First in a series: the origins, purpose and meaning of the American holiday of Thanksgiving

'The First Thanksgiving,' by Jean Leon Gerome Ferris (1863-1930)

A solemn, serious day

Would Sarah Josepha Hale be horrified or gratified to see how we celebrate Thanksgiving today, with the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade, Black Friday sales, and so much food that people can barely walk after they eat ?

Hale campaigned for 23 years in the mid-19th century to turn what had been a rather somber remembrance of America’s beginnings into a joyous, uniquely American celebration that  began lighting up this dark season of the year during the depths of the Civil War.

“Thanksgiving was, for centuries, a very solemn day in New England,” says David Hackett Fischer, university professor and Earl Warren Professor of history. “It was to be a day of deep reflection and great seriousness.”

Feast or fast
In the beginning, Thanksgiving could be either a feast or a fast day -- sometimes a feast to celebrate a blessing, sometimes a fast to seek guidance in a time of difficulty. There were sometimes numerous such days in a year. The first Thanksgivings did, as legend holds, involve both English settlers and Native Americans.

In his book “Thanksgiving: The Biography of an American Holiday,” James W. Baker writes the historical birth of the American Thanksgiving holiday took place in Plymouth in the fall of 1621.

According to Plimoth.org, a Smithsonian Institution affiliations program in Plymouth, Mass., the Continental Congress proclaimed the first national Thanksgiving, in 1777.  Presidents Washington, Adams and Monroe also proclaimed national Thanksgivings, but that tradition faded by 1815 and the holiday was left to individual states to observe.

After the Civil War
Sarah Josepha Hale, the editor of Godey’s Lady’s Book,  began a campaign to reinstate the holiday in 1827, petitioning several presidents. She finally succeeded in 1863, when she was able to convince President Lincoln that a national Thanksgiving might serve to unite a war-torn country.

Lincoln declared two national Thanksgivings that year, one for August 6 celebrating the victory at Gettysburg and a second for the last Thursday in November.

(A reflection on the American holiday of Thanksgiving from Brandeis University, ...more to follow tomorrow)