The Truth About Thanksgiving!

Feasting with family, friends and loved ones, while giving thanks for blessings no matter how small, are the only consistent traditions that have remained unchanged throughout the past 188 years of American Thanksgiving history.

Whether we’re eating stuffed turkey or a tofu veggie version, volunteering at a homeless shelter or lounging on the couch in front of tv football…Thanksgiving is the one holiday that eventually brings every American together to eat, drink and be merry.

Thanksgiving, as we know it today, has little to do with the Pilgrims who prayed and feasted on June 30, 1623 after Captain Standish showed up in his British boat full of life-saving food supplies for the starving colonists. 

Thanksgiving, as we know it, actually began in concept when a woman editor promoted the notion in magazines, starting sometime around 1827. Sarah Josepha Hale (who later became editor at Godey’s Lady’s Book in 1837) published articles and recipes promoting the idea of Thanksgiving Day to her readers, and especially to American politicians. 

“The Day of Thanksgiving would, if observed nationally, soon be celebrated in every part of the world where an American family was settled. If the third Thursday in November could be established as the Day, and known to the time in each year when from Maine to New Mexico, and from Plymouth Rock to the Pacific sands, the great American People united in this festival of gladness and gratitude, the whole world might be moved to join in the rejoicing….” Sarah Josepha Hale, page 466, Godey’s Lady’s Book and Magazine, November, 1858.

President Lincoln acknowledged Hale’s idea in October of 1863, not long after delivering the Gettysburg Address. He proclaimed Thanksgiving Day a National Holiday, but the President  did not agree with Hale’s suggested date.  Lincoln’s proclamation stated that the new holiday would be celebrated on the fourth Thursday in the month of November; not the third. The fourth Thursday was chosen in honor of George Washington, who had asked that Thursday, November 26, 1789 be a day of “public thanksgiving and prayer” for the new nation.

Twelve years later, Hale was 87 years old, but still two years away from retiring as editor at Godey’s. In the November 1875  issue, she continued to pester Congress, admonishing that the Thanksgiving Day holiday needed to become a day celebrated in a unified manner throughout the United States.  Although Lincoln had proclaimed an annual day of Thanksgiving each year, individual states had the right to change the date.

“…Our festival will not be secure so long as it depends upon the yearly inclination of the Executive, and the varying customs of several States. Congress can only ensure this great boon by enacting that, from henceforth, evermore, the last Thursday in November shall be an American Thanksgiving Day.” Sarah Josepha Hale, page 474, Godey’s Lady’s Book and Magazine, November, 1875.

Hale’s work to achieve a legal Thanksgiving holiday was not successful and the concept would rise and fall throughout another 66 years of political debates and date changes. Finally, President Roosevelt signed the resolution on December 26, 1941, making Thanksgiving Day a Federal holiday; always to be celebrated on the fourth Thursday in the month of November.