The Holiday Season in Colonial and Early America

PITTSBURGH IS FILLED WITH REMNANTS OF AMERICAN LIFE DATING BACK TO THE COLONIAL AND EARLY AMERICAN ERAS. Beyond the historic Fort Pitt Block House at the Point, the city preserves many homes dating back to the 19th century, with the oldest right here in Squirrel Hill. The Neill Log House in Schenley Park was constructed in 1795, making it the oldest surviving domestic structure in the entire city.

As the holiday season approaches, this time for celebration offers the opportunity to reflect upon Pittsburgh’s roots by comparing our modern festivities with how the Neill family and their neighbors may have celebrated.

THANKSGIVING AND HARVEST FESTIVALS

The Thanksgiving celebration Americans know and love today is not nearly the same as it was at the time of the nation’s birth. Though history credits the Pilgrims and Native Americans for the day of thanks filled with turkey, cranberries, and stuffing, the original holiday was much more somber.

George Washington first proclaimed a day of Thanksgiving on November 26, 1789. Though it was intended as a day of praise and thanks for the conclusion of the Revolutionary War and the development of the Constitution, many politicians protested it. In 1801, Thomas Jefferson publicly refused to endorse the newly developed holiday as he believed it lent itself to state-sanctioned holidays, a violation of the heavily emphasized separation of church and state that the young nation was striving for.

George Washington’s Thanksgiving Proclamation. Gazette of the UnitedStates (New York, N.Y.), October 7, 1789.

Even so, many still recognized Thanksgiving, though without the feasting. Americans celebrated through gatherings that emphasized thanks and prayer without displaying an abundance of food. That was for harvest festivals.

Harvest festivals occurred during the autumn months (September, October, November) to honor a year of hard work. For most of the early American colonists, survival was a sink or swim endeavor that involved long, labor-driven days spent tending crops that would feed families through winter. For this reason, large harvests were often celebrated. Once the crops were harvested, farmers held a “harvest supper,” when all of those who helped with the cultivation would indulge in a meal celebrating the season. It is worth noting that these harvest festivals are thought to have resulted in the Thanksgiving tale of Plymouth Rock.

Settlers like the Neill family may have celebrated their harvest through feasting on the abundance of corn grown in Pennsylvania, venison from local hunts, and apple desserts with fruit from surrounding forests. The German heritage of Pennsylvania often saw strudels and pretzels being baked in the log homes centered on the farms encompassing Pittsburgh.

CHRISTMAS

Much like Thanksgiving, Christmas was a very different holiday in the 18th and 19th centuries. Before George Washington became our first president, he famously crossed the Delaware River on Christmas as “General Washington” during the Revolutionary War. Christmas Day, however, did not have the same significance then as it did a few decades later. This began to change as more and more immigrants settled on American soil and brought with them their traditions.

In Squirrel Hill, most of the early settlers were British, so Christmas most likely saw these Early Americans firing muskets and attending church. Around the rest of Pittsburgh, most of the settlers hailed from English, German, Dutch, and Swedish backgrounds. This brought an influx of Lutheran and Catholic residents who celebrated Christmas more traditionally. Swedish settlers introduced the celebration of St. Lucia, a day dedicated to symbolizing light during a dark winter. This holiday, like Christmas, saw Swedes decorate their homes with woven decor and bake bread with saffron as a delicacy. German settlers can be credited with the tradition of adorning homes with green decor, like holly and mistletoe, and baking Christmas cookies. Many of the ornaments they used on trees were edible, so to make them last longer Germans often hung their trees upside down from the ceiling!

Americans can still see many early Christmas traditions today. For example, the first known reference to the song “Twelve Days of Christmas” appeared in a 1780 children’s book, and in 1822, Clement Clarke Moore published the popular poem “’Twas the Night Before Christmas.” It was very common for Early Americans to celebrate the Twelve Days of Christmas as a biblical representation of the birth of Christ. In colonial-era America, the 12th night of Christmas often called for the largest ball. Before long, 19th-century Americans were commonly celebrating Christmas with feasts, wine, and balls, even among average-income families.

An illustration of St. Nicholas for Clement Clarke Moore’s poem ’Twas the Night Before Christmas. A Visit from St. Nicholas (New York: Henry M. Onderdonk, 1848).

JEWISH HOLIDAYS

The first record of Jewish immigrants coming to Pittsburgh dates to around 1840, decades after the development of Neill Log House. Soon after their arrival, the Jewish settlers began to gather for worship in a home, but Hanukkah was not commonly celebrated until the late 19th century due to the small amount of traditionally Jewish worship materials available. However, earlier in the year, Jewish residents would have found themselves celebrating Rosh Hashanah (the Jewish New Year) and Sukkot. These holidays would have been celebrated in a similar fashion to other Harvest Festivals, with an added loaf of challah bread.

As we can see, Early Americans celebrated the holiday season in a variety of different ways than their modern counterparts, but the similarities still shine through. An early American family may have acknowledged the holidays through special food baked from a bountiful harvest, woven decorations, or tales of Christmas past. The next time you see holly hanging across your home or take time to feast with family and friends, remember those who paved the way for these treasured traditions.

Taylor Murphy is the Historical Education Research Assistant for the Friends of Neill Log House. She received her MA in Literary and Cultural Studies at Carnegie Mellon University after completing her BA in History and English at the University of Florida.