Citizens of the World: A Stoic Podcast for Curious Travelers - Thanksgiving: The True Story Behind The Holiday at the Heart of the American Experience (Encore)

Episode Date: November 22, 2019

Back by popular demand...   Happy Thanksgiving, U.S. listeners! This year about 54 million Americans will travel more than 50 miles during Thanksgiving, and most of these people will be driving, estimates AAA. However, it’s a myth that the day before Thanksgiving is the busiest travel day of the year (that honor actually goes to several weekends throughout the summer). But that’s not the only Thanksgiving myth out there. (Check out these 10 surprising Thanksgiving facts).   Don’t worry, this episode is not about tearing down this revered holiday. Spoiler: Thanksgiving really is a tradition rooted in gratitude and peace. But it’s also a holiday full of surprises that most people don’t know about, which is why I’m happy to share today’s interview with Melanie Kirkpatrick, author of Thanksgiving: The Holiday at the Heart of the American Experience.   We discuss the history of this very American tradition, including why the Pilgrims really came to the New World (it wasn’t to flee religious persecution, if that’s what you’re thinking).   Wherever you’re from, this week I hope you enjoy good food in great company.     I’m your host, Sarah Mikutel, and you can find travel guides and inspiration at  postcardacademy.co Ready to book your trip? Sign up for my newsletter and get your free guide to cheap airfare.    Thank you so much for listening to this show. I know you’re busy and have many listening options, so it means a lot to me that you’re here. You are the best.   This podcast is brought to you by Audible. Not a member yet? Postcard Academy listeners can get a FREE audiobook and a 30-day free trial if you sign up via audibletrial.com/postcard   This podcast is also brought to you by World Nomads. Need simple and flexible travel insurance? Get a cost estimate from World Nomads using their handy calculator at postcardacademy.co/insuranceDo you ever go blank or start rambling when someone puts you on the spot? I created a free Conversation Cheat Sheet with simple formulas you can use so you can respond with clarity, whether you’re in a meeting or just talking with friends.Download it at sarahmikutel.com/blanknomore and start feeling more confident in your conversations today.

Happy Thanksgiving wherever you are in the world. Today, for your commuting pleasure, I am sharing a replay of a Thanksgiving special that I first aired last year. Now, when I travel, I love learning about the history and culture of a place. And when you start to talk to local people, you start swapping stories about traditions and just where you're from. Right now, I'm in the UK. And so sadly, I'm not going to be celebrating Thanksgiving with my family this year. I am going to a wine tasting with a friend, so not a bad runner-up. And I actually mentioned Thanksgiving to this friend on the street the other day and this British guy overheard me. And he said, Thanksgiving, what is this exactly? I've heard of it. But what does it mean? And so I shared a brief version of what you're going to hear in this episode. And one of the things I also told him this, in addition to the history, one of the things that I love about Thanksgiving is that it gives a lot of Americans four days off in a row, which is great because Americans work too much. including me. You can take the girl out of the country, but you can't take the country out of the girl.

I'm working on it, though. So how about we make a little deal this Thanksgiving season? Let's actually rest over these next few days and go a little easy on ourselves. Does that sound good? Okay. Deal. On with the show. Hello from Luca, Italy, and welcome to the Postcard Academy, your weekly travel and culture podcast. I'm your host, Sarah Micatel, and I would like to wish listeners in the U.S. very happy Thanksgiving. This year, about 54 million Americans will travel more than 50 miles during Thanksgiving, and most of those people will be driving according to AAA. However, it's a myth that the day before Thanksgiving is the busiest travel day of the year. That honor actually

goes to several weekends throughout the summer, but that's not the only Thanksgiving myth out there. Don't worry, this episode is not about tearing down this revered holiday. In fact, I will tell you right now that Thanksgiving really is a tradition rooted in gratitude and peace. But it's also a holiday that is full of surprises that most people, Americans and non-Americans alike, don't really know about, which is why I'm happy to share today's interview with Melanie Kirkpatrick, author of Thanksgiving, The Holiday at the Heart of the American Experience. We will discuss the history of this very American tradition, including who the pilgrims were and why they really came to the new world. It wasn't to flee religious persecution if that's what you're thinking.

