Dining together Thanksgiving Day celebrities the season of harvest feasting with hungry gusts alike. Thanksgiving Day is an annual national holiday celebrated in the United States and Canada commemorating the harvest and other blessings of the past year. Americans generally believe that their Thanksgiving is modeled on a 1621 harvest feast which was shared by English colonists the Pilgrims of Plymouth and the Wampanoag people. The American holiday is particularly rich in symbolism and legend with the traditional fare of the Thanksgiving meal which typically includes roasted turkey, one vegetable, bread stuffing, potatoes, cranberries and pumpkin pie for dessert. Thanksgiving 2025 is expected to see record travel numbers with varied weather conditions across the U.S. AAA forecasts that over 79.9 million Americans will travel 50 miles or more for Thanksgiving making an all time high and an increase of nearly 1.7 million travelers compared to the previous year.
With respect to vehicular travel the Thanksgiving holiday is often the busiest day of the year as families gather to feast dining together. The beginning of the Plymouth colony was founded in 1620 by a group of English Puritans known as the pilgrims. Plymouth’s began with just a few colonists of 100 people who consisted of men, women and children who sailed across on the Mayflower then landed on what we now know as Plymouth Massachusetts. Early challenges of the first year were brutal. as nearly half of the colonists died due to cold weather, disease, and lack of food. The Wampanoag people made a surprise appearance at the settlers gate unnerving 50 or so colonists. Nevertheless, for the next few days the two groups of people socialized without incident. They received crucial help from the native American tribes and the Wampanoag people taught them how to grow corn and fish for food sources. In 1621 they celebrated a successful harvest with a feast which inspired the annual event of modern day Thanksgiving.
Plymouth became one of the earliest successful English settlements in North America and a symbol of perseverance and religious freedom. The Wampanoag people contributed meat to the feast which also included fowl, fish, eels, vegetables, shellfish and beer. Since Plymouth had few buildings and manufactured goods most people ate outside dining together while sitting on the ground or on barrels with plates of food on their lap. The celebration continued as the men fired guns, ran races and drank liquor while struggling to speak in broken English and Wampanoag language, This was a rather disorderly event but it sealed a treaty between the two groups that lasted until King Philip's war of 1675-1676 in which hundreds of colonists and thousands of Native Americans lost their lives. The New England colonists were accustomed to regularly celebrating Thanksgiving dining together annually giving thanks for the year's harvest.
The U.S. Continental Congress proclaimed a national Thanksgiving upon the enactment of the Constitution yet after 1978 the New U.S. Congress left Thanksgiving declarations to the state as some objected to the national government involvement in religious observance. Southerners were slow to adopt a New England custom as others took offence of the day being used to hold parades and partisan speeches. At the time Thanksgiving Day seemed controversial rather than a unifying force while some celebrated the holiday with gratitude and family, while others viewed it as a reminder of colonization and loss. Thanksgiving day did not become an official national holiday until Northerners dominated the federal government. Sectional tensions prevailed in the mid 19th century the editor of the popular magazine Godey’s Lady’s book author Sarah Josepha Hale campaigned for a national Thanksgiving Day to promote unity. She finally won the support of the press.
On October 3, 1863 during the Civil War Abraham Lincoln proclaimed a national day of Thanksgiving to be celebrated on Thursday November 26 of each year. The holiday was annually proclaimed by every president thereafter and the date with few exceptions was the last Thursday in November. President Franklin D. Roosevelt attempted to extend the Christmas shopping season which generally begins with the Thanksgiving holiday boosting the economy by moving the date back one week to the third week in November however not all states complied. After a joint resolution of Congress in 1941 Roosevelt issued a proclamation in 1942 designating the fourth Thursday in November Thanksgiving Day. As the United States became more suburban, family members began living further apart. Dining together Thanksgiving Day became a special event among family and friends celebrating with a feast of turkey, 4 side dishes, stuffing, mashed potatoes, string beans, corn and an array of desserts like pumpkin pie, apple pie and beverages.
Thanksgiving Day football games beginning with Princeton versus Yale in 1876 enabled fans to add some rowdiness to the holiday. In the 1800 parades of costumed revelers became common. In 1920 Gimbels department store located in Philadelphia staged a parade of about 50 people with Santa Clause at the end of the procession. Since 1924 the annual Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York City has continued the tradition with huge balloons for all to see. The holiday associated with the pilgrims and Native Americans has become a symbol of intercultural peace with the sanctity of home and family dining together Thanksgiving Day.
Cheers!
Patricia Lynn
Images Courtesy of sonyakamoz at AdobeStock
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