Clearly, the big event in November is Thanksgiving. Remember the first stanza of this poem?
Over the river and through the wood,
To grandfather’s house we go:
The horse knows the way,
To carry the sleigh,
Through the white and drifted snow.
Somehow, this sounds like a lot more fun than a crowded airport and delayed flights!
Did Thanksgiving really start with the Pilgrims and Indians in what’s now Massachusetts?
Yes and no. The first harvest festival in the New World may have been held in the Plymouth colony. The Indians were indispensable to the survival of the Pilgrims the first few years in the New World. A three-day feast was held beginning December 13, 1621, to thank God; ninety of the Indians attended, including their leader.
Thanksgivings –- days of giving thanks to God and, often, fasting (not feasting) — were recorded as early as the 16th century by Spaniards in the Florida colony and again in 1607 in the Virginia colony.
Would turkey, sweet potatoes, pumpkin pie, corn and stuffing have been on the menu in 1621?
Turkey probably was. One Pilgrim wrote that “birds” were hunted for the event and wild turkeys were native to the area. Pumpkin or some sort of squash may well have been on the menu, although pumpkin pie probably was not – flour, if it had survived the voyage across the Atlantic at all, likely would have been used up or kept for bread – so, no crust, no pie. Sweet potatoes weren’t known in that part of the world at the time. Stuffing probably was not on the menu, at least not one made with bread. Corn almost certainly would have been part of the meal, perhaps ground and made into bread or pudding. Seafood of various types would have been included.
When did Thanksgiving become an official holiday in the US?
George Washington proclaimed a day of thanks to God in 1789, the year that the new Constitution was adopted. That year, a leading protestant church declared that the first Thursday in November would be its day of thanks.
It wasn’t until 1863, however, that a specific day was named as a national Day of Thanksgiving, the last Thursday of November. Lincoln’s Proclamation of the day, in the midst of the Civil War, is very powerful. It was written shortly after he toured the battlefield in Gettysburg, which saw the largest number of casualties in the war.
Even then, the proclamation might not have been issued had it not been for Mrs. Sarah Joseph Hale, who had pestered Presidents for years to proclaim an official holiday. (Sarah Hale was a very inspiring woman in many ways.)
Subsequent Presidents followed Lincoln’s lead in proclaiming a national day. In 1941, Congress designated the last Thursday in November as the official national holiday. Today, it’s celebrated by Americans of all beliefs and backgrounds.
Has Macy’s always had a Thanksgiving Day parade?
No, but it has been an amazingly long time – since 1924, 85 years! The balloons appeared in 1927. The parade was not held in the early 1940s, when the materials for the parade, particularly those for the balloons, were needed for the war effort.
How did the Macy’s parade get started?
In the 1920s, many of the Macy’s employees were recent immigrants from Europe, where parades that involve floats and people in costume are common (think Mardi Gras). They wanted to stage a similar festival to celebrate America. Participants dressed as clowns, cowboys, knights and sheiks and walked down the street accompanied by three floats (pulled by horses), four bands and zoo animals from the Central Park Zoo — camels, donkeys, elephants and goats. Santa Claus was last in the lineup, a tradition that continues to this day. Over 250,000 people attended.
Is Macy’s the only Thanksgiving Day parade?
No. Parades take place in many other cities that day, but none as elaborate or as famous as Macy’s in New York.
And football? When did that become a Thanksgiving tradition?
Even earlier than the parade! Some place the first game in 1902, in Pennyslvania, when the National Football League (not the same as today’s NFL) played for their championship. Ohio teams held contests on that day as early as 1905-06.
According to the Pro Football Hall of Fame: “When it comes to Thanksgiving Day football, NFL style, most fans first think of the Lions and the tradition that was started in 1934. It was their first year in Detroit after a local radio executive, George A. Richards, had purchased the Portsmouth (Ohio) Spartans and moved the team to Detroit.” The Thanksgiving Day game was intended to grab attention away from Tigers baseball, which dominated the sports news.
Who won? “The matchup between the Lions and the World Champion Chicago Bears proved to be an all-time classic. The 1934 Lions had not allowed a touchdown until their eighth game and entered the game with the Bears with a 10-1 record. But with 11 straight wins, Chicago had an even better record. Still a win would put the Lions into a first-place tie with the Bears with only a game left, a repeat clash with the Bears in Chicago, just three days later on December 2 . . . The Bears edged out the Lions 19-16 . . .”
What are your Thanksgiving traditions? We’d love to hear!