But first, this episode is sponsored by World Nomads. Are you traveling abroad soon? Travel insurance is a very smart idea. You can get a free cost estimate using the handy insurance calculator on postcardacademy.co slash insurance. And while you're planning for your trip, don't forget your reading and listening material. If you sign up for Audible using the link Audibletrial.com slash postcard, you can get a free audiobook and a 30-day pretrial.

You do not want to be stuck in the car or on the plane with nothing quality to listen to. Happy travels! In most American schools, children participate in a play about Thanksgiving, portraying pilgrims and Native Americans breaking bread together in 1621. And if you grew up in New England as I did, you likely visited Plymouth Plantation, which is a recreation of the Pilgrim's farming and fishing community. In the 17th century English village, you'll find actors portraying the pilgrims and you're encouraged to explore their houses and ask them questions.

And you can also visit the Wampanog home site where they recreated the home of an extended Wampanog family from the 1600s. At this site, Wampanog and other native people are not role-playing, but they're speaking about Native history and culture from a modern perspective, and they're also working on traditional activities like weaving and boat building. It's a really cool place to check out. out. But if you haven't had a chance to visit Plymouth Plantation, you might not have a clear idea of who these native people and English colonists were. What were the pilgrims even doing there? As I hinted before, the idea that they fled religious persecution is not accurate. Here's Melanie. The pilgrims were a group of religious dissenters who dissented from the Church of England. They eventually were persecuted for that. They fled to Holland.

which in the 17th century was about the only country in Europe that had a broad religious freedom. And so they were there for a number of years, and then they saw that their children were really becoming more Dutch than they liked. And they decided that they would move to the new world where they thought they could start anew and have their own community. When we talk about the pilgrims today, we're usually talking about both the saints, also known as separatists, and the strangers in Plymouth. FYI, they didn't call themselves pilgrims. We started calling them that in the 1800s. So as you heard Melanie say, the separatist saints were already enjoying religious freedom in Holland, but they decided to risk shipwreck and pirate attacks crossing the Atlantic because their children were becoming too much like the freewheeling Dutch.

they wanted to maintain their English identity and remain under English rule, just really far away from them so they could worship in their own church. Plus, when it came to work, the Dutch discriminated against the pilgrims who were immigrants and kept them in low-paying labor-intensive jobs. So the pilgrims decided they wanted to go to the new world. On the Mayflower, there were two groups. There were the religious group, the Puritans. And then there were also a group of people who were not as religious. They didn't necessarily follow the Calvinist teachings that the religious members of the community followed. They might have been members of the Church of England.

But they were skilled workers, for the most part, who were looking for a place to make a better life. These were called the strangers. There were the saints and the strangers. The saints were the religious Calvinist people that we think of as seeking, you know, more religious freedom, whereas the strangers were seeking more of freedom to create new and better lives for their families. But they couldn't afford to go there on their own. They had to make a pact with about 70 financial investors in London who created a joint stock company with the Pilgrim. In exchange for some basic supplies and passage on the Mayflower, which was a cargo ship that usually transported wine and cloth, the pilgrims would work for these so-called merchant adventurers.

They'd send them fur and timber and fish and whatever else they harvested, and after seven years, they would all split the assets. That was the plan anyway. But they were all a little unrealistic about the hardship of building a colony from scratch, and they had to renegotiate after the pilgrims accrued massive debt and nearly starved to death. The pilgrims originally planned to settle near New York, but they had a few false starts, and by the time they finally left England, where they picked up those strangers, it was already September and the weather was starting to get rough. Of the 102 passengers on the Mayflower, only 40 of them were separatist saints. The rest were sailing in pursuit of a better life, or the American dream, as we call it today. After 66 days on a dark, cold and damp ship,

the pilgrims and about 30 or so crew members landed in Cape Cod, and they decided to stay. After spending a few weeks exploring the area, they settled in Plymouth on December 16, 1620. Of course, Native American people were already living in the area. The pilgrims didn't interact with them that much in the beginning, but they would not have survived without their help. By the time the first harvest in the New World came about in the autumn of 1621, only half of them were left. And during that period, they had been befriended by the head, Masaswa was his name, of the Wampanoan Confederation of Indians. And the Indians taught the pilgrims how to plant corn. And so corn was a staple after their first harvest.

