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| It is Thanksgiving once again and I find that I am writing another holiday newsletter. These are probably the hardest to write if one whishes to avoid the cliché or the typified context. Being that I cannot always avoid tapping into the much past furrowed ground of literary holiday topics I’ll just shut up and write what is most readily in my face and soon to be all over my face! |
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I’ll wager that many if not most of us were weaned on a story purporting to describe the “First Thanksgiving” celebrated by the first colonists and the Indians in 1621. Further, we probably have also been filled with social commentary and politically correct alternate histories of what was supposed to be celebration of surviving the first year on the continent. I abhor the twisting of history for personal or political gain. It is what it is and needs to be interpreted with an eye on the time and not on the present. It is also hard to distinguish commercialism from fact when we consider something such as the upcoming holiday in the realm of our nation’s history. We grew up with this holiday so should it not have always been this way? Little pictures of Pilgrim and Indian children that adorn bulletin boards or streamers of pumpkins and corn colored in acceptable fall fashion. We understand this to be what we have always grown up with.
But, it was not always so. Even the event in question was nothing that we understand it to be today. There are only two accounts that suggest anything like what we understand to have been the “First Thanksgiving”. The first account was from a letter written by Edward Winslow in 1622 of the gathering of what successfully grew and of a three day feast:
Our corn [i.e. wheat] did prove well, and God be praised, we had a good increase of Indian corn, and our barley indifferent good, but our peas not worth the gathering, for we feared they were too late sown. They came up very well, and blossomed, but the sun parched them in the blossom. Our harvest being gotten in, our governor sent four men on fowling, that so we might after a special manner rejoice together after we had gathered the fruit of our labors. They four in one day killed as much fowl as, with a little help beside, served the company almost a week. At which time, amongst other recreations, we exercised our arms, many of the Indians coming amongst us, and among the rest their greatest king Massasoit, with some ninety men, whom for three days we entertained and feasted, and they went out and killed five deer, which they brought to the plantation and bestowed on our governor, and upon the captain and others. And although it be not always so plentiful as it was at this time with us, yet by the goodness of God, we are so far from want that we often wish you partakers of our plenty.
-Chapter 6, Mourt's Relation: A Journal of the Pilgrims at Plymouth.
This is just an account of something of little consequence happening amidst the larger event of the coming to a different world and carving out an existence. No special name was given and no special account was written for it save this letter. Later however William Bradford penned his “History of Plymouth Plantation” where he writes this:
They began now to gather in the small harvest they had, and to fit up their houses and dwellings against winter, being all well recovered in health and strength and had all things in good plenty. For as some were thus employed in affairs abroad, others were exercising in fishing, about cod and bass and other fish, of which they took good store, of which every family had their portion. All the summer there was no want; and now began to come in store of fowl, as winter approached, of which this place did abound when they came first (but afterward decreased by degrees). And besides waterfowl there was great store of wild turkeys, of which they took many, besides venison, etc. Besides they had about a peck of meal a week to a person, or now since harvest, Indian corn to that proportion. Which made many afterwards write so largely of their plenty here to their friends in England, which were not feigned but true reports.
Interestingly Bradford’s history was rediscovered in 1854 having been looted by British troops in the Revolutionary War and caused something of a revival of interest in this fabled event. What is clear in both accounts is the attention to the harvest, that being the tantamount subject of interest to both writers. That a feeling of thankfulness for what was gathered in to be stored up for another winter became a benchmark in the history of the colony but was not something observed annually aside from what has always attended agrarian societies at harvest time. Households gave thanks individually for their bounty just as any family who survives upon the produce of the land still do today.
The first official “day of thanksgiving” as a national holiday came in 1863 as President Abraham Lincoln issued a proclamation calling for a day of thanksgiving to be observed:
The year that is drawing towards its close, has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies. To these bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the source from which they come, others have been added, which are of so extraordinary a nature, that they cannot fail to penetrate and soften even the heart which is habitually insensible to the ever watchful providence of Almighty God. In the midst of a civil war of unequalled magnitude and severity, which has sometimes seemed to foreign States to invite and to provoke their aggression, peace has been preserved with all nations, order has been maintained, the laws have been respected and obeyed, and harmony has prevailed everywhere except in the theatre of military conflict; while that theatre has been greatly contracted by the advancing armies and navies of the Union. Needful diversions of wealth and of strength from the fields of peaceful industry to the national defence, have not arrested the plough, the shuttle, or the ship; the axe had enlarged the borders of our settlements, and the mines, as well of iron and coal as of the precious metals, have yielded even more abundantly than heretofore. Population has steadily increased, notwithstanding the waste that has been made in the camp, the siege and the battle-field; and the country, rejoicing in the consciousness of augmented strength and vigor, is permitted to expect continuance of years with large increase of freedom.
No human counsel hath devised nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy. It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently and gratefully acknowledged as with one heart and voice by the whole American People. I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next, as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens. And I recommend to them that while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliverances and blessings, they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to his tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty Hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to restore it as soon as may be consistent with the Divine purposes to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquillity and Union.
Abraham Lincoln
-Library of America series, Vol II, pp. 520-521
What one draws from this first official observance was that of supreme thankfulness for continued life and sustenance. No mention of Pilgrims or Indians or of corn or pumpkin pie but of reverence and recognition of what sustained both Lincoln and our country. Interestingly enough it would take another time of war before Thanksgiving found its way to the day we know it to be, the 4th Thursday of November each year. In 1941 Congress passed a law firmly setting this date. Prior to that many communities and states continued to observe the last Thursday in November as proclaimed by Lincoln in his 1863 address and call to observe a day of thanksgiving. It is thought that Lincoln’s motivation for this date was the date the Mayflower anchored off of the shores of Cape Cod on November 21, 1620. At one time Thanksgiving was celebrated both on the last Thursday of the month (sometimes meaning a fifth Thursday some years) and on the 4th Thursday.
