Thanksgiving History Lesson

Disclaimer: The following post is hyperlink happy and filled with lots of FIRSTS!

Why is Thanksgiving the fourth Thursday? How does Black Friday exist on a day after giving thanks for what we have? Please allow me to offer a little history lesson. (There are going to be a lot of links to Archives stuff) :D

Let me start with destroying the image we all grew up with.

• First- Buckled hats did not come around until the 18th century. Pilgrims (which is a general term like 'founders', so "puritans" would be more accurate) did not wear them. 
• The Native Americans were not in loincloths. Have you seen the weather in the north east right now? Yeah. 
• Forks had not been invented yet. They had knives and spoons. 
• There was no pop corn. 
• No turkey. They had goose, maybe swan or passenger pigeons. 
• They did not have pumpkin pie. They had pumpkin, but no pie.  

The images we grew up with came from Sarah Josepha Hale of New Hampshire (the same who wrote Mary Had A Little Lamb). She was the editor of a local magazine who campaigned for 17 years (and letters to 5 presidents) to have a nationally recognized Thanksgiving. The last, Lincoln, made it an official national holiday in 1863. (Did Lincoln declare a day of thanks because of a letter??? I don't know.)

Now that we're reeling from the image of turkey and pumpkin pie being stripped from our childhood, here are a few fun facts, to help you recover.

• The first Thanksgiving football game was Yale vs. Princeton in 1876. When the NFL came around in 1920 there were six games played on Thanksgiving Day. 
• The first parade was Philadelphia's Gimbels Thanksgiving Day Parade in 1920. 
• Macy's parade came in 1924 with no balloons, but elephants, camels and lions from the Central Park Zoo. 
• The first balloon was in 1927, Felix the Cat. The balloons were not crazy huge either. How do I know? Well, they let the balloons go at the end of the parade so they'd float around for a while.

Also, the history of the cranberry sauce that we all love from this holiday has a fascinating history too, check it out from the Smithsonian here.


So Thanksgiving. The only account we have is from Edward Winslow (of the Mayflower) written in 1621. The letter was lost for 200 years and found in the 1800s by a Boston publisher, Alexander Young. He published it in 1841 (which I assume is where Sarah read it). The first Thanksgiving, they were miserable, but they were thankful. Of the 152 who made the trip to the New World, 53 remained. The weather had been awful, disease, malnutrition. It was a disaster, but the little group of 53 gathered to give thanks and... fasted! They celebrated having family, their health, and the freedom from tyranny and freedom to worship God that made the trip worth it. The Indians provided most of the "Thanksgiving feast".


It's a fascinating story, but how did it become the crazy holiday it is now?

Washington gave a Thanksgiving Proclamation October 3 1789. (Check out the PDF version under the picture to read it!) But is was not a national holiday. After Gettysburg, Lincoln declared a day of Thanksgiving and we would have one every year on the fourth Thursday of November. So, this year Thanksgiving is really really late. Why?

Here are some presidential declarations for the holiday. (Every president said something about giving thanks, but every President after Lincoln gave one every year, but to understand where Black Friday came from, the following were selected. I completely encourage reading them all. It's fascinating to see the ties to the events going on at the time and see the thanks they give God and the comfort offered to the people for better times ahead. These are only a part of the proclamation given.)

• First, Teddy Roosevelt, 1901- 

"I, Theodore Roosevelt, President of the United States, do hereby designate as a day of general Thanksgiving Thursday, the 28th of this present November, and I recommend that throughout the land people cease from their wanted occupations.  Several of homes and places of worship we should reverently thank the giver of all good for the countless blessings in our national life."

This was the FIRST time a President said it was a day off of work. It was unusual. Most people worked Thanksgiving and Christmas (yes, Scrooge was normal). It was thought of as crass to take the holiday off.

• Then, Woodrow Wilson, 1917-

"I, Woodrow Wilson, president of the United States of America do hereby designate Thursday, the 27th of November as a day of Thanksgiving and prayer and invite the people throughout the land to cease from their wanted occupations."

• Then came the depression. Herbert Hoover, 1931-  

"I therefore, Herbert Hoover, president of the United States, do hereby designate Thursday, November 26th as the national day of Thanksgiving and recommend that our people rest from their daily labors and in their homes and accustomed places of worship give devout thanks for the blessings which a merciful father had bestowed upon us.” 

This enraged many people. They wanted to work. Unemployment was 16.3% and businesses believed (as is customary when a president recommends national days off) the President just told them to close their doors for a day.

• Franklin D. Roosevelt, 1939- 

To this point it was still the fourth Thursday. Now, 1939, FDR, now in his third term (how he had four terms as a president is a conversation for another day), was hoping to boost the economy (we're nearing the end of the Depression now) by giving shoppers and business some extra days between Thanksgiving and Christmas. So, it was moved to the third Thursday. This officially connected the holiday to shopping and away from God. A Gallup poll at the time showed 59% of Americans disapproved of the change. (Check out a New York Times article snippit here.) 22 states went with the third Thursday holiday. 23 said no, had it on the fourth Thursday because it was not about shopping, it was about drawing nearer to God. (Yes, I know that only adds up to 45 states. It was 1939, there were 48 states, but I don't know which one the last 3 went with.)

The news of that day sounds not unlike today's political atmosphere. Press called it the "Republican Thanksgiving" because it was connected to God, the founding and Abraham Lincoln. The 23rd was known as the Democratic Thanksgiving. Some calling it "Fransgiving" after FDR.

Even Warner Bros. Merrie Melodies made fun of it in 1940 showing a segment (called Holiday Highlights) with Thanksgiving "for Democrats" on the one date and a week later "for Republicans."



In 1941 Congress officially declared it the 4th Thursday, and FDR signed it. The Wall Street Journal declared the move a bust because there was no real boost in retail sales. In 1941, during World War Two, America still had a problem with shopping on Thanksgiving because that is not what the holiday was about. The war could have had something to do with sales too, I assume (note sarcasm). Now, tho, it is a big boost in sales. Now Black Friday isn't a Black Friday at all. It starts earlier. Some stores were open on Thanksgiving for the frenzy. FDR would be pleased to see all that money going places.

While I hate Black Friday (for reasons Studio C shows well), this holiday is what we make of it. We need to make the choice to be thankful. First, to Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ who provide hope, forgiveness, and from whom all good things come.