“Happy Thanksgiving!” by Santa Ynez Valley Holiday Historian, John Copeland If you think Independence Day is Americas defining holiday, think again. Thanksgiving deserves that title, hands-down Tony Snow, Former White House Press Secretary The sun has just barely poked its head over the east end of the Santa Ynez Valley. I don’t know if you’re aware of it, but we have a celestial visitor appearing in our pre-dawn skies, Comet ISON. It’s been visible to unaided eye, but it’s getting much harder to see now because – as it nears its closest point to the sun – it’s also getting closer to the sun on our sky’s dome. In other words, it’s getting closer to the sunrise and therefore it’s appearing in a brighter sky. It’s brisk this morning as I wander out with the dogs, who are full of beans in the chill air. Okay, I’ve missed ISON this morning. The comet’s rapidly hurtling toward its encounter tomorrow, on Thanksgiving Day, with the sun – its perihelion, or closest point to the sun. when it’ll be lost in the sky’s glare. If it survives its solar, ISON return to our skies in early December, and then may turn out be the best time to try to see the comet. Even though I’ve missed ISON, our November mornings are a magical time in the valley. Mornings are often muted with fog, however, today is clear. Last week’s bit of rain sharpened the landscape rinsing the dust from everything around us. All around the valley vineyards are turning red and gold. In the evenings, when Shannon and I take the dogs for a stroll and our November skies are clear, like last night, the stars create an incredible blanket overhead. The tang of wood smoke in the air reminds me of the warming fire that waits in our farmhouse to chase away the night’s chill. And, of course, it’s all a grand adventure for our four doggy companions. Tomorrow, here in America, we’ll gather together with our families, friends and loved ones on to celebrate Thanksgiving. Here in the 21st century, we will be sharing a moment with our distant ancestors. Throughout human history every culture has celebrated harvest with thanksgiving ceremonies. Ancient Greeks, Romans, Hebrews, Chinese, Egyptians and even Native Americans all held harvest festivals and thanksgiving celebrations. Our Thanksgiving is related in spirit to all of those ancient festivals. Those of us, who still live on farms and ranches raising crops and livestock can relate to our hardy ancestors seasonal struggles. Just two weeks ago, we harvested our Italian olive trees and our new extra virgin olive oil for 2014 is very good. But for many of us, living in an urban technological society, it is difficult to appreciate the direct dependence our forebears had on the whims of nature when it came to growing enough food to survive the winter. Our American Thanksgiving focuses on the end of the harvest and as a festival is directly descended from the old English custom of Harvest Home. The conclusion of the harvest each autumn was once marked by great festivals of fun, feasting, and thanksgiving known as Harvest Home - the harvest was in for the winter. It was also a time to hold elections (which is why our Election Day is in November), pay workers, and collect rents. Like many holidays I’ve written about, Thanksgiving has changed and adapted over time keeping pace with our changing American society. There are several historical events that all vie for the title of the “First American Thanksgiving.” And even though they remain topics of contention and a few bar fights, they all share one thing in common - that first Thanksgiving, whichever one you wish to recognize was about survival in a strange land. Historical facts to the contrary, the traditional first Thanksgiving that most of us have been familiar with since we were children is the one that occurred at Plymouth Plantation, in 1621. But nearly every fledgling American colony observed days of thanksgiving throughout each year. Today, we might not recognize these Thanksgivings, they were not celebrated with food and drink, but as solemn days for prayer and fasting. During the American Revolution a First National Proclamation of Thanksgiving was made by the Continental Congress in 1777, and they continued to appoint one or more thanksgiving days each year after that. Our First President, George Washington, proclaimed the first Thanksgiving Day designated by the new national government of the United States of America. And by 1858 a day of thanksgiving was observed in 25 states and two territories. You can see, even this early in our nation’s history, the nature of giving thanks was beginning to change. We were moving beyond just being thankful for survival, but now early Americans were giving thanks for living in a newly founded nation. And then, along came Sarah Josepha Hale. Widowed and penniless at 34, with five small children to raise, Sarah supported herself sewing and writing poetry. She authored two dozen books and hundreds of poems, including one of the best known nursery rhyme in the English language: Mary Had A Little Lamb. She also became the editor of the first womans magazine in America. Perhaps the most remarkable fact is, she did it all after she turned 40. The Lady Editor, as Hale was called, campaigned for 30 years to get Thanksgiving accepted as a national holiday in the United States. She wrote to President Lincoln, 150 years ago, on Sept. 28, 1863, urging the setting aside of a day for national thanks. Lincolns four presidential predecessors had all ignored Hale when she had written suggesting the idea to them. However, the notion took Lincoln’s fancy. The balance of the war shifted in 1863 with issuing of the Emancipation Proclamation and the victories of Gettysburg and Vicksburg. Lincoln’s Thanksgiving Day Proclamation established a new national holiday on the last Thursday of November. Prior to his proclamation, the only national holidays celebrated in the United States were Washington’s Birthday and Independence Day. Just like so many of the writings from Lincoln’s administration, the Thanksgiving Proclamation is still moving and filled with meaning for us today: The year that is drawing toward its close has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies. To these bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the source from which they come, others have been added which are of so extraordinary a nature that they can not fail to penetrate and soften even the heart which is habitually insensible to the ever-watchful providence of Almighty God. In the midst of a civil war of unequaled magnitude and severity…peace has been preserved with all nations, order has been maintained, the laws have been respected and obeyed, and harmony has prevailed everywhere, except in the theater of military conflict… Needful diversions of wealth and of strength from the fields of peaceful industry to the national defense have not arrested the plow, the shuttle, or the ship; the ax has enlarged the borders of our settlements, and the mines, as well as the iron and coal as of our precious metals, have yielded even more abundantly than heretofore. Population has steadily increased notwithstanding the waste that has been made in the camp, the siege, and the battlefield, and the country, rejoicing in the consciousness of augmented strength and vigor, is permitted to expect continuance of years with large increase of freedom. It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently, and gratefully acknowledged, as with one heart and one voice, by the whole American people. I do therefore invite my fellow-citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next as a day of thanksgiving and praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the heavens. And I recommend to them that while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliverances and blessings they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to His tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners, or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the imposition of the Almighty hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to restore it, as soon as may be consistent with the divine purpose, to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquillity, and union. In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed. Done at the city of Washington, this 3d day of October, A.D. 1863, and of the Independence of the United States the eighty-eighth. The new Thanksgiving holiday was considered a unifying day and a call to the nation to give thanks for this one nation, under God, with liberty and justice for all.” Lincolns presidential successors followed his example of annually declaring the final Thursday in November as a day of national Thanksgiving. Yet, until the late-1800s, Thanksgiving had nothing to do with the 1621 harvest celebration, Plymouth Colony or Indians. But by then, America was changing, and the image of the Pilgrims, Indians and Thanksgiving became useful history. The Thanksgiving holiday became a tool for teaching immigrants and schoolchildren about America. In 1939, President Franklin D. Roosevelt declared that Thanksgiving would be celebrated on the fourth Thursday of November rather than the last. The United States was still in the midst of The Depression. Roosevelt thought this would give merchants a longer period to sell goods before Christmas. Increasing profits and spending during this holiday season, Roosevelt hoped, would aid help the country recover from the depression. Back in 1939, advertising goods for Christmas before Thanksgiving was considered inappropriate. Since a presidential proclamation of Thanksgiving Day was not legally binding, only 23 states went along with Roosevelts recommendation, and 22 did not. The U.S. Congress in 1941 split the difference and passed a bill requiring that Thanksgiving be observed annually on the fourth Thursday of November, which was sometimes the last Thursday and sometimes (less frequently) the next to last. There is something else very unique about “this” Thanksgiving. For the first and only time in any of our lifetimes, the first day of Hanukkah falls on the same day as Thanksgiving. Hanukkah is also known as the Festival of Lights and Feast of Dedication, is an eight-day Jewish holiday commemorating the rededication of the Holy Temple (the Second Temple) in Jerusalem at the time of the Maccabean Revolt against the Syrian/Greek Empire of the 2nd century BCE. From a purely numerical standpoint it’s a pretty big deal. Math geeks say the last time it happened — at least since President Abraham Lincoln declared Thanksgiving a federal holiday — was 1888. And by one calculation it won’t happen again for another 70,000 years. But, hey, who’s counting? Today our Thanksgiving tradition compares the holiday with the celebration and feast held in 1621 by the Wampanoag Indians and the Plymouth colonists. Thanksgiving dinner plays a large role in our celebration of Thanksgiving, with turkey as the traditional dish for the feast. In the US, about 280 million turkeys are sold for the Thanksgiving celebrations. Turkey has become the traditional Thanksgiving fare because at one time it was a rare treat. During the 1830s, an eight- to ten-pound bird cost a days wages. Even though turkeys are affordable today, they still remain a celebratory symbol of bounty. In fact, astronauts Neil Armstrong and Edwin Aldrin ate roast turkey in foil packets for their first meal on the Moon. You dont need to subscribe to Lincolns image of “our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens” in order to embrace his theology of thanksgiving. Thanksgiving Day is a good time to remember and give thanks for all that we have been given, and to return the first fruits of our harvest of plenty to the one who gave them to us in the first place. And also give a bit of thanks to spunky Sarah Josepha Hale, too. Lastly, I am reminded of a quote from Shawnee chief, Tecumseh: When you rise in the morning, give thanks for the light, for your life, for your strength. Give thanks for your food and for the joy of living. If you see no reason to give thanks, the fault lies in yourself. I hope all of you have a wonderful and happy Thanksgiving. ___________________ John Copeland ranchoolivos A friend will always bail you out of jail, but a true friend will be there sitting next to you saying, Damn that was fun.
Posted on: Thu, 28 Nov 2013 06:36:21 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015