Ah
Thanksgiving the time for you and your family to get together for the one time of the year remember why you hate them and
massively overeat on turkey stuffing and various other foods
However, this wasn't how Thanksgiving always was least. I'd hope so
Otherwise, this is a very stupid holiday
But how is such a holiday come into being and what is the history behind it in this video?
We'll be looking at the history of Thanksgiving
Before we get started
The holiday has a variety of controversy in origins and what it does actually represent
I won't be covering those
controversies in this video as it be something that would require a video onto itself and one with
Significantly more detailed to fully do justice
This is simply going to be a quick overview of the holidays origins
The origins of Thanksgiving were largely a religious one and had the sort of common practice across the world for many centuries
Giving thanks to a God following a successful large harvest victories in battle and of droughts, etc
Or pretty common and many religious days were proclaimed to continue in pleasing of their saints
In North America, this was practiced by not only the early colonizers, but also the native inhabitants
Many native cultures had a long-established radition of expressing gratitude by sharing or giving away to struggling
individuals
The first recorded Thanksgiving in the American colonies
Occurred back in the mid 16th century by both the Spanish and French in the region the English colony of Jamestown
Regularly had them starting in 1607. But the one in 1621 by the pilgrims is the most well-known example
Albeit, very whitewashed and acts as the basis of the Thanksgiving that we have today
The pilgrims has sailed in land that once was held by the pox to set tribe a tribe
That was largely wiped out due to smallpox and other European illnesses by the early 1600s
Those who remained were all kidnapped and sold the slaves back in Europe or acted as slaves in the West Indies
by
1622 only one such man from the tribe still lived an
individual named tus quantum on otherwise known as Squanto he had been kidnapped by English sailors in
1614 and sold as a slave back in Spain
He later managed to buy his freedom
Where he went to England as a ship builder and later matched her turn to the new world in
1619
There he discovered that his tribe had been wiped out by an epidemic
So he stood as the last pax to set when the Mayflower landed in 1620
Squanto worked to broker peaceful relations between the pilgrims and the local continents a native tribe that was housed all along
Massachusetts and Rhode Island and played a major part in getting them to meet in early
1621 he then lived with the pilgrims for 20 months acting as a translator guide and advisor
He introduced the settlers to the fur trade and taught them how to sow and fertilize native crops
Which proved vital since the seeds which the pilgrims had brought from England largely failed?
Later Squanto was relied on to pilot a ship of settlers on a trading expedition around Cape Cod and through danger Schultz
During that voyage, however Squanto contracted smallpox, which would eventually kill him days later
With the knowledge left to them the pilgrims celebrated at Plymouth for three days after the first harvest in 1621
With members of the wool panic tribe joining in as well
the specific date of this isn't exactly known however, many have speculated that it was around September the 29th in
Combination with Michaelmas a celebration of st. Michael's victory over Satan in the war of Heaven
Thus it was deemed a religious holiday sanctioned by the church to the Puritans a true
Thanksgiving was a day of prayer and pious humiliation begging God for his special Providence
auspicious events such as the son ending of a war drought or pestilence might
Inspire a Thanksgiving proclamation. It was very much like having an extra Sabbath during the week
No, no, no, not that kind of Sabbath
Vasin Thanksgivings never fell on a Sunday and they were largely sanctioned by the church
It wouldn't be until two years later in 1623
That the governor of the colony William Bradford called for a Thanksgiving
making it a civil tradition in New England it wouldn't be until
1637 though that the first Thanksgiving Day was proclaimed by the then
Massachusetts governor John winter throat he proclaimed such a
Thanksgiving to celebrate the safe return of a band of armed hunters all colonial volunteers
They had just returned from the journey to what is now Mystic, Connecticut
Where they massacred 700 Piqua natives. Yeah, that's a bit of a trend and every Thanksgiving hence a lot of the controversy
during the Revolutionary War
many national Thanksgivings were proclaimed in the colonies the first being for the British defeat at Saratoga from
1774 to
1789 the governing body of the u.s
issued many things given proclamations and later be
continued by presidents Washington and Adams during their 10 years on generally of the 1st of
1795
Washington proclaimed a Thanksgiving Day to be observed on Thursday, February the 19th
