Thanksgiving
Posted on Nov 26, 2024 by Laura Higbee
I don’t know how many of you know this, but I am a historian at heart. My bachelor’s degree focused on Latin American history, but I took a lot of U.S. history classes. I thought it would be interesting to look at Thanksgiving as we know it today. I must remind myself and some family members that it isn’t just about football. GO CHIEFS! But I digress.
I remember as a child thinking that Thanksgiving was a time that pilgrims came together with the Native Americans to thank them for helping the pilgrims out during the previous winter. We wore hats made from paper to represent the colonists and the Native Americans, and turkey with gravy was served at school. Trust me, the school lunches where I grew up were not good, but this one was the best of the year. I still love canned cranberry sauce; HOWEVER, I prefer to make the homemade cranberry relish every year for my husband.
The real story of Thanksgiving was the pilgrims going out hunting for food, bringing it back to the camp, and starting a feast by themselves. Then the Wampanoag tribe proverbially knocked on the door, brought more food, and it turned into a multi-day affair of eating and getting to know each other. A treaty came out of this event that kept both sides safe until King Phillip’s War in 1675. Thanksgiving didn’t become an actual holiday until the U.S. Civil War, with President Lincoln declaring it a national holiday. It was declared the fourth Thursday of November as the official day in 1941.
Thanksgiving now is a ritual that mostly brings families or chosen families together to eat and visit with one another. Then comes the holiday shopping. I prefer to not get involved with Black Friday as much as I used to and I am thankful that most retailers have backed off on making Black Friday on Thanksgiving Day as well.
I don’t know how you will celebrate, but I will be with my dearly beloved husband Sam and my side of the family on Thanksgiving Day, then with his family the day after. I will get to see mom, pops (aka Bob, my bonus dad), and one of my sisters and her family — a grand total of eight of us, possibly ten if my nephews bring their girlfriends. Sam’s parents have both passed, so it will be a smaller affair on Friday, with just six of us meeting to celebrate family and Thanksgiving.
What are you thankful for? Feel free to email me; I would love to hear it. Personally, I am most thankful for my faith, family, and friends that are family.
I found this prayer on the great internet, and thought it was fitting. I hope to live up to this prayer:
O, heavenly Father: We thank thee for food and remember the hungry. We thank thee for health and remember the sick. We thank thee for friends and remember the friendless. We thank thee for freedom and remember the enslaved. Amen.
Laura Higbee
Salem Office Administrator