I'm a bit puzzled today.
The daily newspaper in The House of Stories is the 'i', which is the condensed version of a broadsheet, The Independent. I read the editorial column today, and it made me stop, because it didn't make sense.
It was about Thanksgiving, and the editor said that as a celebration it was 'Christmas without the stress of presents or religion'.
There's a lot I find stressy about Christmas, especially when I get drawn into the whole commercial shopathon. I get stressed about shopping, and writing all the cards, and getting everything done in time. I get stressed about the queues in the shops and the cheesy songs. But going to a church full of people singing beautiful music? Prayers and candles? The sheer beauty and wonder of the story? Stress?
And the other thing about Thanksgiving being 'Christmas without the religion' made me think - well, who are they giving thanks to? Now, I really feel puzzled about this, and perhaps somebody out there can help me. Were the Pilgrim Fathers thanking God, or the Native Americans who helped them? Or both? Can somebody help this ignorant Brit to understand?
Whatever, every blessing to all of you celebrating Thanksgiving. It sounds such a lovely occasion. And today I give thanks for the children at toddler group, Tony coming home from a trip away, and for my attic study, and for having work that I love. Oh, and chocolate.
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Thanksgiving did not actually begin with the Pilgrims in 1621, even though it is commonly regarded as the First Thanksgiving. There were documented "thanksgiving" days as early as 1578, and many by the Spanish. These were typically religious. The Pilgrims did have religious days of thanksgiving, but the famous one was more of a harvest festival, which then became an impromptu religious observance in later years, and then a a civil observance years after that.
George Washington called for thanksgiving days twice, once in 1777 and again in 1795, and a few presidents after him did the same. These were a chance for the nation to come together and praise God and be grateful, and were not made annual.
The modern holiday of thanksgiving was instituted in 1863 during the Civil War by Abraham Lincoln, in an attempt to give the nation a sense of unity. His described the day as "Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens" and was made an annual national holiday (though not singed into federal law until 1942 when FDR tried to set the date as the next to last thursday in order to stimulate the economy by providing more time for Christmas shopping, shopping for Christmas prior to Thanksgiving being frowned upon. This was not appreciated and many states refused. The Senate compromised and made it the fourth thursday of November; typically the last thursday of the month, but not always).
Modern Thanksgiving is commercially not religious, but many religious communities have something special the Sunday prior. :) That help? It was fun researching it, I knew most of it, but there were still some interesting surprises.
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