Before next week’s tree lighting, Healdsburg Plaza quietly awaits the holiday season. A special gathering place for residents and visitors, the Plaza helps define our beautiful town. It provides a sense of place, gathering and belonging. Thanksgiving helps do that for our nation. Gathering at family tables in every state, city, town, farmhouse or forest cabin to give thanks and gather a sense of belonging, togetherness and gratefulness.
The early settlers handed down this celebration to us, and President Abraham Lincoln enshrined it as an American holiday as unique and as great as he is recognized to be. The historical context is that early American settlers in Virginia in 1619 and in Massachusetts in 1621 celebrated our first “thanksgivings.”
Yes, there were two beginnings. In Virginia, 38 settlers on the “Margaret” arrived after a rough 10 weeks at sea. They followed the instructions of the Virginia Company of London to celebrate with a “thanksgiving” expressing gratefulness for a safe crossing.
More well known is the story of the Massachusetts settlers’ fall harvest celebrated with the Wampanoag and Massasoit tribes. Approximately 90 Native Americans celebrated during three days of feasting. Puritans were grateful for the native tribes’ generosity in sharing seeds and planting techniques enabling a bountiful harvest which saw them through winter. The joy and bounty of a successful harvest was shared.
Fun Facts: Thanksgiving is celebrated on the fourth Thursday in November in the U.S., and on the second Monday of October in Canada. In the U.S., the date of Thanksgiving varied by state until it was proclaimed a federal holiday on the last Thursday of November by Abraham Lincoln in 1863. Lincoln’s proclamation was preceded by a 40-year letter-writing campaign by Sara Hale advocating official status for a Thanksgiving Day. Sara Hale is the author of the poem, “Mary Had a Little Lamb.”
Macy’s began hosting its famous Thanksgiving Day Parade in 1924, which many incorrectly refer to as the Macy’s Day Parade. Early parades featured real animals from the Central Park Zoo until they were replaced with balloons in 1927.
Arlo Guthrie’s song, “Alice’s Restaurant,” celebrates a very different Massachusetts Thanksgiving story. Written in 1967, the song is 18.5 minutes long. It went platinum, selling over 1 million copies. Playing the song on Thanksgiving is a family tradition made easier with the internet.
The subject of the song, Alice Brock, died last week at the age of 83.
