Thread by @haroldfeld

So Thanksgiving. A few things:
1. Modern Thanksgiving has absolutely zero to do with the "First Thanksgiving" of 1621. That Thanksgiving was a local one-off. Even the Thanksgiving of 1623 was about the end of a drought.

2. Nor would 1st Thanksgiving have been at the end of Nov.

While there isn't consensus on the date, it is generally agreed that 1st Thanksgiving (1621) would have been when most folks had harvest festivals -- sometime in End of Sept to Early Nov. But definitely NOT the end of November.
/2

This has to do with the logic of harvest festivals as distinct from solstice festivals. Your standard agrarian harvest festival is about eating the harvest and animals that won't store for winter. It's basically "Fat Bear Week" for people.
/3

In fact, VA has argued for years that *they* actually had the First Thanksgiving in the colonies/U.S. Again, nothing to do with Native Americans or Plymouth or the Wampanoag or anything.
/4

The tradition of declaring a day as one of Thanksgiving -- essentially a civic holiday with a smattering of Deism -- continued sporadically in the states and occasionally at the National level. Again, outside New England, no one particularly associated this w/1stThanksgiving.

So where did the idea of a national civic holiday for Thanksgiving come from? Sara Josepha Hale, one of the most famous women authors and editors of the 19th Century U.S.
history.com/news/abraham-l…
/6

Hale celebrated Thanksgiving like a good New Englander, which did have a link back to 1st Thanksgiving. But her real interest was in trying to bring people together and her piety. It wasn't about commemorating 1st Thanksgiving. It was about being Thankful.
/7

Hale petitioned multiple Presidents to try to get a national day of Thanksgiving. When she wrote Lincoln in 1863, he immediately seized on the idea. The Union had just turned the corner on Civil War, and the idea of a unified national day of gratitude fit Lincoln's agenda.
/ 8

Here is a link to Lincoln's proclamation on Thanksgiving. Once again, there is nothing about 1st Thanksgiving here. It's all about how God blessed the Union.
history.com/news/abraham-l…
/9

This proved such a great idea that Lincoln did it again in 1864, and the tradition stuck. But the idea still wasn't about 1st Thanksgiving. It was a basically Deistic civic holiday to give thanks for the preservation and prosperity of the Union.
/10

So how did this get to be about 1st Thanksgiving? Frigging "Lost Cause" revisionism.
/11

With Thanksgiving a popular national holiday by the late 19th Century, you couldn't make the good ole South uncomfortable by reminding them every year about how this was a holiday basically thanking God for whipping their Confederate ass.
/12

So the connection with Lincoln and preserving the peace and prosperity of the Union was de-emphasized. It was replaced with the romanticized version of the 1st Thanksgiving as the origin of the holiday, which was much more comfortable for the defeated South.
/13

Why go through all of this? Because we could really use a day like Sarah Hale campaigned for -- one that focuses on bringing people together in gratitude for what we have. And as Lincoln intended, to look after those less fortunate. (see the end of his proclamation).
/14

Thanksgiving is, potentially, an incredibly valuable day. It does not even need its vaguely religious trappings. Gratitude for having family and friends to share a meal is a healthy, secular sentiment. We need more of this. We need more celebration of each other.
/15

It is also a good thing to reflect on how much stronger and better we are when we work together, as opposed to when we try to tear each other apart.
/16

So please keep this in mind. Thanksgiving is the one potential day to bring everyone together in fellowship and love -- without the need for religious overtones.
/17

This does not mean erasing the experience of indigenous people. Indeed, this makes the argument for transitioning Columbus Day into Indigenous People Day stronger, because we should divorce Thanksgiving from the white wash association w/1st Thanksgiving entirely.
/18

I want to urge people to make Thanksgiving about Lincoln's original vision for the national holiday: A day where we celebrate our family and friends, the power of Unity, an end to slavery, and a day to care for those in need.
/19