They also taught them how to plant with the corn beans. And so we think that that was another staple of their diet going forward. And they helped them to fish. They showed them where productive fishing holes were and where they could also find lobsters and clams and oysters. So we think those were on the menu as well for the first Thanksgiving. it wasn't expected that the Native Americans would join them in this harvest feast that we call the first Thanksgiving. But they showed up.

And there were 90 braves, 90 men, and they brought with them three deer, which was a huge amount of meat and should have lasted them three days or more. That first Thanksgiving did last three days with the 90-nake. Native men and 50 or so pilgrims. Remember, half of them had died that first year, and they probably would have all been wiped out had the Native Americans not showed them how to survive. The two groups started out very wary of each other. Pilgrims even buried their dead at night so that the local Native people wouldn't know that they were losing numbers. And while they may still have been cautious of each other by the time that first Thanksgiving rolled around, they had also established a peace pact and friendships. Squanto was a young Native American.

who befriended the pilgrims. And some years before the pilgrims arrived, he had been kidnapped by Europeans who had visited that area, the area of Plymouth, Massachusetts, taken to Europe, where he, taken to London, I believe, first, where he learned enough English and made enough money to then get passage on a ship that was coming back to the new world, a trading ship. And so he managed to come home, which was a great triumph for him.

But then, incredibly, he was kidnapped a second time. And this time he was taken to, I believe it was Spain or Italy and some Catholic monks purchased him from the ship and sheltered him. And eventually he made his way to London, where he booked passage again on a ship coming to the new world. So when the pilgrims arrived, one day, this Native American man walked out of the woods, their settlement and began speaking to them in English. And they were astounded. William Bradford, the governor, referred to him as a messenger from God. They thought, you know, this man had come to

their aid. And indeed, he did. He was very helpful to them in getting settled there and teaching them, how to plant corn and showing them where good fishing and good hunting was. And when he died, they mourned him as a great friend. I can't even imagine how shocking it must have been to the pilgrims when Squanto popped out of nowhere and started speaking English. A lot of us mistakenly think that the pilgrims were the first white people that the Native Americans saw in New England. But French fishermen and tradesmen had been exploring that area since the 1500s. Around 1615, Europeans brought with them infectious disease that killed many natives. In fact, the area where the pilgrims settled had been a tribal settlement until disease wiped out the indigenous people.

Of course, the Native Americans were not one big monolithic group. They belonged to separate tribes that didn't always get along. So the ones with weaker numbers, thanks to European disease, had an incentive to ally themselves. with the pilgrims when they showed up. That's another reason why breaking bread with them carried such significance. There are two first-hand accounts from that first Thanksgiving in Plymouth in 1621. One written by William Bradford, the governor of the Plymouth colony, and one by Edward Winslow, who was a prominent member of Pilgrim Society.

If you visit Plymouth, you can actually see objects owned by the pilgrims, including Bradford's Bible and a portrait of Winslow. You can find this at the Pilgrim Hall Museum, which is the oldest museum in the U.S. In their writings, neither Bradford nor Winslow mentions the word Thanksgiving, because back then, the word Thanksgiving actually meant a religious day to give thanks for something specific like rain during a drought. In 1621, when the colonists and Native Americans sat down together, they were giving general thanks, similar to the way we celebrate Thanksgiving today.

Some point along the way, and it happened first in Connecticut, the governors of the colony or the governors of individual communities decided to give thanks for general blessings, that is, for our everyday blessings. So they would call thanksgivings and announce them in advance that the colony would hold a day of general Thanksgiving. It was often in the fall, but not always. So this happened first in Connecticut, as I said, and then it spread to the other colonies. Massachusetts, or at least Boston, was one of the last to call for a day of general Thanksgiving. And there were ministers there who were skeptical of this idea because they thought if you called a day to give thanks for general blessings, it could trivialize the idea of Thanksgiving.

