The American Holiday

Thanksgiving!!!

The day where one can eat like a glutton, stuff themselves till they just can't breathe anymore, and not feel guilty about it for about one week.

The real question is of course, what was the first real Thanksgiving, and was Turkey really served? Everybody recognizes the famous painting by Norman Rockwell, the family gathered around the table, everybody smiling and the head of the family - the grandmother and grandfather - setting down the "Pièce de résistance!" The massive bird which will later be savagely sliced up. To that effect, all I have to say is Norman Rockwell should have come to my family dinner, and we could have shown him the real American family sitting down for dinner. I am sure it would give him nightmares for years to come. But really now, what was the "real thanksgiving dinner?"

Officially Thanksgiving was recognized as a Federal Holiday in 1789. The United States of America was born, and George Washington was officially elected and in sworn in as the first President of these United States. Washington as President, designated Thanksgiving as a Holiday so that every American could "thank God for affording them an opportunity peaceably to establish a form of government for their safety and happiness and for having been enabled to establish constitutions of government for our safety and happiness, and particularly the national One now lately instituted, for the civil and religious liberty with which we are blessed... " Since that executive proclamation, a tradition was born and now every president has offered thanks to whatever he "or she - yes I said she" might be thankful for to a hungry nation.

The first real Thanksgiving however occurred in 1619 on the Berkeley Plantation on what was then known the "Virgina Colony" when a group of 38 English settlers landed at Berkeley Hundred on December 4th, 1619. This would officially be the first permanent settlement in the Virginia Colony. The town charter stipulated that the day of arrival (December 4th) be designated as a day of "Thanksgiving to God" The official quote from the charter states "Wee ordaine that the day of our ships arrival at the place assigned for plantacon in the land of Virginia shall be yearly and perpetually keept holy as a day of thanksgiving to Almighty God."

The traditional thanksgiving story that of course, everybody knows occurred on the Plymouth Colony in Massachusetts. The winters in New England were particularly brutal and many of the first settlers died from hypothermia, disease, and starvation. A grateful group of settlers in 1621 thanked the natives (The famous Squanto) for helping them survive, through learning to fish, hunt, and farm. Without the natives assistance, most likely the settlers would have never survived and the settlement would have been abandoned. After 1621, the Plymouth Colony officially designated a Holiday immediately after the autumn harvest as a day of celebration, feasting and praising god. The Governor of Plymouth invited Grand Sachem Massasoit and the Wampanoag people to join them in the feast. As a way of saying thanks, the natives went into the forest and brought back 5 deer as a gift for the governor. As much as people think that Turkey is the officially meal of Thanksgiving, the first real thanksgiving dinner actually included eel, various fish including cod, native berries around the area, deer and ale (beer). Sorry guys... there is just no turkey on the New England menu.

Now we have an idea of where Thanksgiving comes from. The American tradition lives on even to this day but now rather thanking "god" for just surviving in a settlement, we have so much more to be thankful for, whether it be family, friends, school, relationships, and/or all around life in general. So feast away everybody. Enjoy the turkey with all of the trimmings. Stuff yourself silly till you can't even stand up, enjoy your time with your family if you are home for the holiday, stay warm, and know, despite whatever problems maybe occurring in your own life at the moment, there is something that everyone is and/or should be thankful for.