[Above: painting of Pueblo Green Corn Ceremony circa 1930 by Opwa Pi (Red Cloud)
The first ceremonial Thanksgivings in North America occurred before history was written on this continent. Such individual ceremonies were part of daily lives for most if not all Indigenous hunters and gatherers, such as giving thanks to the animal that gave its life to the hunter, or a constant consciousness of sacredness in gathering and crafts like basket-weaving.
It is certain that even in historical times, group ceremonies of thanks among Native tribes included giving thanks for the harvest. Tribes in the Eastern Woodlands and Southwest in particular celebrated Green Corn Ceremonies or festivals (and many still do.)
It seems likely that the most famous "first" Thanksgiving in Patuexet (Plymouth), Massachusetts in 1621 (or 1623) was at least partly inspired by such an event among local Native groups such as the Wampanoags who attended--and reportedly outnumbered the Pilgrim colonists. Like traditional Green Corn ceremonies, it lasted three days, beginning on June 30. This cooperative venture was not repeated. The next harvest was bad, and eventually the Pilgrim fathers slaughtered the same tribal peoples, setting a horrific but often followed precedent.
Other religious ceremonies of thanks to the Christian God had already been held among colonists in Newfoundland (1578), Jamestown, La Florida and a colony in Maine. The first national day of thanks was declared in 1789 by President George Washington, in gratitude for the Constitution. It was only the third national holiday declared, held that year on November 26. Other Presidents declared national Thanksgiving days, one year at a time and on various dates, though some Presidents didn't at all.
Beginning in the first quarter of the 19th century, magazine editor Sarah Josepha Hale began a 36 year campaign in favor of an annual and official Thanksgiving Day. Today's tradition was established by President Abraham Lincoln in October 1863, just weeks before he gave his historic Gettysburg Address. In part he wanted the nation to give thanks but also pray for healing after the Civil War. He made Thanksgiving an annual holiday, to be celebrated on the last Thursday of November.
But the calendar is a tricky thing: sometimes the last Thursday of the month is the fourth, and sometimes (roughly two time out of seven) it is the fifth Thursday of the month. In 1939 it was the fifth, and retailers begged President Franklin D. Roosevelt to declare that year's Thanksgiving for the fourth Thursday, the next-to-last, because they were afraid of a foreshortened Christmas shopping season. He agreed.
National pandemonium ensued, which only got worse in 1940 when FDR again designated the next-to-last Thursday, which that year was the third. Republicans in particular derided him, and called it Franksgiving. Some 16 states declared their own Thanksgiving day to be celebrated on the last Thursday, so there was no longer a national day of thanks. In 1941, Congress passed a resolution assigning the fourth Thursday of November as Thanksgiving, which FDR signed into law. (Retailers had not shown any appreciable change in sales with the earlier date.)
Some states continued to designate the last Thursday, and celebrations were muted during World War II, but by the end of the war, almost all of the nation celebrated on the new Franksgiving of the fourth Thursday. The last holdout was Texas, which did not change its law from the last to the fourth Thursday until 1956. (Then of course there's Canada, which holds its Thanksgiving the second Monday of October.)
Though it is unlikely that the first Pilgrim Thanksgiving included pumpkin pie, mashed potatoes and even today's breeds of turkey, most of the day's food traditions do seem to come from New England. Recipes for most of the traditional meal are in the first cookbook published in America, in Connecticut in 1796.
The Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York has been an annual event since 1930. Coming near the end of the collegiate football season, Thanksgiving has been a tradition for rivalry games. (Hence the Great Turkey Heist at Knox College I participated in, oh long ago.) The Detroit Lions began scheduling a game on Thanksgiving also in the 1930s.
It all began with gratitude for nature's sustaining gifts. But beginning with those first ideologues in New England and Virginia, Americans relationship to nature has been more hostile than grateful. Settlers and their descendants have been busy ruining the land and waters and now even the air for centuries, and we are close to finishing the job. Maybe we can at least acknowledge this with a little grace as we're saying grace, and try to do better.
The natural world is the source of all life, including our big and dubious brains. The rest of nature would be grateful if we'd start using them wisely. "It is an error to say that we have 'conquered nature,'" FDR said in 1935, in the midst of an ecological crisis called the Dust Bowl and the Great Depression caused largely by wanton exploitation and destruction of land, forests and waters. "We must, rather, start to shape our lives in a more harmonious relationship with nature."
Lots of other things are associated with family gatherings on Thanksgiving these days. Those retailers have largely absorbed the holiday, with their extended pre-Christmas sales. Thanksgiving also begins the holiday season when people measure themselves against a Norman Rockwell idea, and find there are angry words, sulks, disappointment, bewilderments and tears as well as the occasional radiant smiles and gratitude.
Whether gratitude is part of the mix anymore is perhaps a matter of personal choice. This year we may be thankful that things are not worse than they are, which may well itself become a Thanksgiving tradition.