But eventually they came around and Boston too had a day of general Thanksgiving. What do you do on a day of celebration? You eat and you drink. So a communal meal began to be associated with the holiday, especially toward the end of the 17th century. And certainly as we know, as the years went by, the meal became a very important part, the central part. the central part of Thanksgiving. But for me, that first Thanksgiving celebrates the positive connections that the two groups of people

formed in that first year. What did this first Thanksgiving look like? You've likely seen representations of pilgrims in dark, somber clothes with big buckles on their hats. But they didn't dress like that. If you visit Plymouth Plantation or Pilgrim Hall Museum in Massachusetts,

you'll learn that they dressed in bright colors like blue and violet and green. You might also imagine the Wampanoog men in full feathered Indian headdresses, but that isn't accurate either. A lot of the 19th century paintings of the first Thanksgiving show Native Americans wearing these elaborate headdresses, which were what the Plains Indians wore, but not the New England Indians. They might have had a single feather, but they didn't wear the elaborate headdresses.

that we saw in the tribes out west. We already mentioned that at that first Thanksgiving, those fancy-pants pilgrims were eating oyster and lobster. Just kidding, those foods were not difficult to find and not considered posh at the time. But what else was on the menu? There probably was turkey. One of the two eyewitness accounts mentioned that wild turkey were abundant.

So they probably had turkey. We know they had venison because the Wampanoa, Braves brought with them three deer. And they also had other kinds of shellfish, which were abundant there. They probably had corn, which they certainly had corn, which they would have grown. But it's kind of interesting for an American to think about what they didn't eat. They didn't have apples. Now, apple pie is a staple at Thanksgiving dinners nowadays, but there were no apples in the New World. Eventually, the settlers brought apples with them, and by the end of the 17th century, apples were available. There were no potatoes because potatoes came from South America, not North America,

and they probably did not eat cranberries, even though cranberries were grown in New England. In cranberries, cranberry sauce is a feature of Thanksgiving dinner. But cranberries is a alone are too sour to eat. You have to mix them with something and the pilgrims would not have had sugar with them. Sugar was very expensive. They probably did not bring it with them on the Mayflower. So there might have been squashes. And if there was pumpkin, it would have been stewed more likely, which is the way the Native Americans ate. it. No pumpkin pie because there was no sugar and there was very little flour, if any. Thanksgiving is about more than food, of course. The spirit of the holiday is one of generosity.

We volunteer more. We take up food collections for the poor. We invite friends to dine with us. Fun fact about generosity. Melanie notes in her book that in 2014, the American people donated about $358 billion to charity, most of that coming from individual donors. So Americans are actually the world's most generous people, according to Melanie. Not that it's a competition. The first example I could find historically of Thanksgiving and generosity was sometime in the early 17th century where a little town in Massachusetts specifically called on people to take care of the poor on Thanksgiving Day. But since then, there have been many examples and a long tradition of caring for the poor on that day.

Today, in America, we find many people who either give money to help, make sure that less fortunate people have a good dinner, or they will volunteer to work at food kitchens, or make homemade food. food for the less fortunate among them. Giving Tuesday is the Tuesday after Thanksgiving. It's kind of a counterpoint to Black Friday, which is the Friday after Thanksgiving when is a big shopping day and lots of stores have discounts. On giving Tuesday, the idea is that you stop to give money to your favorite charity. It's what's called the beginning of the giving season in America, that season between Thanksgiving and Christmas when Americans make their, many Americans make their charitable contributions for the year.

In addition to generosity, Thanksgiving is about gratitude, something that the pilgrims practiced every day. They gave thanks all the time for everything. Before and after a meal, during their daily prayers. One thing that I found so interesting in Melanie's book is that the pilgrims, didn't memorize prayers to recite. They considered that to be really inauthentic. One of the differences that the Calvinists, the people who had fled England for Holland and then the United States, one of the differences they had with the Church of England was about prayer. The pilgrims did not like the Book of Common Prayer, which was a group of set prayers.

that the members of the church would say at religious services. And there was a prayer for this and a prayer for that. The pilgrims believed in individual prayer, that instead of reading somebody or reciting somebody else's prayer, you should be speaking to God individually on your own. And there were some even who rejected the Lord's prayer, which is you think of as the center point, prayer of Christianity because it was taught by Jesus. But some pilgrims even rejected that,

saying that you had to use your own words with which to communicate with God. Of course, the pilgrims didn't invent giving thanks. Both Native American tribes and Europeans practice Thanksgiving rituals. And they had other things in common, too. In 1624, the pilgrim Edward Winslow published a book called Good News from New England, which includes details about his friendships and conversations with Native Americans, including the Native American leader, combatants. They had dinner together, and the chief of the village where Winslow was visiting noted that Winslow bowed his head and was silent for a minute before he began to eat. asked him about it through a translator.

