A New Perspective on Thanksgiving
November 21, 2021
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By: Kaysey A. Richardson
This Thursday, the Nation will celebrate Thanksgiving: a holiday that has recently become controversial due to its complicated origins. Growing up in the 90s, I have memories of elementary school pageants depicting the story of Native Americans welcoming colonists with open arms for a commemorative feast. All coming together as one to celebrate the land. By this point, it is known that the story is much more complicated than an elementary school pageant would have us believe. However instead of focusing on the controversy surrounding the origins of the holiday, I would rather offer a new perspective on the Holiday’s origin and step away from what we were taught as children.
In 1621, the settlers of Massachusetts celebrated what is known for the First Thanksgiving in the New World. This festivity was not a holiday at this point, but rather considered a harvest celebration that lasted three days as a way to commemorate a successful harvest. There is only one account of this event written by one of the original colonists, Edward Winslow, but his record does provide detail that Native Americans were attendees of this feast. Following these days of celebration, there were other instances where feasts were presented for giving thanks, but it had yet to become an annual event.
It took over a hundred years later for George Washington to issue an important proclamation. On October 3, 1789, Washington designated Thursday, November 26 as a national day of giving thanks. In his Thanksgiving Proclamation, he declared there was “a necessity for such a day sprung from the Almighty’s care of Americans prior to the Revolution, assistance to them in achieving independence, and helping to establish the constitutional government.” However, this proclamation never led to a national holiday, because many-- such as Thomas Jefferson-- felt that public demonstrations of devotion to a higher power were unconstitutional and went against the separation of church and state. The presidents to follow agreed with Jefferson, halting the day of thanks for another seventy-four years.
How did Thanksgiving become the national holiday that we celebrate today, then? The creation of this holiday actually stems from Abraham Lincoln’s presidency and the Civil War. The Civil War was a time of division within our country. In 1863, following the victory of the Union Army at the Battle of Gettysburg, President Abraham Lincoln declared that the nation would celebrate an official Thanksgiving holiday every fourth Thursday of the month of November. His Thanksgiving Proclamation was spoken on October 3, 1863 and he declared the first Thanksgiving to happen on November 26, 1863—both dates paralleling the dates of former President George Washington.
Interestingly enough, Lincoln’s inspiration for the national holiday stemmed from a prominent New England writer and editor, Sarah Josepha Hale. Hale grew up in New Hampshire where she and her family, like many in New England, celebrated an annual day in the fall to give thanks. As the tensions between the North and the South grew in the 1850s, Hale began to lobby for a national holiday of Thanksgiving as a way to bring the country back together, even if only for a day. Her petitioning paid off because by 1854, more than 30 states and territories had a Thanksgiving celebration in the official books. However, the idea of a nationwide holiday still had not happened. This would change after Lincoln’s Thanksgiving Proclamation, where Hale would finally see her work toward a national holiday of thanks finally become a reality.
While the origin story that we learned as children might not be the case, the purpose of Thanksgiving as a holiday was intended to bring our country together during a time of war and conflict. Lincoln’s Thanksgiving Proclamation and subsequent holiday is a reminder to put a pause on work and politics to enjoy our time together. Whether you celebrate with family or friends, put aside your differences this holiday and simply use the day to give thanks and celebrate what we have.
