November is a waiting game. A darker, colder October. When all the leaves have fallen, and there is too much sky but too little sun. You can tell a lot about a person by how they pass the last few weeks before winter. Some go quiet like the Earth. Secure in the belief that they gave it their best, and resting up to try again next year. Others regard the impoverished landscape and 3 PM sunsets with a grim satisfaction. And it is at this moment of final preparation for what lies ahead that we turn our hearts to thanksgiving.
Virginians try to lay claim to the first American Thanksgiving by some obscure event in history. Do not believe it. Thanksgiving is and always has been a New England thing. In 1621 English Pilgrims and Wampanoag Indians shared a harvest feast at Plymouth colony in Massachusetts. It lasted three days. Their second Thanksgiving in 1623 celebrated the end of a long drought. In time days of fasting and thanksgiving became common practice among New England settlements.
Several Northeastern states adopted Thanksgiving holidays in the early 19th century. Though all on different days. But the tradition was not well known in the South. In fact, it was a New Hampshire native writer Sarah Josepha Hale, who campaigned for a national holiday. Beginning in 1827 she published many editorials and wrote governors, senators, and presidents. Finally in 1863 at the height of the Civil War, Lincoln proclaimed the final Thursday in November to be Thanksgiving.
All this earned Hale the nickname of the "Mother of Thanksgiving." Even what we eat on the day began with her. She wrote an entire chapter of her novel Northwood on Thanksgiving in New England. The idea of a massive feast, with every kind of animal, but turkey at the center of it all is hers. Sauce made from cranberries grown in the region's bogs. Succotash the name for which comes from the Narragansett language. Even pumpkin pie came about as a way for early colonists to use something they had a lot of. Thanksgiving is a New England thing.
But giving thanks is, or should be, a universal thing. America is the greatest country on Earth, so it makes sense for it to have an entire day to give thanks. To not take things for granted for once but to take them with gratitude. To not only count our blessings but to share them as well. Everyone wants community. But no one wants to do the work. So, we should treat our gratitude like a currency that we can only spend on others. Hosting events, feeding people, telling stories, and keeping conversations going. Finding joy in bestowing little blessings.
In that spirit let me talk about something I am grateful for. This morning The Country Gentleman hit 1,000 subscribers. What started out as a way for me to scratch my own itch, writing the kind of things I want to read but could not find, has grown into a kind of community of its own. A literary small town. I am so humbled to have you all as good country neighbors. Expect the quality and the length of posts to continue to improve. And to meet new neighbors as I bring in guest posts from people you should know. There is much more to come.