Tough Thanksgivings – A Brief History and Some Perspective
We’re about to have Thanksgiving while a raging pandemic disrupts our holiday season. For some perspective, I picked a few Thanksgivings from history to help us deal with it.
We’re about to have Thanksgiving while a raging pandemic infects our fellow citizens and disrupts our holiday season.
During more normal years we listen to people complaining about family gatherings during the holidays. It has become just as common as stuffing or pumpkin pie.
While being fed more than adequately, families either tolerate each other or dwell on things like Uncle Art’s drinking problem, Cousin Kenny’s gambling issues or why sister-in-law Becky only likes dating married men. Perhaps 2020 will make people reflect on their tense family Thanksgivings of years past and maybe even miss them.
In order to put things in perspective for this Thanksgiving, I picked a few Thanksgivings from history to help put things in perspective.
1918
Thanksgiving, 2020, will be the first major holiday during a pandemic in over a hundred years. During 1918, the first year of Spanish Flu, more than 290,000 Americans died of illness between September and December. October was the worst with an estimated 195,000 American deaths. Canada, which traditionally celebrates Thanksgiving in October, postponed their holiday to December.
As is likely happening right now, cases surged during the Thanksgiving holiday season. World War I had just ended and the atmosphere was one of celebration, but due to the pandemic some cities cancelled Thanksgiving altogether.
The pandemic came to an end by the summer of 1919. There was no vaccine, those that were infected either died or developed immunity. In the end, the Spanish Flu infected roughly 500 million people around the world and killed an estimated 20 million to 50 million people, including about 675,000 Americans.
Hopefully having learned lessons from the Spanish Flu and 1918, this year’s gatherings should be smaller than usual. No doubt it will be the worst Thanksgiving since what eventually became known as the first Thanksgiving almost exactly 400 years ago while another pandemic spread.
1621
The details are sketchy but we know that the Mayflower brought the Pilgrims to North America from Plymouth, England, in 1620. They settled in and colonized what is now Plymouth, Massachusetts.
In 1621, these immigrants celebrated their harvest with a multi-day gathering that was also attended by members of the Native American Wampanoag tribe. This event was eventually called Thanksgiving in the 1830s and made an official holiday in 1863, as part of President Abraham Lincoln celebration of Civil War victories.
The theories behind why the Native Americans were in attendance range from showing up to ask why they were being shot at, coincidentally celebrating their harvest and joining in the fun, or actually being invited as guests.
At the time the Wampanoag were suffering from an epidemic that decimated their population and villages. The disease was attributed to Weil's disease (leptospirosis), a form of bacterial infection carried by animals and most commonly rats, most likely rat feces or rat urine. The rats were inadvertently transported to North America on explorers’ ships and nearly wiped out the Wampanoag. Since the first Thanksgiving, the Wampanoag have treated it as a day of mourning because of the deaths during that harvest and the centuries of Native American murder and removal policies that followed.
Even as they were suffering in 1621, the Wampanoag brought most of the food. There was no turkey, stuffing, or pumpkin pie, the menu included venison and shellfish. There were no potato crops, hence no mashed potatoes, and whether or not there were edible cranberries remains a mystery.
Paintings depicting pilgrims serving turkey and pumpkin pie to a scattering of Native American guests are false, the Native Americans actually outnumbered the Pilgrims about two-to-one.
When you find yourself complaining because you couldn’t travel this year, consider a Thanksgiving where your people are dying from disease, you make and bring the food, and your hosts will soon either kill you or move you off your land.
1942
Americans were fighting in World War II and most of the country was contributing to the war effort. Rationing had begun and there were shortages of meat and dairy forcing families to deviate from the traditional Thanksgiving meal. Travel was restricted and spices were scarce as many came from international areas conquered by the Japanese.
Even the Thanksgiving date was disrupted. A few years earlier in 1939, the business community asked President Franklin D. Roosevelt (FDR) to move Thanksgiving to the third Thursday in November to extend the Christmas Shopping season, otherwise Thanksgiving would have fallen on November 30th that year.
FDR changed Thanksgiving to the third Thursday of November and the first Black Friday (shopping) was born. This hugely controversial and unpopular decision led to 32 states adopting the earlier date while 16 refused to do so. In 1939, 1940, and 1941, two Thanksgiving dates were celebrated, depending on your state of residence.
The original 4th Thursday Thanksgiving date was nicknamed “Republican Thanksgiving” and the new 3rd Thursday Thanksgiving date was labeled “Democrat Thanksgiving” or “Franksgiving.”
FDR acknowledged that the 3rd Thursday Thanksgiving, or “Franksgiving”, had no impact on retail sales. The House of Representatives approved a bill moving Thanksgiving back to the last Thursday of November. The Senate amended it on December 9, 1941, one day after the US declaration of war on Japan after the attack on Pearl Harbor, to officially make the holiday on the fourth Thursday in November. This law would address years with five-Thursday Novembers as had happened in 1939. The president signed the legislation on December 26, 1941, and in 1942 order was restored. Our tax dollars at work!
The WWII years of 1943 and 1944 led to more challenges as meat, cheese, butter, canned, and processed foods were rationed. Those preparing Thanksgiving meals now had to ration stamps for the holiday and substitute with alternative ingredients. Turkey became scarce during Thanksgiving as many were being shipped overseas to take the comforts of home to service men and women overseas.
When you feel melancholy because the family couldn’t get together this year, imagine not having a turkey at Thanksgiving, having empty seats at the table and worrying about a loved one off at war.
1963
“Tonight, on this Thanksgiving, I come before you to ask your help, to ask your strength, to ask your prayers that God may guard this Republic and guide my every labor,” said President Lyndon Baines Johnson (LBJ). “All of us have lived through seven days that none of us will ever forget. We are not given the divine wisdom to answer why this has been, but we are given the human duty of determining what is to be, what is to be for America, for the world, for the cause we lead, for all the hopes that live in our hearts.”
The nation was grieving and in shock as President John F. Kennedy (JFK) was assassinated six days earlier on November 22, 1963. Further, the country was confused as Lee Harvey Oswald, the accused shooter was assassinated on November 24, 1963. It was a sad, somber, and confusing Thanksgiving with only the JFK assassination and subsequent events being discussed over the holiday meal.
LBJ was on his sixth full day of his presidency as a sad and confused country proceeded with Thanksgiving. The only twist to the somber meal was the possible addition of green bean casseroles which were introduced around this time as part of ads for Campbell’s Cream of Mushroom soup. Corporate America was making its way to the Thanksgiving table.
2020
This Thanksgiving will be strange and difficult but not exceptional based on our history of tough Thanksgivings.
“As cases continue to increase rapidly across the United States, the safest way to celebrate Thanksgiving is to celebrate at home with the people you live with. Gatherings with family and friends who do not live with you can increase the chances of getting or spreading COVID-19 or the flu.” – CDC Website
It will be difficult for families to keep children apart from grandparents and extended family and to not travel to see friends and love ones. COVID-19 cases continue to spike, yet families are trying to navigate how to continue their Thanksgiving traditions instead of just keeping the holiday to just immediate family. It is an awful end to an awful year.
One way of dealing with Thanksgiving safely this year, instead of losing our minds, will be to immerse ourselves in the things we can still do. Whether it’s cooking the turkey a new way, baking a pie instead of buying one, or starting Christmas decorations early, we can find ways to keep things positive. We can also take a look back at history to see that we got through similar and even darker times.
In the true spirit of Thanksgiving we can take time to value each other and the more normal years. My Thanksgiving will include slow cooking a turkey, enjoying the loved ones around me while thinking about loved ones who are away, and being thankful we are at peace.