Giving Thanks

Thanksgiving is an annual holiday observed in the US. The holiday is celebrated on the fourth Thursday in November, and is generally considered the second biggest after Christmas.

Thanksgiving is closely related to harvest festivals that had long been a traditional holiday in much of Europe. The first North American celebration of these festivals by Europeans was held in Newfoundland by Martin Frobisher and the Frobisher Expedition in 1578. Another such festival occurred on December 4, 1619 when 38 colonists from Berkeley Parish in England disembarked in Virginia and gave thanks to God. Prior to this, there was also a Thanksgiving feast celebrated by Francisco Vasques de Coronado (along with friendly Teya Indians) on 23 May 1541 in Texas’ Palo Duro Canyon, to celebrate his expedition’s discovery of food supplies. Some hold this to be the true first Thanksgiving in North America. Another such event occurred a quarter century later on September 8, 1565 in St. Augustine when Pedro Menéndez de Avilés landed; he and his men shared a feast with the natives.

Thanksgiving is traditionally celebrated with a large dinner shared among friends and family. In both Canada and the United States, it is an important family gathering, and people often travel long distances to be with relations for the celebration. The Thanksgiving holiday is often a “four-day weekend” in the United States, in which Americans are given the relevant Thursday and Friday off. Thanksgiving is usually celebrated almost entirely at home, unlike the Fourth of July or Christmas, which are associated with a variety of shared public experiences (fireworks, caroling, etc.). In Canada, it is a three-day weekend, as Thanksgiving is observed on the second Monday of October every year.

Since at least the 1930s, the Christmas shopping season in the U.S. traditionally begins when Thanksgiving ends. In New York City, the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade is held annually every Thanksgiving Day in Midtown Manhattan. The parade features moving stands with specific themes, scenes from Broadway plays, large balloons of cartoon characters and TV personalities, and high school marching bands. It always ends with the image of Santa Claus passing the reviewing stand. Thanksgiving parades also occur in other cities such as Plymouth, Houston, Philadelphia (which claims the oldest parade), and Detroit (where it is the only major parade of the year). Because of the earlier date, Santa Claus parades in Canada do not fall on Thanksgiving; the only major parade on that day in Canada is the Oktoberfest parade in Kitchener-Waterloo.

While the biggest day of shopping of the year in the U.S., as measured by customer traffic, is still the Black Friday after Thanksgiving (the biggest by sales volume is either the Saturday before Christmas or December 23), most shops start to stock for and promote the December holidays immediately after Halloween, and sometimes even before.

American football is often a major part of Thanksgiving celebrations in the U.S. and likewise Canadian football in Canada. Professional games are traditionally played on Thanksgiving Day in both countries; until recently in the U.S., these were the only games played during the week apart from Sunday or Monday night. The Detroit Lions of the American National Football League have hosted a game every Thanksgiving Day since 1934, with the exception of 1939–1944 (due to World War II). The Dallas Cowboys have hosted every Thanksgiving Day since 1966, with the exception of 1975 and 1977 when the then-St. Louis Cardinals hosted. Additionally, many college and high school football games are played over Thanksgiving weekend, often between regional or historic rivals.

U.S. tradition associates the holiday with a meal held in 1621 by the Wampanoag and the PIlgrims who settled in Plymouth, Massachusetts. Some of the details of the American Thanksgiving story are myths that developed in the 1890s and early 1900s as part of the effort to forge a common national identity in the aftermath of the Civil War and in the melting pot of new immigrants. Most people recognize the first Thanksgiving as taking place on an unremembered date, sometime in the autumn of 1621, when the Pilgrims held a three-day feast to celebrate the bountiful harvest they reaped following their first winter in North America.

The Pilgrims did not hold Thanksgiving again until 1623, when it followed a drought, prayers for rain and a subsequent rain shower. Irregular Thanksgivings continued after favorable events and days of fasting after unfavorable ones. Gradually an annual Thanksgiving after the harvest developed in the mid-17th century. This did not occur on any set day or necessarily on the same day in different colonies in America.

Some, including historian Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr., point out that the first time colonists from Europe gave thanks in what would become the United States was on December 4, 1619, in Berkeley, Virginia. That was when the thirty-eight members of The Stanford Company landed there after a three-month voyage in the Margaret. Having been recruited from Gloucestershire to establish a colony in the New World, the men were under orders to give thanks when they arrived, so the first thing they did was to kneel down and do so. In November 1970, their descendants returned to Plymouth to publicize the true story of Thanksgiving and, along with about two hundred other Indians from around the country, to observe a national day of Indian mourning.”

The Pilgrims set apart a day for thanksgiving at Plymouth immediately after their first harvest, in 1621; the Massachusetts Bay Colony for the first time in 1630, and frequently thereafter until about 1680, when it became an annual festival in that colony; and Connecticut as early as 1639 and annually after 1647, except in 1675. The Dutch in New Netherlands appointed a day for giving thanks in 1644 and occasionally thereafter. During the American Revolutionary War the Continental Congress appointed one or more thanksgiving days each year, except in 1777, each time recommending to the executives of the various states the observance of these days in their states. George Washington, leader of the revolutionary forces in the American Revolutionary War, proclaimed a Thanksgiving in December 1777 as a victory celebration honoring the defeat of the British at Saratoga. The Continental Congress proclaimed annual December Thanksgivings from 1777 to 1783, except in 1782.