And that sparked a conversation about religion. And Winslow told him about the Ten Commandments and the chief with whom he was speaking nodded and said, yes, yes, we believe the same thing. Our religion teaches us the same thing. Perhaps the biggest shock in Melanie's book is that Texas, Virginia, Florida, and Maine all claim that they hosted the first Thanksgiving.

Texas claims that in 1598, a group of Spanish people who had been traveling for months throughout the desert, stopped in San Elyzario, where they rested and peacefully broke bread with Native Americans before moving on. This was a revelation to me when I was researching the history of Thanksgiving for my book, but I guess I shouldn't have been surprised because when European explorers arrived in North America, of course they would have. a religious ceremony of Thanksgiving, which is what happened in Florida and what happened in Texas. And in both cases, there is evidence that there was a meal and that it was celebrated with the Native Americans of those areas, celebrated together with them. So I write about that in my book. And of course, those celebrations didn't take on the significance that the first Thanksgiving between the pilgrims and Native Americans have. But they're, I think, part of the richness of the background of the holiday. And over the years, sometimes there's some humor attached to that.

in the 1990s, the governor of Texas, Anne Richards, who was a feisty character, even issued a proclamation calling the Thanksgiving that took place outside of El Paso, the first Thanksgiving rather than the one that took place in Massachusetts. So there was a lot of good-natured talk between her counterpart. the governor of Massachusetts about that. But I think it's important to remember that, of course, the first Thanksgivings were those called by Native Americans. In 1789, George Washington proclaimed Thanksgiving to be a national holiday, which caused quite a stir in Congress. That year, the very first U.S. Congress met in New York City, which was the seat of the government at that time.

As Melanie notes in her book, they accomplished a tremendous amount in their first six months, including establishing the court system and the departments of state war and treasury, and approving the 10 constitutional amendments that would become the Bill of Rights. Before they broke for September recess, a representative from New Jersey introduced a resolution for the president to proclaim a national day of Thanksgiving to, quote, allow Americans to express gratitude to God for the opportunity peaceably to establish a constitution of government for their safety and happiness. The reason it was controversial was it sparked a debate about presidential power with some members of Congress arguing that the Constitution did not give the president the right to call a national Thanksgiving for two reasons.

One, Thanksgiving was religious and the president should not involve himself in anything having. to do with religion. But second, the other argument was that this was a power that properly belonged to the individual states, not to the federal government. So eventually, Congress, we don't know the exact result of the vote. We know they voted and they decided to go to Washington and then ask him to call a Thanksgiving. Well, Washington did a really smart thing, and it makes you realize what a great politician he was, as well as a great general.

He issued the proclamation, but then he invited the American people to celebrate, and he asked, he wrote, he sent a copy of his proclamation with a cover letter to the governor of every state, and he asked the governors to press. claim that day as a national Thanksgiving. Actually, it wasn't until 1941 that we had legislation that actually made it a federal holiday.

Before that, a president would issue a proclamation naming a day of Thanksgiving, but it wasn't official. Instead, the individual governors would usually, not always, but usually proclaim a Thanksgiving in their state on the date that the president had named. One of the most fascinating people in Melanie's book is Sarah Joseph A Hail, considered the godmother of Thanksgiving. But she was so much more than that. In the chapter dedicated to her, Melanie writes that Sarah was born in 1788 to a father who fought in the American Revolutionary War and a mother who believed in educating her daughters as much as her sons. Sarah's older brother went to Dartmouth College, and he thought it was really unfair that his sister couldn't attend

college as well. So when he came home, he taught her what he learned, including Latin and math and philosophy. After Sarah married, she and her husband would read together every night and study languages and science. Unfortunately, her husband died of pneumonia when Sarah was only 34 and pregnant with their fifth child. Sarah needed money to support her family, and her late husband's friends helped her get a job doing needlework, and she also sold a book of poetry. But her big break came in 1827 when her anti-slavery novel, Northwood, A Tale of New England, became a bestseller. This led her to become editor of a woman's magazine that she grew from a readership of 10,000

to 150,000 monthly paid subscribers, and many more people borrowed copies to read. By the time of the Civil War, Gaudy's Ladybook was the most popular periodical in the U.S. At that time, most American magazines just copied what they saw in England. But Sarah thought that Americans wanted to read about American life. And so she started hiring writers, American writers, like Edgar Allan Poe and Harriet Beecher Stowe. In her personal life, Sarah fought for higher wages and property rights for women. She created the first daycare center for children and the first public playground. She wrote poetry and fiction and even a reference book on women in history.