Why is all of this important? Because sometimes we do not know the full story of why something has come to be and have little appreciation of the tradition. I won’t get into the anti-holiday rhetoric and revisionist diatribes against the evils of colonization of “the New World” but focus instead on the reasons for giving thanks. Every President since George Washington has declared a day of thanksgiving to be observed by the peoples of the United States:
BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
A PROCLAMATION
Whereas it is the duty of all nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey His will, to be grateful for His benefits, and humbly to implore His protection and favor; and
Whereas both Houses of Congress have, by their joint committee, requested me "to recommend to the people of the United States a day of public thanksgiving and prayer, to be observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many and signal favors of Almighty God, especially by affording them an opportunity peaceably to establish a form of government for their safety and happiness:"
Now, therefore, I do recommend and assign Thursday, the 26th day of November next, to be devoted by the people of these States to the service of that great and glorious Being who is the beneficent author of all the good that was, that is, or that will be; that we may then all unite in rendering unto Him our sincere and humble thanks for His kind care and protection of the people of this country previous to their becoming a nation; for the signal and manifold mercies and the favorable interpositions of His providence in the course and conclusion of the late war; for the great degree of tranquillity, union, and plenty which we have since enjoyed; for the peaceable and rational manner in which we have been enabled to establish constitutions of government for our safety and happiness, and particularly the national one now lately instituted; for the civil and religious liberty with which we are blessed, and the means we have of acquiring and diffusing useful knowledge; and, in general, for all the great and various favors which He has been pleased to confer upon us.
And also that we may then unite in most humbly offering our prayers and supplications to the great Lord and Ruler of Nations, and beseech Him to pardon our national and other trangressions; to enable us all, whether in public or private stations, to perform our several and relative duties properly and punctually; to render our National Government a blessing to all the people by constantly being a Government of wise, just, and constitutional laws, discreetly and faithfully executed and obeyed; to protect and guide all sovereigns and nations (especially such as have shown kindness to us), and to bless them with good governments, peace, and concord; to promote the knowledge and practice of true religion and virtue, and the increase of science among them and us; and, generally, to grant unto all mankind such a degree of temporal prosperity as He alone knows to be best.
Given under my hand, at the city of New York, the 3d day of October, A. D. 1789.
GO Washington
Interestingly this is not a wholly American observance as both Canada and the UK nations all observe a holiday of partaking of the harvest and celebrating the rewards of fruitful labor.
What is clear from each of these printed statements is the focus on life and coming together. Its traditions hail from the harvest festivals celebrated all over England as a matter of course and by the hands of those like Washington, Lincoln, and FDR we have what we can point to today as a time of enjoying the company of family and sharing a meal in thanks for what we have been given in life.
What is the lesson for the writer? Know your history and be prepared to cut through myth to understand what it is you observe. Know that as a day and as an idea it has permeated our history if not officially but as tradition. When the turkey is doing its work and you’re lazing about in the easy chair watching football remember to give thanks in the spirit of what our forefathers meant when they where thankful for what they had.
How much does the myth and commercialism affect your own idea of giving thanks?
phil1861
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Here are a few poems I found that I felt drew upon the essence of why we give thanks at all in this life.
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Question from the 10/25/06 NL
How would you describe your “art”?
Have you lost your art to the pursuit of “Art”? What is more important to you: to create or to be a great creator?
writeone 
Submitted Comment:
Thanks for the newsletter! I signed up NaNo at the last minute because I was afraid I wouldn't be able to do it and then I would hve to stock up on Ben and Jerry's and then I wouldn't be able to fit into my fabulous fall wardrobe!
Now, after ten days, I have a little over 20,000 words written. I can do this! Thanks for the encouragement.
{c/blue}Glad you decided to go through with it; the experience is it’s own reward.
Mavis Moog
Submitted Comment:
No NaNoWriMo for me, but in true procastinator form. MayBeNextYear.
Great newsletter.
{c/blue}Thanks and I too will have to look to next year.
writeone
Submitted Comment:
Thanks so much for such an uplifting newsletter. I am nearing the end of the DWC October Challenge and am (STILL) contemplating NaNo. I am afraid, but aware I will never know until I try. Your words made me realize that yes, I am a writer. Thanks so much!
writeone
{c/blue}Good to hear; we limit ourselves too often by using the wrong measuring rods. No one promises us we’ll be good writers or famous ones but no one can tell you aren’t a writer but yourself.
billwilcox
Submitted Comment:
I am stunned that you actually admit to reading fiction! What's the matter, did we run out of history?
Voxxylady 
Submitted Comment:
"We are who we are because of what we choose to do and not what fills our mantle pieces or trophy cases."
Beautiful statement, here!
Before I became enmeshed in WDC, I was a literary novelist, that's it ... that was my forte and I was sticking with it. I couldn't imagine writing a story with 1,500 words, much less 250! Then I joined a group that pushed the genre limits and I found I could very well write a story with 250 words. It also showed I hadn't completely lost the ability for poetry. Another contest showed me I could do fantasy, as well, at least respectably, if not for publishing. For Nano, I'm pushing again, into young adult.
Yes, I can say now that my writing has taken me through many twists and turns and I feel more like a writer because of these adventures. I believe my literary noveling will be richer for it.
By the way, for every traditionally published novel that makes one feel inferior, there is another that gives us a boost of superiority.
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For Authors: November 22, 2006 Issue [#1390]
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