George Washington again proclaimed Thanksgivings, now as President, in 1789 and 1795. President John Adams declared Thanksgivings in 1798 and 1799. President Madison, in response to resolutions of Congress, set apart a day for thanksgiving at the close of the War of 1812. Madison declared the holiday twice in 1815; however, none of these was celebrated in autumn. One was annually appointed by the governor of New York from 1817. In some of the Southern states there was opposition to the observance of such a day on the ground that it was a relic of Puritanical bigotry, but by 1858 proclamations appointing a day of thanksgiving were issued by the governors of 25 states and two Territories. Since 1863, Thanksgiving has been observed annually in the United States.

In 1939, President Franklin D. Roosevelt declared that Thanksgiving would be the next to last Thursday of November rather than the last. With the country still in the midst of The Great Depression, Roosevelt thought this would give merchants a longer period to sell goods before Christmas. Increasing profits and spending during this period, Roosevelt hoped, would aid bringing the country out of the Depression. At the time, it was considered inappropriate to advertise goods for Christmas until after Thanksgiving. However, Roosevelt’s declaration was not mandatory; twenty-three states went along with this recommendation, and 22 did not. Other states, like Texas, could not decide and took both weeks as government holidays. Roosevelt persisted in 1940 to celebrate his “Franksgiving,” as it was termed. The U.S. Congress in 1941 split the difference and established that the Thanksgiving would occur annually on the fourth Thursday of November, which was sometimes the last Thursday and sometimes the next to last. On November 26 that year President Roosevelt signed this bill into U.S. law. President Truman receiving a Thanksgiving turkey from members of the Poultry and Egg National Board and other representatives of the turkey industry, outside the White House.

Since 1947, or possibly earlier, the National Turkey Federation has presented the President of the United States with one live turkey and two dressed turkeys. The live turkey is pardoned and lives out the rest of its days on a peaceful farm. While it is commonly held that this tradition began with Harry Truman in 1947, the Truman Library has been unable to find any evidence for this. Still others claim that that the tradition dates back to Abraham Lincoln pardoning his son’s pet turkey. Both stories have been quoted in more recent presidential speeches.

In more recent years, two turkeys have been pardoned, in case the original turkey becomes unavailable for presidential pardoning. Since 2003 the public has been invited to vote for the two turkeys’ names. In 2005, they were named Marshmallow and Yam; 2004’s turkeys were named Biscuit and Gravy; in 2003, Stars and Stripes. Since 1970, a group of Native Americans and others have held a National Day of Mourning protest on Thanksgiving at Plymouth Rock in Plymouth, Massachusetts.

The centerpiece of contemporary Thanksgiving in the United States and Canada is a large meal, starring a large roasted turkey. Because turkey is the most common main dish of a Thanksgiving dinner, Thanksgiving is sometimes colloquially called Turkey Day in the USA. The USDA estimated that 269 million turkeys were raised in the country in 2003, about one-sixth of which were destined for a Thanksgiving dinner plate.

Foods other than turkey are sometimes served as the main dish for a Thanksgiving dinner. Goose and duck, foods which were traditional European centerpieces of Christmas dinners before being displaced by turkeys, are now ironically sometimes served in place of the Thanksgiving turkey. On the West Coast of the United States, Dungeness crab is common as an alternate main dish, as crab season starts in early November. Turducken, a turkey stuffed with a duck stuffed with a chicken, is becoming more popular, from its base in Louisiana. Deep-fried turkey is rising in popularity as well, requiring special fryers to hold the large bird, and reportedly leading to fires and bad burns. In Maryland, sauerkraut is eaten. Sometimes a variant recipe for cooking turkey could be used, for example a Chinese recipe for goose could be used on the similarly-sized American bird. Vegetarians or vegans may try tofurkey, a tofu based dish with imitation turkey flavor.

Many other foods are served alongside the main dish—so many that, because of the amount of food, the Thanksgiving meal is sometimes served midday or early afternoon to make time for all the eating, and preparation may begin at the crack of dawn or days before.

Traditional Thanksgiving foods are sometimes specific to the day, and although some of the foods might be seen at any semi-formal meal in the United States, the meal often has something of a ritual or traditional quality.

Commonly served dishes include cranberry sauce, gravy, mashed potatoes, candied yams, green beans or green bean casserole, and stuffing. For dessert, various pies are served, particularly pumpkin pie, apple pie and pecan pie. There are also regional differences as to the “stuffing” (or “dressing”) traditionally served with the turkey. Southerners generally make theirs from cornbread, while in other parts of the country white bread is the base. One or several of the following may be added: oysters, apples, chestnuts, raisins, celery and/or other vegetables, sausage or the turkey’s giblets.

Other dishes reflect the region or cultural background of those who have come together for the meal. For example, Italian-Americans often have lasagna on the table and Ashkenazi Jews may serve noodle kugel, a sweet pudding. Irish-Americans have been known sometimes to substitute the turkey with prime rib of beef. Those of the vegetarian or vegan persuasion have been known to come up with alternative entree centerpieces such as a large vegetable pie or a stuffed and baked pumpkin.

In certain parts of the United States, the name for Thanksgiving can be shortened or changed. These nicknames include: Turkey Day (after the traditional Thanksgiving dinner), T-Day (abbreviation of either “Thanksgiving” or “Turkey”), Macy’s Day (exclusive to New York City , a reference to the parade, above, as in “Macy’s Day Parade” instead of the proper “Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade”). In Canada, the Thanksgiving in the United States is sometimes referred to as Yanksgiving to distinguish it from the Canadian holiday. Smart arses.