And from that point on it was to be proclaimed every year instead of being a set holiday
John Adams declare Thanksgiving in
1798 and 99 but Thomas Jefferson was a deist and a skeptic of the idea of divine intervention
So he did not declare any Thanksgiving days during his presidency
James Madison renewed the tradition in
1814 in response to a resolution of Congress and declare - in 1815 neither in the autumn
Instead many states governors proclaimed the day of Thanksgiving and many of them
Would be at separate times of the year or even multiple ones during the year and by 1850
Almost every state and territory had their own Thanksgivings that they themselves proclaimed
Many people felt that this family holiday should be a national celebration
Especially Sarah Josepha Holly the influential editor of the woman's magazine could be ladies book in
1827 she became it a campaign to reinstate the holiday after the model of the first presidents
She publicly petitioned several presidents to make it an annual event
Holly's efforts finally succeeded in 1863
When she was able to convince President Lincoln that a national Thanksgiving might serve to unite a war-torn
nation Lincoln declared two national Thanksgivings that year one for August the 6th South Morang the victory at Gettysburg and the
Second for the last Thursday in November neither Lincoln nor his successors
however
Made the holiday a fixed annual event a president still had to proclaim Thanksgiving each year and the last Thursday in November
Became the customary date which was held by a de facto
holiday known as evacuation day would celebrate the bridge withdrawal from the United States during the
Revolution and there stayed for some time from this time as well is the somewhat comical
pardoning of a turkey by the US president as
One of Lincoln's sons pleaded with him that the turkey had any right to life as anyone else
Thus Lincoln pardoned the lovely bird and likely ate in a week. Later
the Pilgrims and the Juana pod were not particularly identified with Thanksgiving until about
1900 though interest in the pilgrims as a historic figures began shortly before the American Revolution
with the publication of Henry Watts worth longfellows
Best-selling poem the courtship of Myles Standish and the recovery of governor. Bradford's lost manuscripts of Plymouth Plantation
Public interest in the pilgrims and grew just as Thanksgiving became nationally important until the third quarter of the 19th century
music literature and popular art
Concentrated on the pilgrims landing at Plymouth Rock and their first encounters with the native people on Cape Cod
after 1890
representations of the Pilgrims and the POG began to reflect a shift in interest to the
1621 harvest celebration by the beginning of the 20th century
The Pilgrims and the Thanksgiving holiday were used to teach children about American freedom and had it be good citizens
Which to Americans meant slaughtering natives each November in classrooms across the country
students participated in Thanksgiving pageants sang songs about
Thanksgivings and built log cabins to represent the homes of the pilgrims
Thus the overturn window of the Thanksgiving holiday started to shift in
1939
President Franklin Roosevelt changed the Thanksgiving holiday to that of the second to last Thursday in November
He had hoped that doing so would grape merchants more time to sell goods for
Christmas and boost the nation's somewhat out of the Great Depression at the time
it was deemed inappropriate to advertise for Christmas before Thanksgiving and damn only if that was true now and
So Roosevelt thought that giving them an extra week would aid in money passing through the economy
But this was hated so much by sections of the public that 18 states refused the change and the law was changed back
to the last Thursday in
1941
Congress were then fixed the holiday as the force Thursday of November
which once every seven years would be the second to last for the month as
The country became more urban and family members began to live further apart
Thanksgiving became a time to gather together
The holiday moved away from which religious roots to allow immigrants of every background to participate in a common tradition
Thanksgiving Day football games beginning with Yale versus Princeton and
1876
Enabled fans to add some rottenness to the holiday in the late 1800s parades of costumed revelers
Became common and in 1920 Gimbels department store in Philadelphia
Staged a parade of about 50 people with Santa Claus at the rare of the session
since 1924 the annual Macy's parade in New York City has continued through tradition and
Today is important holiday to some by the tradition to virtually everyone in the United States
So one of the many tales of Thanksgiving finally comes to an end. I
Hope you enjoyed the brief look into yet another of the American holidays
If there's a topic that you would like me to cover in the future
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