Wainscott community notes, November 26

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In Wainscott—indeed, throughout East Hampton—the proliferation of wild turkey families in recent years has been a popular topic of conversation. That the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation has even authorized a five-day turkey hunt, which ends today, has only increased the turkey talk. My property is home to one large family, termed by author James Lipton “a rafter of turkeys.” Watching these magnificent creatures, which Benjamin Franklin proposed as America’s national bird, last year prompted me to research the origins of Thanksgiving, long associated with the turkey. So tomorrow, most of the ovens of America will be filled with these big birds and the other traditional Thanksgiving foods as we celebrate what many describe as their favorite holiday.

Google took me immediately to a then-new book, “Thanksgiving: The True Story,” by Penny Colman. Ms. Colman, by rare coincidence, is a childhood friend whom I had neither seen nor spoken to in many years. Her handsome, beautifully illustrated, and fascinating book, appropriate for all ages, not only reunited me with her but provided the bulk of this column. She has graciously allowed me to quote generously from her historically interesting work. I offer it again this year; it gives, I think, a tidy little history.

There are 12 competing claims for the location of the “first” Thanksgiving. They date from 1541, in Palo Duro Canyon in Texas, to 1631 in Boston, where a service of thanksgiving heralded the arrival of desperately needed supplies. In between are claims from Florida (two), Virginia (two), Maine (one), another from Texas, and four more from Massachusetts. None, however, is the historical origin of the Thanksgiving we celebrate today.

The antecedents for the Thanksgiving that we celebrate today are two very old traditions and the relentless efforts of a proper Victorian woman. She, our Thanksgiving godmother, was Sarah Josepha Hale, an influential magazine editor in the 1800s and the author of the nursery rhyme “Mary Had a Little Lamb.” Sarah Hale single-handedly conducted a 40-year campaign to establish Thanksgiving as a national holiday.

She wrote letters to Presidents Taylor, Fillmore, Pierce, and Buchanan—none of which obtained results. It was Hale’s missive to Abraham Lincoln which persuaded him, in 1863, to support legislation establishing a national holiday of thanksgiving. Presidents from George Washington on, however, actually had proclaimed “days of thanksgiving” for numerous reasons, many of them not associated with our present-day holiday.

It took nearly eight decades after Hale’s success with President Lincoln for Congress to make Thanksgiving Day a legal national holiday. By 1939 there were two Thanksgiving Days in America. Leading up to that time, various Congresses had declared a “day of thanksgiving” on both the last Thursday of November and the fourth Thursday. Naturally, some years had five Thursdays in November, thus the confusion and dispute. It took an act of Congress to settle the issue of when to celebrate Thanksgiving—on the last or on the fourth Thursday in November. The fourth Thursday won out in December, 1941, when, under Franklin Roosevelt, leading a country newly at war, a joint resolution by Congress officially established Thanksgiving as a national holiday. And here, more facts, tidbits, and folklore from Penny Colman’s book.

The traditional “Pilgrim and Indian” story began to emerge in the popular culture in the late 1890s and was used to Americanize millions of immigrants during the early 1900s. Its roots lay in the 1621 feast at Plymouth Colony (William Bradford, Squanto, and the Wampanoag people will be remembered) and various Colonial-era harvest feasts of that time.

Americans used to be warned against gluttony on Thanksgiving Day.

George Richards, the owner of a football team named the Spartans, that he renamed the Lions and moved to Detroit, scheduled the first professional football game played on Thanksgiving Day in 1934.

From the late 1700s to the late 1800s, fantasticals, or groups of men wearing outlandish costumes, marched through the streets of New York City and parts of Pennsylvania on Thanksgiving morning.

The first parade on Thanksgiving Day was held in 1920 by Gimbels department store in Philadelphia to jump-start the Christmas shopping season.

Since 1970, many Native Americans have held a “Day of Mourning” on Thanksgiving in Plymouth, Massachusetts, near the statue of Massasoit, the sachem, or leader, of the Wampanoag.

Many Americans feature ethnic foods on the Thanksgiving menu, along with the traditional turkey, stuffing, and cranberries.

In the mid-1800s, celery was considered a staple of the Thanksgiving feast and was served in a celery glass, a special holder that was prominently displayed on the table.