Thanksgiving
Thanksgiving Day is a national holiday celebrated in Canada and the United States. It was originally celebrated as a day of giving thanks for the blessing of the harvest and of the preceding year. Thanksgiving is celebrated on the second Monday of October in Canada and on the fourth Thursday of November
in the United States. Several other places around the world observe
similar celebrations. Although Thanksgiving has historical roots in
religious and cultural traditions, it has long been celebrated in a secular manner as well.
History
Prayers of thanks and special thanksgiving ceremonies are common among almost all religions after harvests and at other times.[1] The Thanksgiving holiday's history in North America is rooted in English traditions dating from the Protestant Reformation. It also has aspects of a harvest festival, even though the harvest in New England occurs well before the late-November date on which the modern Thanksgiving holiday is celebrated.[1][2]
In the English tradition, days of thanksgiving and special thanksgiving religious services became important during the English Reformation in the reign of Henry VIII
and in reaction to the large number of religious holidays on the
Catholic calendar. Before 1536 there were 95 Church holidays, plus 52
Sundays, when people were required to attend church and forego work and
sometimes pay for expensive celebrations. The 1536 reforms reduced the
number of Church holidays to 27, but some Puritans wished to completely eliminate all Church holidays, including Christmas and Easter. The holidays were to be replaced by specially called Days of Fasting or Days of Thanksgiving, in response to events that the Puritans viewed as acts of special providence.
Unexpected disasters or threats of judgement from on high called for
Days of Fasting. Special blessings, viewed as coming from God, called
for Days of Thanksgiving. For example, Days of Fasting were called on
account of drought in 1611, floods in 1613, and plagues in 1604 and
1622. Days of Thanksgiving were called following the victory over the Spanish Armada in 1588 and following the deliverance of Queen Anne in 1705. An unusual annual Day of Thanksgiving began in 1606 following the failure of the Gunpowder Plot in 1605 and developed into Guy Fawkes Day on November 5.[3]
In Canada
Main article: Thanksgiving (Canada)
While some researchers state that "there is no compelling narrative of the origins of the Canadian Thanksgiving day",[4] the first Canadian Thanksgiving is often traced back to 1578 and the explorer Martin Frobisher. Frobisher, who had been trying to find a northern passage
to the Pacific Ocean, held his Thanksgiving celebration not for harvest
but in thanks for surviving the long journey from England through the
perils of storms and icebergs. On his third and final voyage to the far
north, Frobisher held a formal ceremony in Frobisher Bay in Baffin Island (present-day Nunavut) to give thanks to God and in a service ministered by the preacher Robert Wolfall they celebrated Communion.[5]
The origins of Canadian Thanksgiving are also sometimes traced to the French settlers who came to New France with explorer Samuel de Champlain
in the early 17th century, who celebrated their successful harvests.
The French settlers in the area typically had feasts at the end of the
harvest season and continued throughout the winter season, even sharing
food with the indigenous peoples of the area.[6]
As settlers arrived in Canada from New England, late autumn
Thanksgiving celebrations became commonplace. New immigrants into the
country—such as the Irish, Scottish, and Germans—also added their own
traditions to the harvest celebrations. Most of the US aspects of
Thanksgiving (such as the turkey), were incorporated when United Empire Loyalists began to flee from the United States during the American Revolution and settled in Canada.[6]
Thanksgiving is now a statutory holiday in most jurisdictions of Canada, with the exception of the Atlantic provinces of Prince Edward Island, Newfoundland and Labrador, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia.[7]
In the United States
In the United States, the modern Thanksgiving holiday tradition is
commonly, but not universally, traced to a sparsely documented 1621
celebration at Plymouth in present-day Massachusetts. The 1621 Plymouth feast and thanksgiving was prompted by a good harvest. Pilgrims and Puritans
who began emigrating from England in the 1620s and 1630s carried the
tradition of Days of Fasting and Days of Thanksgiving with them to New England.
Several days of Thanksgiving were held in early New England history
that have been identified as the "First Thanksgiving", including Pilgrim
holidays in Plymouth in 1621 and 1623, and a Puritan holiday in Boston in 1631.[8][9] According to historian Jeremy Bangs, director of the Leiden American Pilgrim Museum, the Pilgrims may have been influenced by watching the annual services of Thanksgiving for the relief of the siege of Leiden in 1574, while they were staying in Leiden.[10] Now called Oktober Feesten,
Leiden's autumn thanksgiving celebration in 1617 was the occasion for
sectarian disturbance that appears to have accelerated the pilgrims'
plans to emigrate to America.[11] Later in Massachusetts, religious thanksgiving services were declared by civil leaders such as Governor Bradford, who planned the colony's thanksgiving celebration and fast in 1623.[12][13][14] The practice of holding an annual harvest festival did not become a regular affair in New England until the late 1660s.[15]
Thanksgiving proclamations were made mostly by church leaders in New
England up until 1682, and then by both state and church leaders until
after the American Revolution.
