Thanksgiving Day -- mental meanderings

Thanksgiving is the American holiday celebrated on the fourth Thursday of each November.  Why on that date?  Mostly so that people are primed and ready to go for Christmas-time and holiday-time shopping.  Yes, that's the case.  Read on to find out why.

The first Thanksgiving, so the legend tells us, was at Plimoth Plantation, Massachusetts in 1621.  The actual date is a little murky, but it probably took place in October, not in November.  The English settlers, known as Pilgrims or Separatists, who had arrived less than a year earlier aboard the small ship Mayflower were using the occasion of their first harvest to celebrate the simple fact of survival.  The voyage across the Atlantic had been tough, but its rigors were nothing compared to the challenges they encountered on land as they settled in to build themselves a permanent community.  Fortunately, the local natives were friendly and helpful.  Without their assistance, the English Pilgrim settlers--their numbers diminished by half, down to a remaining population of about 50 by the time of the harvest celebration--probably would have all perished.  And so the local Indians were included in the gathering, too.

That's the basic American history lesson; it's well-known.  Not so well-known are a few other factoids:

• The first Thanksgiving celebration went on for three days.  After all that they had gone through, the Pilgrims deserved a big party.  The Indians--who were probably not on the original guest list, but managed to make themselves welcome, anyway, but making the feast into a sort of pot-luck affair by bringing with them some fresh game for the roasting spits--knew a good thing when they saw it, so they had no objection to a multi-day party.
• Turkey might have been on the menu; however, the bigger meat portions probably consisted of venison, eels and fish.  Wild turkeys can be pretty scrawny, and might not have been worth the expenditures of time, effort and precious bullets and gunpowder needed to bring them down for the feast.
• Though Thanksgiving was celebrated off-and-on in New England during the next couple of centuries--and some national days of thanksgiving were proclaimed in the early years of the new United States nation--its introduction as a true national holiday was as a political event.  Late in 1863, with the Civil War still dragging on and anti-war sentiment on the rise in the North, President Lincoln pronounced that the last Thursday in November should be a national day of thanksgiving.  This was done in Lincoln's typically thoughtful and inclusive manner, and his words were widely published throughout the states that were not in rebellion.
• The occasion and the last-Thursday-in-November date persisted as Thanksgiving Day during the rest of the 19th Century and on into the 20th Century, until 1939.  By then, an annual splurge of Christmas shopping after the Thanksgiving holiday had become an important part of America's economy.  Unfortunately, in that year the last Thursday of November was also the last day of the month; consequently, the shopping season would be shortened.  The taipans of business were unhappy with this, and so petitioned President Franklin Roosevelt to move the holiday's date up by a week; he did so.  Legislation a couple of years later made the fourth Thursday of November the nation's permanent Thanksgiving Holiday.

Thanksgiving is a good holiday; it's one of my favorites.  It's an opportunity to gather family and friends and have a great time with lots of good food, conversation and entertainment.  And it's a chance to reflect on and be thankful for all the good things that we have in our lives and have experienced in the last year.  Here's a sampling of those things from my list:

• Life -- just the simple fact of being alive; I'm thankful for that, especially after losing a close and remarkable friend just a few months ago.
• Good health -- the occasional cold or flu or pain notwithstanding, I'm thankful for the good health that I enjoy and which is enjoyed by my family and friends; and, yes, I'm also thankful for--here comes a little political statement--the increased access to health care that is made possible by the Affordable Care Act for the American population; selfishly, I believe that my health and the health of those near to me is benefited by the improved health of those who now have health care but didn't have it before the ACA.
• My wife's pumpkin pie -- the infrequent need to scrape pie crust dough off the kitchen ceiling does nothing to diminish my thankfulness for the pleasures of this baked delicacy that is her special creation and important contribution to the festivities.
• Electricity -- without it, we would pretty much be living as we did when Mr. Lincoln made his Thanksgiving Day pronouncement; it's everywhere.
• Most of the gift shopping is already done -- I'm thankful that we have no compelling reason to immerse ourselves in the "Black Friday" shopping orgy; however, it can be entertaining to spend some free time at a local shopping center and watch the action.
• You -- yes, whether you like or don't like the Affordable Care Act, it's good to have you around.

I hope it's a great day for everybody.