European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - November 22, 1990, Darmstadt, Hesse                                How thanksgiving came to be by Charles Perry los Angeles times thanksgiving did not come into the world fully formed. We do not even know when the first thanksgiving Day took place Only that it was sometime Between sept. 21 and nov. 9,1621. The pilgrims certainly had no idea of founding an annual Holiday. The first thanksgiving was strictly a one shot event. Similar and hoc Days of thanksgiving were proclaimed from time to time in Massachusetts Over the next so years a usually by the churches rather than by the civil authorities a but it was Connecticut that made thanksgiving an annual event starting around 1647. The custom of having an annual thanksgiving Day spread throughout new England in the 17th Century but Asyet it did not include any idea of commemorating the Host thanksgiving. If anything was commemorated it was a later thanksgiving when the crops had failed and the Massachusetts Bay Colony came very close to starvation. In 1631, everybody was Down to a daily ration of just five grains of Corn when a Day of fasting and prayer was proclaimed for feb. 22. Miraculously on that Day a ship returned from England with food supplies the Colony was ant tie astray turned into a feast. There is a very old new England custom now mostly forgotten of serving every diner five grains of Corn before the meal in memory of the hardship and the deliverance of that year. The Holiday actually met a certain amount of resistance n Ftp read since the Quot Pagan Quot Holiday of Christmas was the a ated in Massachusetts until the 19th Century Nank giving was often thought of As essentially a Puritan substitute for Christmas. Thanksgiving made no headway in the South for Tance and probably it was Only because the dutch Oniss had celebrated what they called than Day that it r. Sac it opted in new York. When the British governor of i s 8 and claimed thanksgiving in 1687 Btl Essly thinking he was doing his subjects a big favor l Ritan hating religious dissidents celebrated the Ray so contemptuously he threw some of them in jail. 1776 not Start celebrating thanksgiving until a in 1776, thanksgiving was not a Puritan but a Patriot Holiday. That year and every year throughout the revolutionary War the Continental Congress declared a National thanksgiving to boost morale. George Washington also declared thanksgivings As president in 1789 and 1795, As did the following presidents occasionally until about 1815. Still the Holiday did not catch on. That took two things the migration of new englander throughout the Northern states enthusiastically taking their Holiday with them and one very determined lady Sarah Josepha Hale. Hale was born in Maine in 1788 and had powerful childhood memories of thanksgiving in 1826, she published a novel containing a plea fora National thanksgiving Holiday. In 1846, As editor of the influential Codey s lady s Book a combination fashion and literary Magazine she began her Campaign in Earnest. From then on she wrote at least two editorials a year on the subject and deluged Public figures with correspondence about the need for thanksgiving. She even included a chapter on the Campaign for a National thanksgiving in her Book on etiquette. The South dragged its heels for a while a when the governor of Virginia considered the idea in 1855, it was denounced As a relic of Puritan bigotry probably a code word for Northern abolitionism but the next year his successor just proclaimed the Holiday without soliciting advice and it was a Success. In 1859, thanksgiving was celebrated in every state of the Union except Delaware Missouri and recently admitted Oregon and Hale expressed the Hope that the Holiday could unify the country against the gathering Clouds of the civil War. That did not happen of course but during that War she persuaded Abraham Lincoln to declare a National thanksgiving Day intended to be celebrated annually. He established the Date we follow now the fourth thursday in november. After the civil War thanksgiving was encouraged As a Way of Healing the wounds of the struggle. The menu at the first thanksgiving in 1621 was simply whatever the pilgrims with the help of the Friendly wampanoag indians could put together Venison wildfowl mostly ducks and gees fish and Cornmeal. Even today the thanksgiving table is supposed to groan with abundance but in the 19th Century it really groaned. Hale a whose vision obviously influenced How we celebrate thanksgiving a described one table loaded with Chicken pies Goose ducklings and three kinds of red meat As Well As Turkey and another crowded with Plum puddings custards and pies of All sorts. She was emphatic however that Turkey held Pride of place among the meats and pumpkin among the pies. How did these dishes a still essential thanksgiving food for most people a get this status it is a Little hard to say. As the largest Bird available Turkey is certainly a prime candidate for a feast. In the course of the 19th Century it became the absolute essence of what we Call Quot Turkey Day Quot partly because it was a time of culinary nationalism when americans boasted that they had the Best ingredients in the world and therefore the Best food the native Bird was obviously the right one for the native feast. In his 1878 Book Quot a tramp abroad Quot Mark Twain describes getting homesick for american food in Europe and lists about 75 american specialities. Prominent among them Are Quot roast Turkey thanksgiving style. Cranberries  Cranberry sauce was already strongly associated with i Turkey. As Early As 1663 a visitor to new England had written Quot the indians and English use them cranberries much boy Ling them with sugar for sauce with their meat and it is a delicate  nineteenth Century cookbooks throughout the country recommend serving Turkey with Cranberry sauce sometimes Cranberry Jelly or As in the original Fanny Farmer Cookbook Cranberry punch even in non Holiday contexts. It must have been the Universal american taste helped by the fact that cranberries keep Well and could be shipped easily. The necessity of pumpkin pie is a Little harder to explain. In the 1650s, a visitor to new England noted that the colonists were eating Apple Pear and quince pies like englishmen and had largely Given up pumpkin pie. Maybe the homely pumpkin pie made a comeback in the late 18th Century when new England developed a taste for Quot Plain fare Quot rather than fashionable european dishes. They kept their English Plum puddings and Apple and mince pies but elevated the Homespun pumpkin Over them. November 22, 1990 stripes Magazine 3