Paul Giorgio: The Political Roots of Thanksgiving
Wednesday, November 26, 2014
We can be thankful first for our families and our individual blessings. We can be thankful that we live in the greatest country in the history of mankind, where we can argue and speak freely about our government. We can be thankful that we have free speech and we are free to practice whatever religion we believe in We are free to love who we want and we are free to be as successful as we want-or not.
Thanksgiving is not about football or the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade or the most American of pastimes-shopping.
Our Thanksgiving is truly an American Holiday rooted in that first Thanksgiving celebration in Plymouth Colony in 1621, when a small group of Pilgrims who survived their first winter on our shores came to celebrate the harvest. But they also celebrated the fact that of the 102 original passengers on the Mayflower 52 of them had made it through that first horrible winter. They were just happy to have survived. They were joined in that feast by members of the Wampanoag Indian tribe, who had helped them.
The Politics of Thanksgiving
In reality, Thanksgiving has always been a “political” holiday. It was President George Washington who first proclaimed a national day of thanks in 1789. For many years, Thanksgiving was a Northern Holiday, with the southern states unfamiliar with it and its customs. It was not until author Sarah Josepha Hale who began a crusade to make Thanksgiving a “Holiday” She began her effort in 1827 and finally at the height of the Civil War, in 1863 President Abraham Lincoln declared a day of Thanksgiving. Lincoln chose the last Thursday of November as the official Thanksgiving and it remained that way for almost a century.
In 1939, at the height of the Great Depression, President Franklin D. Roosevelt changed the day to the 3rd Thursday of November, hoping to spur spending during the holiday season. The Republicans in Congress quickly dubbed it “Franksgiving”. Partisan discord even back then
The only words the Republicans did not use were declaring this a war on Thanksgiving. Two years later, Roosevelt gave in to the opposition and Thanksgiving has been celebrated on the last Thursday of the month. It was a Democratic President who tried to help the shop owners of Main Street, while the Republican pro-business lobby opposed the change.
So tomorrow as countless Americans enjoy a day of feasting and thanks, let us remember the political roots of the holiday. The Pilgrims as we refer to them, left their homes in England where they suffered religious persecution under King James, to travel across the world in order pray as they wished.
America is Diverse
So when we here of someone who prays differently then many Christian Americans, let us embrace them. When we see someone who looks different than us, let us embrace their culture. When new hear someone who speaks a different language, let us celebrate with them.
Isn’t that what the Wampanoag’s did? The settlers who arrived over 400 years ago on the Mayflower spoke a different language, prayed to a different deity and certainly looked strange to the Indigenous peoples of Massachusetts. Yet they were able to give thanks together. If they could do it, so can we, because we really do have a great deal to be thankful for.
Happy Thanksgiving.
Paul Giorgio is a longtime Democratic Party Activist who has worked on numerous campaigns. He was a Lead Advance Person for President Clinton & Vice President Gore. He was Deputy Director of Special Events for President Clinton’s first Inauguration. He has been elected a delegate to numerous Democratic National Conventions and recently served as one of President Obama’s representatives on the Platform Committee. In 2013 he was chosen as a Presidential Elector. He is the President of Pagio, Inc., publishers of Pulse Magazine, Vitality Magazine and Worcester Medicine.
Related Slideshow: Thanksgiving Day: Where to Dine Out in Central MA
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