The Lighthouse Keeper
BY DANIEL W. DRAKE
How can it be that Thanksgiving is upon us once again? It doesn't seem possible that a year has gone by since the last turkey was carved and most of us ate much more than was necessary, or even sensible.

Why do we celebrate with a board laden with such goodies that when the meal is done, we are the ones groaning? How did the Thanksgiving tradition come to be?

Certainly, there are grounds for laying the practice on the tables of the Pilgrims. They invited the neighboring Wampanoag to a thanksgiving celebration, or really a harvest festival, in 1621 when the first crops from their new land were safely in their cellars and sheds. (Nat Philbrick's "Mayflower" contains a complete account of this event.)

Beyond that, it is conventional wisdom that the custom of Thanksgiving, and the accompanying meal, was quickly adopted throughout the colonies and - officially or not - has been a part of American tradition virtually since day one, as it were. And despite the fact that some argue that religious observances played a much greater role than feasting in the early New England harvest celebrations, it is the tradition of feasting to celebrating the bounty which has survived.

Did the Thanksgiving tradition really start with the Pilgrims? Well, probably. But, it's not that simple.

After a year off because of a drought, the Pilgrims hosted a second celebration in 1623. Thereafter, the custom apparently receded in front of a tide of hostility between the newcomers and their neighbors. It wasn't until 1680 that Thanksgiving became a formalized annual holiday in the Massachusetts Bay colony.

Connecticut began an official, annual, Thanksgiving observance in 1647 - well ahead of Massachusetts. Otherwise, the observance of Thanksgiving throughout the colonies, and later the states, was sporadic until the mid-nineteenth century.

The Continental Congress declared days of thanksgiving throughout the Revolutionary War. After that, various Presidents sporadically proclaimed Thanksgivings when they, or the country, had had a good day. By 1858, the governors of 25 states were proclaiming annual Thanksgiving Days and in 1863, Abraham Lincoln made it a national event.

More than 20 years ago, we decided we wanted to do something different for Thanksgiving. The family went to Williamsburg to instill in the children some knowledge of the history of a part of the country with which they were not familiar and to see how Thanksgiving was celebrated in colonial times.

At the tavern on the green in Colonial Williamsburg where a reservation had been made many weeks in advance, there was no sign of Thanksgiving. There was plenty of ham and fried chicken offered as the fare, along with corn bread and black-eyed peas and other respectable trappings of fine southern cuisine. Turkey? Cranberry sauce? Pumpkin pie? No, no, sorry! What a shock!

In response to our incredulous inquiries, we were told with certainty that Thanksgiving was a Northern tradition and held no truck in colonial Virginia. To reinforce the adamancy of the argument, it was noted that Thanksgiving became a formal holiday by dint of President Lincoln. Enough said. No turkey, no fixin's.

The experience blended well into the historygathering motivation for the trip. It was the children's first exposure to the concept of the War of Northern Aggression.

Bruised and chagrined by the experience, the story of how Thanksgiving was a Johnny-comelately, Yankee thing has become a bit of family lore. Only just this week has that lore come into question. For reasons already forgotten, the Wikipedia online encyclopedia was consulted. The information we stumbled over can only be described as shocking. By reinforcing the point that the Pilgrims' thanksgiving was only a sometime thing, one gets food for thought as to why they get all the credit. More to the point of the family story, the new information rocks the boat of those smug pseudo-colonials who so lightly dismissed the occasion of Thanksgiving as belonging to someone.

The encyclopedia cuts right to the chase. Before turning to the Pilgrims, it says, "The first Official thanksgiving was held in the Virginia Colony on December 4, 1619 ..., where celebrations are held each year in November." Just as it had with its settlements, Virginia beat Massachusetts to the punch with its first harvest celebration. Why was that not claimed in Williamsburg? We can only speculate as to the reasons, but we can't help but observe that the Virginians seem to have lost a great opportunity to trumpet another first.

To the second point about who started Thanksgiving as an official national thing, it seems that Presidents Washington, Jefferson and Madison - every one a fine Virginia gentlemen the last time I looked - all, at one time or another proclaimed national Thanksgiving days. The fact that they couldn't get their acts together to make it a regular thing only gave Lincoln the opportunity to get the credit a few years later.

It is reported that even prior to the animosities which gave rise to the Civil War, there was some resistance in the South to the idea of a formal Thanksgiving day, because it was "... a relic of Puritan bigotry." Maybe that perception was the real truth behind what we heard in Williamsburg, because otherwise, as it turns out, the facts don't bear out the explanations we were given.

Who cares if they don't serve Thanksgiving dinner in Colonial Williamsburg? Does anyone really care that Thanksgiving Day is no longer really a harvest festival but a day of national self-congratulation over a battle won or, in an off year, just a good day to eat a lot. Is there a difference? It really doesn't matter

The great thing is that the Thanksgiving tradition survives, even as the lore surrounding it comes and goes. I am sorry that I no longer have my own personal bit of Americana to share, but, it was a good story while it lasted. Apparently thanks to the Pilgrims and others, the tradition remains that I can eat and overeat all I want right here at home, amid family and friends, and enjoy every mouthful.

And when the feast is over, as I settle uncomfortably on the couch in front of a football game, I can envision a conversation that might take place some years from now. A child looks over at his grandfather at the end of a great Thanksgiving meal and says, "Pops, why did they used to call this 'NFLDay'?"

And the old man answers, "Well before that, they called it Macy's Day, but all these names and stories come and go. Just enjoy it as it is. Have a great Thanksgiving!"

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