Thanksgiving
is coming, one of those big American things that we know about only
thanks to TV series and films, but in the same way that happens with
Halloween (originally All Hallows Eve) it is a festivity that
Americans had inherited from the European tradition.
Thanksgiving
origin can be found in the traditional church masses and religious
festivals that were used in this time of the year to thank Lord (or
Nature if you prefer a more secular speech) for the harvest success.
Those festival, usually joined with great feasts, were also one of
the last opportunities to join the social life before the cold winter
arrived and became time for family home confinement.
But
the 4th thursday of November isn't a too late date to
celebrate the harvest? Exactly. That is due to the fact that United
States Thanksgiving is influenced by the British tradition in the
period of the Protestant Reformation during the reign of Henry VIII.
As part of this reformation in 1536 the number of ecclesiastic
festivities was reduced from 95 to 27 days per year; but the more
radical Puritans didn't agree and wanted to eliminate all the
festivities, including Christmas and Easter, and to remain only with
Days of Fasting to fight against God's disasters or judgements (as
droughts, floods and pests), and Days of Thanksgiving for the little
miracles like the victory versus the Spanish Armada or the failure of
Guy Fawkes Gunpowder Plot against the British Parliament. This last
historic fact became into an annual Day of Thanksgiving since de 5th
of November of 1606 and nowadays it's still a festivity (Remember
remember the 5th of November).
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| The first Thanksgiving , J.L. Gerome Ferris (c. 1915) |
With
this base it couldn't
be rare that in 1621 the Pilgrims
and Puritans who migrated to the “New World” continued this
tradition celebrating Days of Fasting and Days of Thanksgiving, one
of which had a special importance at Plymouth, now in Massachusetts
State. It was only ten month since the Pilgrims landed and, after the
hard previous winter, they were ready to celebrate their first
harvest success. Aware that they wouldn't have survive in hostile
territory without the native's help they decided to invite the
Wampanoag tribe. It were days of feasts and plays, but also of
cultural exchange, learning from the others and thanksgiving.
Thanksgiving
tradition was already born, more than 400 years from our days, but it
still had a long way to run. At the beginning it was only home-made
celebrations with still a great remain of the harvest festivals and
each State celebrated it on a different day. It wasn't until 1876
when Sarah Hale started a campaign to turn Thanksgiving into a
national day, and only 17 years later Abraham Lincoln listened to her
ans established November's last Thursday as the National Thanksgiving
Day as a treat for the victories of the Civil War.
Finally
during World War II there would be one more change for this
celebration of humility and gratitude. It was already sometime that
the day after Thanksgiving had been established as Black Friday, the
beginning of Christmas shopping season with the big department stores
offering unmissable discounts. The American National Retail
Federation asked president Franklin Roosevelt to enlarge one week the
Christmas season and therefore Thanksgiving in USA ended up being
celebrated the 4th Thursday of November (in Canada is
celebrated the 2nd Thursday of October, as for the
different weather the harvest season started earlier).
So
there we have another traditional festivity which has been depraved
century over century until being turned into something completely
different, even if in this case we still have the background of being
grateful at least once a year. Cultural Crops wants to be part of
this thankful spirit in the air and so we thank you all for reading
us and for following us on Facebook or Twitter. Without you it
wouldn't be the same, we are working hard to improve and we hope you
can all see the results soon.
Ricard Gispert
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