Fun fact, did you ever sing Mary Had a Little Lamb? Sarah Joseph A.ale wrote that, and she also campaigned for an official Thanksgiving holiday for the entire country. Sarah Joseph A. Hale was the editor of the most popular magazine in the first half of the 19th century, that is, before the Civil War. She was a New Englander, and Thanksgiving was the main holiday of the year. She loved Thanksgiving, and she thought that if everybody around the country could celebrate it on one date, that it would help keep the country united and might forestall war. So she campaigned for Thanksgiving. Her campaign encouraged the individual states to have thanksgivings, which most of them did.

But they would celebrate on different days. So you'd have a situation where one state could celebrate in November or another, maybe even in October, and there even were states that were celebrating at the beginning of December. But in addition to writing about Thanksgiving all the time, she wrote letters to prominent people, including presidents. And it's a testament of her popularity and her celebrity, I guess, that presidents wrote back to her. And we have handwritten letters from presidents Millard Fillmore and others explaining why they did not want to call a national Thanksgiving, usually saying that they thought that was a power that belonged to the individual governors, not the president of the United States. But then finally, Sarah Joseph O'Hale persevered. She wrote to lots of governors.

She wrote to lots of other public figures. And in 1863, Lincoln agreed. He decided it was, I think, a really bold move because the country was at war. And he decided that he would issue a proclamation for a national Thanksgiving. And if you go back and read his proclamation, It's very moving because he talks about all the blessings that America can be grateful for. And then he goes on and asks that everybody in the country celebrate as one. And it's a hopeful message.

He doesn't talk about enemies or specific bad. battles, he makes reference to the war, but he says it's going to be over and we have to come together. I found it a very profoundly hopeful message and offering Americans a vision of peace. So he did this in 1863. There was a Thanksgiving the following year too, and then he was, of course, assassinated. But Johnson, Andrew Johnson, the next president, followed his example, as did every president who has followed. So Lincoln's proclamation is known as the first in and kind of the ancestor of our current Thanksgiving day, because as I said, every president since Lincoln has called for a national Thanksgiving. But as Melton, as Melton,

Melanie mentioned earlier, it wasn't until 1941 that Congress signed into law that Thanksgiving Day is to be held on the fourth Thursday in November. This came after a madcap experiment by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt to change the usual timing of Thanksgiving in the 1930s. Thanksgiving had always been the last Thursday of November since Lincoln. He, Roosevelt thought that he could help boost the economy if he gave more shopping days between Thanksgiving and Christmas. So he changed the date. And this caused a huge national uproar. And half the governors decided to go along with Roosevelt's new date. And the other half said, no, we're traditionalists. We're going to stay with the original last Thursday in November. So for a few years there, Americans celebrated not on the same day, but on two different days.

And finally, in 1941, Roosevelt admitted that he'd made a mistake, that this wasn't helping the economy, and that this was the last year he was going to call for a, he wasn't going to call again for a separate day of Thanksgiving. And Congress agreed on a piece of legislation that would make Thanksgiving the fourth Thursday of every November. And so it has been ever since. Whoa, whoa, whoa. President admitting when they're wrong? Working with Congress in the States? Sharing messages of hope and unity? Let's offer some Thanksgiving prayers to keep this American tradition alive.

Before we go, I would like to touch on some other Thanksgiving traditions that have evolved over the year. years. Perhaps the tradition that has expanded the most globally is Black Friday. Since the Plymouth Plantation venture was funded by merchants expecting to make a buck, perhaps it is not surprising that we now have so many shopping traditions associated with Thanksgiving. We've got Black Friday, small business Saturday, Cyber Monday. Did you ever hear that Black Friday got its name because it's the time of year when the store's finances go from being in the red to in the black? supposedly that is a myth. The name Black Friday, we think, came from Philadelphia in the 1970s.

When there was a football game, I think it was Army Navy, if I'm remembering correctly, played traditionally in Philadelphia on the day after Thanksgiving. And the traffic was terrible. And a newspaper reporter referred to the congestion. and all the bad traffic as Black Friday. Of course, also on the Friday after Thanksgiving, a lot of people are shopping, getting a head start on the Christmas season.