During the revolutionary period, political influences affected the
issuance of Thanksgiving proclamations. Various proclamations were made
by royal governors, John Hancock, General George Washington, and the Continental Congress,[16] each giving thanks to God for events favorable to their causes.[17]
As President of the United States, George Washington proclaimed the
first nationwide thanksgiving celebration in America marking November
26, 1789, "as a day of public thanksgiving and prayer to be observed by
acknowledging with grateful hearts the many and signal favours of
Almighty God".[18]
In modern times the President of the United States, in addition to issuing a proclamation, will "pardon" a turkey, which spares the bird's life and ensures that it will spend the duration of its life roaming freely on farmland.[19]
Debate about first celebrations in the United States
The traditional representation of where the first Thanksgiving was held in the United States has often been a subject of boosterism
and debate, though the debate is often confused by mixing up the ideas
of a Thanksgiving holiday celebration and a Thanksgiving religious
service. According to author James Baker, this debate is a "tempest in a
beanpot" and "marvelous nonsense".[8]
Local boosters in Virginia, Florida, and Texas promote their own colonists, who (like many people getting off a boat) gave thanks for setting foot again on dry land.
These claims include an earlier religious service by Spanish explorers in Texas at San Elizario in 1598, as well as thanksgiving feasts in the Virginia Colony.[20] Robyn Gioia and Michael Gannon of the University of Florida argue that the earliest Thanksgiving service in what is now the United States was celebrated by the Spanish on September 8, 1565, in what is now Saint Augustine, Florida.[21][22] A day for Thanksgiving services was codified in the founding charter of Berkeley Hundred in Charles City County, Virginia in 1619.[23]
According to Baker, "Historically, none of these had any influence
over the evolution of the modern United States holiday. The American
holiday's true origin was the New England Calvinist
Thanksgiving. Never coupled with a Sabbath meeting, the Puritan
observances were special days set aside during the week for thanksgiving
and praise in response to God's providence."[8]
Fixing the date of the holiday
The earlier Thanksgiving celebrations in Canada has often been
attributed to the earlier onset of winter in the north, thus ending the
harvest season earlier.[24] Thanksgiving in Canada did not have a fixed date until the late 19th century. Prior to Canadian Confederation,
many of the individual colonial governors of the Canadian provinces had
declared their own days of Thanksgiving. The first official Canadian
Thanksgiving occurred on April 15, 1872,[25] when the nation was celebrating the Prince of Wales' recovery from a serious illness.[24] By the end of the 19th century, Thanksgiving Day was normally celebrated on November 6. However, when World War I ended, the Armistice Day holiday was usually held during the same week. To prevent the two holidays from clashing with one another, in 1957 the Canadian Parliament proclaimed Thanksgiving to be observed on its present date on the second Monday of October.[6] Since 1971, when the American Uniform Monday Holiday Act took effect, the American observance of Columbus Day has coincided with the Canadian observance of Thanksgiving.[26][27]
Much as in Canada, Thanksgiving in the United States was observed on various dates throughout history. From the time of the Founding Fathers
until the time of Lincoln, the date Thanksgiving was observed varied
from state to state. The final Thursday in November had become the
customary date in most U.S. states by the beginning of the 19th century.
Thanksgiving was first celebrated on the same date by all states in
1863 by a presidential proclamation of Abraham Lincoln. Influenced by the campaigning of author Sarah Josepha Hale,
who wrote letters to politicians for around 40 years trying to make it
an official holiday, Lincoln proclaimed the date to be the final
Thursday in November in an attempt to foster a sense of American unity
between the Northern and Southern states.[28] Because of the ongoing Civil War and the Confederate States of America's refusal to recognize Lincoln's authority, a nationwide Thanksgiving date was not realized until Reconstruction was completed in the 1870s.
On December 26, 1941, President Franklin D. Roosevelt
signed a joint resolution of Congress changing the national
Thanksgiving Day from the last Thursday in November to the fourth
Thursday. Two years earlier, Roosevelt had used a presidential proclamation to try to achieve this change, reasoning that earlier celebration of the holiday would give the country an economic boost.
Observance
Canada
Thanksgiving (French: l'Action de grâce), occurring on the second Monday in October, is an annual Canadian holiday to give thanks at the close of the harvest season. Although the original act of Parliament references God and the holiday is celebrated in churches, the holiday is mostly celebrated in a secular manner. Thanksgiving is a statutory holiday in all provinces in Canada, except for New Brunswick and Nova Scotia.
