No. 3 Vol. 11
Tracing the History of Thanksgiving
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By Henry M. Holden he annual celebration of Thanksgiving may be America’s most cherished holiday. It stands apart from Christmas, Hanukkah, and Kwanzaa. Thanksgiving also bears a resemblance to the ancient Jewish harvest festival of Sukkot, held in the autumn to commemorate the sheltering of the Israelites in the wilderness. Although Thanksgiving has historical roots in religious and cultural traditions, it has in recent decades, been celebrated as a secular holiday as well. Thanksgiving began as a day of giving thanks and sacrifice for the blessing of the harvest and of the preceding year. Some evidence indicates that (wild) turkey may have been on the first Thanksgiving menu, but venison, Indian corn and fowl were on the menu, when the Pilgrims hosted the inaugural feast in 1621. Although the American concept of Thanksgiving developed in the colonies of New England, it originated in Europe. Both the religious Separatists and the Puritans who came over on the Mayflower brought with them a tradition of preordained holidays—days of fasting during difficult moments, and days of celebration to thank God for their abundance. Historians have noted that Native Americans had a rich tradition of commemorating the fall harvest with feasting long before Europeans arrived on their shores. A question that is looking for a solid answer is whether the feast at Plymouth was the first Thanksgiving. Some historians have recorded other ceremonies of thanks among European
settlers in North America that precede the Pilgrims’ celebration. In 1565, for instance, the Spanish explorer Pedro Menéndez de Avilé invited members of the local Timucua tribe to a dinner in St. Augustine, Florida, after holding a Mass to thank God for their safe arrival. On December 4, 1619, when 38 British settlers reached a site known as Berkeley Hundred on the banks of Virginia’s James River, they read a proclamation designating the date as “a day of thanksgiving to Almighty God.” Puritans felt that they had a direct covenant with God and under siege from Church and Crown, and certain groups migrated to colonies in the New World in the 1620s and 1630s. This led to the foundation for the religious, intellectual, and social order of New England. Native Americans and many other persons take issue with how the Thanksgiving narrative is represented. Christopher Columbus, Juan Ponce de Leon, and Hernando de Soto are three of the many Europeans who plundered the Native American resources and kidnapped many into slavery. In their view, the narrative paints a cunningly disguised picture of relations between the Pilgrims and the Native American people, masking the bloody history of conflict between them resulted in the deaths of thousands. In 1827, the noted magazine editor and prolific writer, Sarah Josepha Hale, author of the nursery rhyme “Mary Had a Little Lamb,” began a campaign to establish Thanksgiving as
Cedar Grove Takes Part in Drug Take Back Program
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By Lindsey Kelleher ocal residents doing their fall cleaning had an opportunity to get rid of their unused and expired prescription medicine. They brought any prescription pills, tablets and other expired meds to the Cedar Grove Police Department on National Prescription Drug Take Back Day. Epinephrine autoinjectors were also accepted. “Don’t dump prescription medications down the toilet,” said Cedar Grove Township Manager Tom Tucci during a recent Township Council meeting. “A program like this is the proper way to dispose of them.” The Cedar Grove Police Department participated in National Prescription Drug Take Back Day as a way to encour-
age residents to properly get rid of their unused, unwanted, and expired medications properly. “Most individuals are not aware of methods to properly dispose of their unused medicine, often flushing them down the toilet or throwing them away; both potential safety and health hazards,” the Cedar Grove Police Department stated on its website, https://www.cedargrovepd.org/. The initiative took place on Oct. 23 and was held through the national Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA). The DEA started the drug take back program to provide a way for people to dispose of their medicine. The drug take back program is also designed to educate people about drug abuse.
November 2021
a national holiday. For more than 30 years, she published frequent editorials and sent scores of letters to governors, senators, and presidents, earning her the nickname the “Mother of Thanksgiving.” In 1863, Abraham Lincoln, at the height of the Civil War, finally granted her request in a proclamation beseeching all Americans to ask God to “commend to his tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife and to heal the wounds of the nation.” Lincoln scheduled Thanksgiving for the last Thursday in November, and it was celebrated on that day every year until 1939, when Franklin D. Roosevelt moved the holiday back a week to spur retail sales during the Great Depression. Roosevelt’s plan, known sarcastically as Franksgiving, was met with intense opposition. In 1941, the president grudgingly signed a bill making Thanksgiving the fourth Thursday in November. In many American households, the Thanksgiving celebration centers on cooking and sharing a bountiful meal with family and friends and watching the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. Parades around the country have also become an integral part of the holiday. New York City’s Macy’s department store has presented Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade since 1924. It is the largest parade attracting some 2 to 3 million persons along its 2.5-mile route. Since 1953 it has been viewed by a large nation-wide television audience. The Parade features giant character balloons, floats, marching bands, clowns, performance groups, and TV and movie actors. The parade has been cancelled only three times, 19421944, because of a rubber and helium shortage during WWII. Beginning in the early 20th century, the President of the United States has “pardoned” one or two Thanksgiving turkeys each year, sparing the birds and sending them to a farm for retirement. Several governors also perform the annual turkey pardoning ritual. In 2020, due to the COVID-19 pandemic in NYC, the parade was downsized and closed to the public. It was filmed as a broadcast-only event in the Herald Square area with 88 percent few participants. Today, nearly 90 percent of Americans eat turkey on Thanksgiving, according to the National Turkey Federation. Other traditional foods include stuffing, mashed potatoes, yams, cranberry sauce, and pumpkin pie.
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