we can figure this out. We have telephones, we have facetime, we even have Zoom. With all of these limitations, this year is not a bad time to reminisce on the history of Thanksgiving.
Did you know….
Most of us remember from elementary school that the Pilgrims and Native Americans shared a three-day feast in 1621. Thanksgiving days, however, were first issued in proclamations by George Washington, John Adams, and James Madison to observe general days of thanksgiving often following significant military victories or other events. Thanksgiving didn’t become a national holiday until Abraham Lincoln, in 1863, designated the last Thursday of November as a national day of Thanksgiving.
It was Sarah Josepha Hale who is truly the originator of the modern-day Thanksgiving holiday. Ms. Hale was an extraordinarily talented author, publisher, and advocate. She helped found the American Ladies Magazine in the 1820s as a platform for women’s issues, and then became editor of the Godey’s Lady Book where she worked for 40 years increasing the magazine’s circulation to over 150,000 by the 1860s. Ms. Hale published Northwood: A Tale of New England, in 1827, a novel where she described the fall Thanksgiving tradition. She also lobbied state and federal officials to create a national holiday on the last Thursday of November. These efforts paid off over the decades as 30 states had Thanksgiving celebrations by the 1850s, and finally Lincoln’s proclamation in 1863.
The occasional 5th Thursday in November adversely shortened the holiday shopping season. In 1939, after a request (lobbying) from the National Retail Dry Goods Association, Thanksgiving was changed to the 4th Thursday of November. It took the House of Representatives and the Senate two years to reach an agreement and this change became permanent. The tradition remains today complete with Black Friday and Cyber Monday shopping days.
While Thanksgiving appears to have evolved to include football, what came first: Thanksgiving Day or football? It was Thanksgiving Day in 1863, but the American Intercollegiate Football Association held its first championship game only 13 years later, on Thanksgiving Day in 1876. High school and college football games quickly caught on and the tradition grew to more than 5,000 games taking place on Thanksgiving Day by the 1890s. The NFL took over the tradition when the Detroit Lions played the Chicago Bears in 1934. The Lions have played every year on Thanksgiving Day since then, except for the World War II years from 1939 to 1944.
We hope you have enjoyed a few fun facts. Of the many Thanksgiving Day traditions, our greatest tradition is to share our gratitude with family and friends. While 2020 has been quite the year, it may be difficult to find gratitude. Not to worry though, it is there but you may have to look just a little deeper.
Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!!
“Nor need we power or splendor, wide hall or lordly dome;
The good, the true, the tender – these form the wealth of home.”
– Sarah Josepha Hale
“Home is the resort of love, of joy, of peace, and plenty; where supporting and supported, polished friends and dear relations mingle into bliss.”
– James Thomson, Poet (1700-1748)
“Gratitude turns what we have into enough, and more.
It turns denial into acceptance, chaos into order, confusion into clarity…
it makes sense of our past, brings peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow.”
– Melody Beattie, American Author
Jeff Bensch 