While businesses may remain open in these provinces, the holiday is
nonetheless recognized and celebrated regardless of its status.[29][30][31][32][33]
Grenada
In the West Indian island of Grenada, there is a national holiday
known as Thanksgiving Day which is celebrated on October 25. Even though
it bears the same name, and is celebrated at roughly the same time as
the American and Canadian versions of Thanksgiving, this holiday is
unrelated to either of those celebrations. Instead the holiday marks the
anniversary of the U.S.-led invasion of the island in 1983, in response to the deposition and execution of Grenadian Prime Minister Maurice Bishop.[34]
Liberia
In the West African country of Liberia, which began in 1820 with the colonization of freed black slaves (Americo-Liberians) from the United States, Thanksgiving is celebrated on the first Thursday of November.[35]
The Netherlands
Many of the Pilgrims who migrated to the Plymouth Plantation had resided in the city of Leiden from 1609–1620, and had recorded their births, marriages and deaths at the Pieterskerk
(St. Peter's church). To commemorate this, a non-denominational
Thanksgiving Day service is held each year on the morning of the
American Thanksgiving Day in the Pieterskerk, a Gothic church in Leiden, noting the hospitality the Pilgrims received in Leiden on their way to the New World.[36]
Besides this, Thanksgiving is observed by orthodox protestant churches in The Netherlands on the first Wednesday in November (Dankdag).
It is is not a public holiday. Those that observe the day either only
go to church in the evening or take the day off and go to church in the
morning (and occasionally afternoon) too.
Australia (Norfolk Island)
Thanksgiving is not celebrated on mainland Australia. However, on the Australian external territory of Norfolk Island, Thanksgiving is celebrated on the last Wednesday of November, similar to the pre-World War II
American observance on the last Thursday of the month. This means the
Norfolk Island observance is the day before or six days after the United States' observance. The holiday was brought to the island by visiting American whaling ships.[37]
Philippines
The Philippines, while it was an American colony in the first half of
the 20th century, celebrated Thanksgiving as a special public holiday
on the same day as the Americans. During the Japanese occupation during World War II,
both the Americans and Filipinos celebrated Thanksgiving in secret.
After Japanese withdrawal in 1945, the tradition continued until 1965.
It was revived by President Ferdinand Marcos, but on every September 21, when martial law was imposed in the country. After Marcos' ouster in 1986, the tradition was no longer continued.[38]
Saint Lucia
The nation of Saint Lucia celebrates Thanksgiving on the first Monday in October.[39]
United States
Thanksgiving, currently celebrated on the fourth Thursday in November
by federal legislation in 1941, has been an annual tradition in the
United States by presidential proclamation since 1863 and by state
legislation since the Founding Fathers of the United States. Historically, Thanksgiving has traditionally been a celebration of the blessings of the year, including the harvest.[40] What Americans call the "Holiday Season" generally begins with Thanksgiving.[41]
Judaism
In Reform Judaism, there is no hindrance to celebrating Thanksgiving, since it is regarded as a secular celebration rather than religious or gentile.[42][43] In Orthodox Jewry as well, many Rabbis permit or even encourage Thanksgiving celebration.[44]
Similar holidays
See also: List of harvest festivals
Germany
The Harvest Thanksgiving Festival, Erntedankfest, is a popular German Christian
festival in early October. The festival has a significant religious
component, and unlike its North American counterpart, it usually does
not include large dinners. Many churches get decorated with autumn
crops, beautifully arranged in front of the altar. In some places, there
are religious processions or parades. Many Bavarian beer festivals,
like the Munich Oktoberfest, take place within the vicinity of Erntedankfest.
Japan
Main article: Labor Thanksgiving Day
Labor Thanksgiving Day (勤労感謝の日 Kinrō Kansha no Hi?) is a national holiday in Japan. It takes place annually on November 23. The law establishing the holiday, which was adopted during the American occupation after World War II, cites it as an occasion for commemorating labor and production and giving one another thanks. It has roots in an ancient harvest ceremony (Niiname-sai (新嘗祭?)) celebrating hard work.
United Kingdom
The Harvest Festival of Thanksgiving does not have an official date
in the United Kingdom, however it is traditionally held on or near the
Sunday of the harvest moon that occurs closest to the autumnal equinox.
Harvest Thanksgiving in Britain pre-dates Christianity when the Saxons
would offer the first sheaf of corn to fertility gods. When the harvest
was finally collected, communities would come together for a harvest
supper.[45]
When Christianity arrived in Britain many traditions remained, and
today Harvest Thanksgiving is marked by churches and schools in late
September/early October (same as Canada) with singing, praying and
decorating with baskets of food and fruit to celebrate a successful
harvest and to give thanks.[46] Collections of food are usually held which are then given to local charities which help the homeless and those in need.
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