So that name stuck. And over the years, it's now come to refer to the shopping frenzy that takes place on that day. So we can trace the origins of Black Friday back to horrible football traffic. Personally, on Thanksgiving, I would rather watch a holiday movie than sports, but many, many, many people think otherwise. Watching football and playing football on Thanksgiving is a tradition that goes back to the 1800s, at least, maybe even earlier.

American football began in the late 1860s with a game between Princeton and Rutgers. And then on this 1870s, a Thanksgiving day game began to be played in New York City between Princeton and Yuccas. This became a big celebratory event with everybody in New York City. Shopkeepers would decorate their store windows in the school colors, and there was a parade, and so it became a big deal in New York City. And then it caught on, this football game on Thanksgiving Day caught on in other cities. And by the end of the 19th century, there were football games. all around the country. Sometimes, you know, big college games, other time high school games. And it

became a tradition. But there is some evidence that the Wampanoa Native Americans played a game that was similar to football or soccer. So I like to think that maybe even football took place at the very first Thanksgiving in Plymouth. There's no evidence for that, though. While researching her book, Melanie visited a New York City high school for students who immigrated to the U.S. It's called Newcomers High, and these kids sound so inspiring. It's a public high school, and kids who are new to the country, and maybe their English skills aren't good enough to go to a regular public high school. Instead, they go to Newcomers High School for a year or two where they learn English and also follow the regular curriculum.

But I spent a day at the high school, and these kids were amazing. I asked them what Thanksgiving meant to them. It was a few days, a couple of weeks before Thanksgiving. And for most of them, it was going to be their first Thanksgiving. For a few, it was going to be their second Thanksgiving. And these young people really identified with the pilgrims. One boy told me that he was from Tibet. Tibet is a country that hasn't existed since China invaded in 1950. And he said in, so China, it's now part of China. And he said in China, I couldn't practice my religion freely. So my family came to this country. And after he finished speaking, a girl from Egypt spoke up and said, my family are cops. That's a form of Christianity. And in Egypt, we couldn't practice Christianity freely. So that's why we came to New York. So, and then there were other kids who talked about coming here so that their families could have better lives. A girl from Haiti spoke about that. So you hear these kids in the 21st century.

talking in a way that the pilgrims would have spoken almost 400 years ago about why they came to the new world. Decades after the first Thanksgiving, relations between the English settlers and the Native Americans turned deadly. And there are some people today who consider Thanksgiving a day of mourning because of the later history when Native Americans were killed and driven off their land. This is a true and tragic part of America's past, and it needs to be remembered. But it's also true that the first Thanksgiving that we celebrate today actually is rooted in peace and respect. Centuries later, as we figuratively tear ourselves apart over differences on social media, let's take some time to reflect on the Pilgrimigration story, how they were welcomed, and how they worked with America's need of people to survive.

Look back to the time of the first Thanksgiving and the amity, the peace, the companionship that took place at that time. And remember that the ghosts of the pilgrims and the Indians are sitting around our Thanksgiving table today. I also think in this polarized political and cultural age that we live in here in America, I think it's also good to look back to 1863, which is. is the time of the first in the modern day Thanksgivings. And remember that we've gone through difficult times before and nothing that even has come close to fighting a civil war, which was

what we were engaged in in 1863. And it's important to focus on Thanksgiving Day on what unites us, not on what divides us. Thank you to my guest, Melanie Kirkpatrick. You can find her book Thanksgiving, The Holiday at the Heart of the American Experience, in the usual places online, at Barnes & Noble, and at other bookstores. Learn more about Melanie at her website, Melanie Kirkpatrick.com. Thank you for listening to this episode. If you like what you heard, please subscribe and share this episode with a friend. That is the best way to support and grow the show. That's for now, wherever you're from, this week, I hope you can enjoy good food and great company. Let's turn off the TV, switch off our phones, and count our blessings.

Thanks for listening and have you beautiful week wherever you are. Do you ever go blank or start rambling when someone puts you on the spot? I created a free conversation sheet sheet with simple formulas that you can use so you can respond with clarity, whether you're in a meeting or just talking with friends. Download it at sarah micotel.com slash blank no more.