Dusty Feasts

Official feasts used to be an important part of the human community. People would gather together to remember something sacred, express their faith and hope for the future, and / or just be together formally, recognizing each other as being part of a shared community. Few things express a desire for shared companionship and social intimacy more than dining together. Sadly, the gathering together for feasting is increasingly a relic of the past – at least here in the West.

It need not be so! Today we will remember the ancient feasts.

The Feast Day of American Thanksgiving

This feast day is a not-so-ancient, and not-so-forgotten American federal holiday, celebrated annually on the fourth Thursday of the month of November. How did the United States come to have a Thanksgiving holiday unrelated (directly) to any specific religious festivals?

From wiki:

Thanksgiving is a federal holiday in the United States celebrated on the fourth Thursday of November. It is sometimes called American Thanksgiving (outside the United States) to distinguish it from the Canadian holiday of the same name and related celebrations in other regions. It originated as a day of thanksgiving and harvest festival, with the theme of the holiday revolving around giving thanks and the centerpiece of Thanksgiving celebrations remaining a Thanksgiving dinner. The dinner traditionally consists of Indigenous cuisine of the Americas: turkey, potatoes (usually mashed or sweet), squash, corn (maize), green beans, cranberries (typically as cranberry sauce), and pumpkin pie. Other Thanksgiving customs include charitable organizations offering Thanksgiving dinner for the poor, attending religious services, and watching television events such as Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade and NFL football games. Thanksgiving is regarded as the beginning of the Christmas and holiday season, with the day following it, Black Friday, being the busiest shopping day of the year in the United States.

New England and Virginia colonists originally celebrated days of fasting, as well as days of thanksgiving, thanking God for blessings such as harvests, ship landings, military victories, or the end of a drought. These were observed through church services, accompanied with feasts and other communal gatherings. The event that Americans commonly call the “first Thanksgiving” was celebrated by the Pilgrims after their first harvest in the New World in November 1621. This feast lasted three days and was attended by 90 Native American Wampanoag people and 53 survivors of the Mayflower (Pilgrims). Less widely known is an earlier Thanksgiving celebration in Virginia in 1619 by English settlers who had just landed at Berkeley Hundred aboard the ship Margaret.

Thanksgiving has been celebrated nationally on and off since 1789, with a proclamation by President George Washington after a request by Congress. President Thomas Jefferson chose not to observe the holiday, and its celebration was intermittent until President Abraham Lincoln, in 1863, proclaimed a national day of “Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens”, calling on the American people to also, “with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience … fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty hand to heal the wounds of the nation”. Lincoln declared it for the last Thursday in November. On June 28, 1870, President Ulysses S. Grant signed into law the Holidays Act that made Thanksgiving a yearly appointed federal holiday in Washington, D.C. On January 6, 1885, an act by Congress made Thanksgiving, and other federal holidays, a paid holiday for all federal workers throughout the United States. Under President Franklin D. Roosevelt, the date was moved to one week earlier, observed between 1939 and 1941 amid significant controversy. From 1942 onwards, Thanksgiving, by an act of Congress received a permanent observation date, the fourth Thursday in November, no longer at the discretion of the president.

[…]

Setting aside time to give thanks for one’s blessings, along with holding feasts to celebrate a harvest, are both practices that long predate the European settlement of North America. The Puritans observed days of fasting to pray for God’s favor, as well as days of thanksgiving to thank God for a bountiful harvest, victory and other joyous occasions. Documented thanksgiving services in territory currently belonging to the United States were conducted in the 16th century by Spaniards and the French. These days of thanksgiving were celebrated through church services and feasting. Historian Michael Gannon claimed St. Augustine, Florida, was founded with a shared thanksgiving meal on September 8, 1565.

What do you eat for American Thanksgiving?

This is a holiday famous for a lot of different foods – including turkey, cranberry sauce, sweet potatoes, and pumpkin pie.

Classic Pumpkin Pie

Ingredients

8 SERVINGS

• 15 oz. pumpkin
• 1 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1 1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
• 1/8 tsp. ground allspice
• 2 large eggs
• 1 1/2 cups milk
• 1 pie crust (flaky, premade or store-bought)
• 1/2 tsp. fresh ginger

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 425°F.
2. Combine sugar, salt and spices in small bowl; set aside.
3. Beat eggs with pumpkin with electric mixer, then beat in sugar mixture. Slowly add milk. Pour into Flaky Pie Crust.
4. Bake 15 minutes. Decrease oven temperature to 350°F and bake 45 minutes, or until knife inserted near center comes out clean.
5. Cool on wire rack 2 hours. Chill, if desired.

What is something you might do on Thanksgiving?

As this holiday lives somewhere in the limbo between religious roots, national history, and secular commercial identity, there is not a settled way to celebrate. Generally, an American might wake early to watch a Thanksgiving Day Parade (either in person or on television) before eating a multi-course meal (usually with extended family), before settling in to either plan your Black Friday shopping adventures, play games with your relatives, or to watch American football on television.

Somewhere in the midst of all of this, thanks are given, and cherished memories are made.

I hope that my fellow Americans who celebrate this year have a wonderful time!

Originally published November 22, 2023