Thanksgiving

A happy feast to one and all

Today is Thanksgiving, a time when families and friends join together to give thanks, share good times, eat well and in abundance and collapse on the sofa in front of the television set for a round of football games.

It’s a ritual that has evolved over the years from what we consider the first Thanksgiving back in 1621, when the Pilgrims and the Wampanoag Indians sat down together at Plymouth Colony in Massachusetts to share a harvest meal that turned into a three-day celebration of plenty.

After that, well, pretty much nothing for a couple of centuries, but a letter describing the original feast turned up in a 1841 book by Alexander Young and evolved into what we now know as Thanksgiving.

Sara Josepha Hale, editor of Godey’s Lady’s Book, a widely read magazine of the time, took up the cause of Thanksgiving in 1854 and created a campaign that eventually resulted in President Abraham Lincoln creating a national holiday in 1863.

The ironic part is that the harvest celebration enjoyed by the Pilgrims and Wampanoags at Plymouth, including three days of feasting, merrymaking and games and contest, was a far cry from traditional Pilgrim thanksgiving observances, which were spent in prayer and meditation.

But that’s no matter. We have today combined the best of harvest merriment with an added component of giving thanks for our blessings to give us a holiday where we are free to enjoy ourselves while also remembering the source of our good fortune.

A fine tradition indeed. Happy Thanksgiving to one and all.