Thank Goodness It's Monday #436

HISTORIC THANKSGIVING WISHES

I really like Thanksgiving. It’s THE time of the year for my family and many of our friends to gather at my home base and connect or reconnect. 

And for us it’s not just a one day affair. As you read this the squad has already begun to gather. Then the days ahead will bring more and more folks until the big day when the house – and all the guests – will be bursting. 

But wait. There’s more. Then, as Friday and the weekend plays out, the gathering will ebb and flow then gradually diminish until, when the next TGIM arrives in your email, we’ll be back to business as usual.

 

Clearly, I think a Thanksgiving celebration is an inspired and inspiring idea.

But sometimes even the most dynamic leaders can’t get a good idea – like Thanksgiving Day in the United States – rolling and keep it rolling.

TGIM Thanksgiving Takeaway: The next time you can’t get buy-in on a really good idea, take heart from this capsule recap of making Thanksgiving Day “official” throughout our national history:

George Washington's
 Thanksgiving Day Proclamation
October 3, 1789

• On October 3, 1789, President Washington issued a proclamation appointing Thursday, November 26, 1789 as a day of general thanksgiving. For a little while the annual holiday was observed faithfully. But gradually states began to observe the day at different dates.
• In 1864 President Lincoln attempted to get things back on track with a proclamation appointing the fourth Thursday in November as Thanksgiving Day with the idea of having the day observed every year thereafter. However –
• The very next year, the assassination of Lincoln almost caused a suspension of this rule. Lincoln’s successor, President Johnson, prevailed and the uniform national observance was maintained – for a while.
• In 1918 President Wilson made a similar proclamation.
• Then President Roosevelt in 1939, 1940, and 1941 proclaimed the third Thursday in November as Thanksgiving Day.
• Congress in 1941 locked in the fourth Thursday.



1941 Congressional Joint Resolution
makes it "official"

Now the icing on the cake to this lesson (or whipped cream on the pumpkin pie) is that the famous feast that people in the USA envision was first celebrated in Plymouth, Massachusetts in 1621 was not a thanksgiving.

 

Strictly speaking, a Puritan thanksgiving day was more like a Sabbath day; a day of fasting and prayer and one where the playing of sports was forbidden. Failure to properly observe the day was a crime.

What did take place, the historic record confirms – and what all the presidential proclamations were about – was a multi-day Harvest Home celebration. (That’s sorta what we do at our house. How historic.)

In 1621: The main course was venison. There’s no evidence that substantiates there was any turkey on the menu although the colonists and their indigenous American “guests” did go “fowling” in preparation (see the P.S.) 

No potatoes either. At the time they were thought to be poisonous.

 

And they didn’t have apples. So there was no apple cider and no apple pie – or even pumpkin pie because, although there were pumpkins, there was no grain for flour or cows for milk to be churned into butter or whipped into cream.

There was corn. The kernels were boiled, mashed, kneaded, and then fried into flat cakes. And the celebrants ate cranberries and other wild fruits and nuts.

TGIM ACTION IDEA: I hope your Thanksgiving observance, no matter how boisterous or modest, is a celebration for you and yours, too. And – even if it’s been a particularly tough year – I hope you have the good fortune and opportunity to reflect on all that the holiday is intended to embody.

What are you thankful for? The Pilgrims were grateful for the many things that give life meaning and joy … the things that matter no matter what our economic or social circumstances … the things that bind us together as –

A human family. I trust, no matter how difficult current circumstances seem, that Thursday you will find some of the First Thanksgiving spirit.

I certainly don't imagine most of you will busy yourself with e-mail. So I will take this TGIM opportunity to --

Thank YOU, one and all.

►   For your generous acceptance of these messages

►   Thanks for liking and sharing the ones you like best with folks you think will enjoy them or benefit from them. We're pleased to make their acquaintance.

►   And thanks for your feedback, both critical and favorable. I appreciate your views and the effort you make to convey them. I learn from what you have to say and hope that this digital connection can continue to be a conduit for sharing that wisdom and understanding.

My Thanksgiving wish for you: I hope this message finds you far from want ... that life is always plentiful for you ... and that once again on Thanksgiving Day you will use the occasion to resolve to find something to be thankful every day of the year.

Geoff Steck
Chief Catalyst
Alexander Publishing & Marketing

8 Depot Square

Englewood, NJ 07631
201-569-5373

tgimguy@gmail.com  

P.S. Here’s a description of the first Harvest Home celebration in 1621. It comes from a letter colonist Edward Winslow sent to a friend in England. It was first published in London in 1622 so the Elizabethan-era English can be a bit difficult. But the message, especially the second paragraph, is a wonderful articulation of what we celebrate even when times turn “difficult.” 

THE FIRST THANKSGIVING

"Our harvest being gotten in, our governor sent four men on fowling, so that we might, after a special manner, rejoice together after we had gathered the fruit of our labors. They four in one day killed as many fowl as with a little help besides served our company almost a week. At which time amongst other recreations, we exercised our arms, many of the Indians came amongst us, and among the rest their greatest King, Massaoyt, with some ninety men whom for these three days we entertained and feasted; and they went out and killed five deer, which they brought to the plantation, and bestowed upon our governor, and the captain and others." 

 

"And although it be not always so plentiful as it was at this time with us, yet by the goodness of God, we are so far from want, that, we often wish you partakers of our plenty."

Note of the first Thanksgiving celebrated at Plymouth Plantation
as it was published in Mourt's Relation, 1622