The Thanksgiving tradition

The days leading up to the Thanksgiving holiday are busy ones at the bakery, but fun days as well, as this is the unofficial beginning of the holiday season, and we start to make the special treats that are reserved for just this season. Thanksgiving is a favorite holiday for a lot of people. It is a time when folks make a special effort to get together with family. Cooks outdo themselves. Everyone eats too much, but that only enhances that warm fuzzy feeling that happens when families get together. Laughter is a key ingredient of the Thanksgiving dinner, as folks recycle family stories. Grudges are hard to hold over a turkey dinner, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce and pumpkin pie.

Everyone knows the story of the first American Thanksgiving -- school kids learn the story at school, from the earliest grades. Nevertheless, it seems like a good idea to once more go back and look at a bit of the history and the traditions that surround this very American holiday.

In the early 1600s The Church of England was in a considerable state of turmoil. Membership seemed to be divided among the Conformists (who were generally satisfied with the Mother Church), the Puritans (who felt that the Mother Church had not completed the work of the Reformation, but that it was possible to work within the framework of the Church), and the Separatists, Pilgrims (who felt that the Mother Church was too corrupt to complete Martin Luther's goal of Reformation).

By 1620 the Separatists had been persecuted, driven from the Church and from England. From their base in Holland, they were planning their Exodus to the New World via The Mayflower, under the leadership of Wm. Bradford. Most passengers of the Mayflower were "sponsored", by a group of English investors who financed their passage and supplies in exchange for seven year's work in the new land. They landed at Plymouth Rock, on the tip of Cape Cod, Massachusetts, on November 11, 1620. The trip across the Atlantic had taken 65 days.

The Puritans, the elitists of the Church of England, considered that Jesus died to save a chosen few (Puritans), who carried a great responsibility, and were chosen to lead the masses (Manifest Destiny). Ten years after the Separatists left England, the Puritans had given up on reforming the Church of England and they too set out for the New World. They arrived at Massachusetts Bay Colony aboard the Arabella, under the leadership of John Winthrop, in 1630.

The first Pilgrims (44 Separatists plus 66 others) immediately set to building structures for living quarters, storage buildings, and a hospital. But that first winter was a terrible time for those immigrants to America. They suffered from starvation, cold, and disease (scurvy), and death losses mounted month by month. By Spring less than 50 of the original 110 settlers were still alive. Afraid of the Indians, they tried to mask their losses by burying their dead in unmarked, level graves, but it is doubtful that the Indians were fooled. Governor Bradford was a rock and kept his little band functioning with wisdom, patience, and just and fair governing directives.

In April, 1621 the Mayflower returned to England. Her captain offered free passage to any survivors who wished to return with him. A testimony to the pluck and spirit of the little band is the fact that none of the new settlers took him up on his offer.

Through the help of the local Abnaki Indians, particularly, Squanto (who had been captured by an English Sea Captain and had spent several years in England and spoke English well), the Pilgrims learned to tap maple trees for sap, learned which plants were poisonous, which plants would grow, and how to plant them (a fish in each hill of corn for fertilizer), and finally how to harvest their crops in the fall. The Pilgrims who survived were in much better shape to survive that second winter of 1621/1662.

In gratitude for that first bountiful harvest the Pilgrims planned a great feast for their members after the harvest of 1621, and of course wanted to thank their Indian benefactors, without whose help they probably all would have starved. For that first Thanksgiving holiday 90 braves joined the Pilgrims for three days of food, games, and fellowship with their new Indian friends.

The first Thanksgiving holiday probably occurred in mid-October, just after the harvest, but in 1863 Abraham Lincoln proclaimed that the holiday would henceforth be observed on the fourth Thursday of November.

From this first Thanksgiving feast came a number of the foods that are now staples of our modern Thanksgiving dinner. Turkeys were served, because those birds were plentiful in Massachusetts -- but there were also other types of game meat -- ducks, geese, venison, as well as fish, lobster, clams and swans. And the Pilgrims sampled cranberries for the first time, and there were other types of dried fruit, along with corn and other vegetables. There was squash and pumpkin, but the pumpkin was boiled. All the flour that the Pilgrims had brought from England had turned moldy by this time, so there was no pie crust for pumpkin pie, and no bread of any kind at that splendid feast. Another year and those white settlers would have planted wheat and more crops, which they had known back in England, and traditional English items were added to the menu.

Over the centuries we've added some of our own Thanksgiving traditions, along with those that we've retained from those first Pilgrims. Turkey is still the great Thanksgiving treat, but we've developed regional preferences. In Hawaii the raw turkey is rubbed with ground coffee before roasting. In New England a favorite way to cook the turkey is to encrust it in salt before roasting. In the Deep South, a deep fat fried turkey is the dish of choice.

In addition to family visits we've developed our favorite Thanksgiving diversions. We've added our own games. The first Intercollegiate College Championship Football game was played in 1876, and much against the wishes of many mothers, the Thanksgiving TV football game has become almost as important as the late afternoon snacks of left over turkey, dressing, and the rest.

In 1920 the great New York Department store, Gimbels, began to stage a giant Thanksgiving Parade. In 1924 Gimbel's main competitor, Macy's, took over the annual Thanksgiving Parade, and since the advent of television, the New York Thanksgiving Parade has become hugely popular, and watched by millions, nationwide.

In spite of the commercial hoopla that comes with the modern holiday, most folks still hearken back to the original meaning of Thanksgiving. People give thanks for a bountiful harvest, at church and around the table, with pre-meal prayers. Kids still like to make a wish, with a lucky break of the wishbone -- a custom that dates back to the Roman times, in 322 B.C.

And, as we give thanks, we take time to reflect on the events of the past year. Many people take this as a time to provide meals for the homeless. And above all, we treat the day as a Celebration of Praise and Thanksgiving for all our blessings.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone

Source: www.holidays.net