Dear Forum, Todays meal marks the 394th anniversary of an iconic dinner whose well-loved images derive from barely 100 words by Edward Winslow. Our harvest being gotten in, our Governoure sent 4 men fowling, so that we might after a more special manner rejoyce together, after we had gathered the fruit of our labours; they together in one day killed as much fowl, as with a little help beside, served the Company almost a weeke, at which time amongst other Recreations we exercised our Armes, many of the Indians coming amongst us, and amongst the rest their greatest King Massasoit, with some 90 men, whom for three days we entertained and feasted, and they went out & killed 5 deer which they brought to the Plantation and bestowed on our Governour, ... Their feast combined the traditions of the English and Wampanoag harvest celebrations. Their menu had parallels to ours. Although pumpkin pie and cranberries were absent (there was no molasses for sweetener), turkey and venison (supplied by the Wampanoag) and squash and corn were certainly on the table. But Winslow’s account was lost for over two centuries. Instead, Thanksgiving developed for over two centuries as a religious-based holiday in the New England colonies, later states. The Continental Congress declared the first national Thanksgiving in 1777, a tradition continued by Presidents Washington and Adams. But Jefferson ended the practice, not revived until reinstated by Lincoln in 1863, which tarnished it in the eyes of many southerners as a Yankee holiday. The “Pilgrims” were only associated with the Thanksgivings in the 1870s by New Englanders hoping to create a holiday that separated long-standing Americans from recent immigrants. Plymouth Rock was given iconic status, the “Separatists” were renamed the more romantic “Pilgrims”, children learned the lore in school, and the iconography of that first feast was popularized. The Pilgrim Tercentenary in 1920 solidified that narrative’s hold on the national imagination. While attaching the celebration to the 1621 dinner was successful, the rebranding failed to exclude immigrant cultures, as Thanksgiving become a rite of Americanization. The spirit had begun shifting from a thanksgiving to a celebratory festival as college football games began competing with Thanksgiving church services in the 1880s, meals became more sumptuous, and merchants capitalized on it to launch Christmas shopping. The department store Thanksgiving parades began in the 1920s and high school and college football games between traditional rivals became a Thanksgiving day fixture, often now replaced by televised NFL games. So a mixture of history and myth have combined to create a tradition that has become a bedrock of American identity. Hope youve given thanks and had a sumptuous meal. Bruce Leslie
Posted on: Fri, 28 Nov 2014 00:12:56 +0000
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