HAPPY THANKSGIVING from Everyone at Dvorak Uncensored.
Thanksgiving Proclamation by Abraham Lincoln — I’m always amused by the cock and bull story about Thanksgiving being about Pilgrims, maize, turkeys and Indians when the holiday stems from an Abe Lincoln proclamation at the behest of a magazine editor. The road to today’s Thanksgiving has had a rocky road, in fact.
I’m not sure when the baloney about Pilgrims and Indians actually took hold as folklore, but I find it offensive that it is taught in schools as fact..
That said, who is complaining about days off? And I do like a good turkey and gladly spend the extra money for a real old-fashioned bird with real flavor. A great turkey actually tastes more like pheasant and does not have that exaggerated turkey flavor you get from commercial birds. I’m convinced that the only reason that people are deep fat frying these birds nowadays is to minimize that obnoxious taste only recently bred into the birds.
This is the proclamation which set the precedent for America’s national day of Thanksgiving. During his administration, President Lincoln issued many orders like this. For example, on November 28, 1861, he ordered government departments closed for a local day of thanksgiving.
The holiday we know today as Thanksgiving was recommended to Lincoln by Sarah Josepha Hale, a prominent magazine editor. Her letters to Lincoln urged him to have the “day of our annual Thanksgiving made a National and fixed Union Festival.” The document below sets apart the last Thursday of November “as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise.”
According to an April 1, 1864 letter from John Nicolay, one of Lincoln’s secretaries, this document was written by Secretary of State William Seward, and the original was in his handwriting. Fellow Cabinet member Gideon Welles recorded in his diary on October 3 that he complimented Seward on his work. A year later, the manuscript was sold to benefit Union troops and since then has disappeared.
Oh, and I apparently bitched about this last year with a snarky, but well-researched piece on the various iterations of Thanksgiving.
Happy Thanksgiving my American friends 🙂 Enjoy your Tofurky!
Hey Mr. D, OK you old crank, shut up an eat your turkey, you ingrate! Hey I’ve lived in quite a few places and let me tell you something, traditions are what make one place different from another. OK so it’s based on a cock and bull story, almost all traditions are, so what. There are damn few decent traditions left in America with all those shiftless idiots trying to legislate ‘political correctness’. The end result is going to be a nation without traditions, and that’s the same as a nation without culture.
LETS SEE,
1. Those that came over, were ..
Puritan, Thieves, persecuted, and running from Britain. They were NOT Protestants or catholic, THOSe are the ones they were RUNNING FROM..
2. the FIRST Harvest was BAD..and the Indians, HELP THEM OUT..THEN the Indians went South for the winter.
3. ALLOT of people died during that winter.
4. the pilgrims were NOT the first. ALLOT of companies sent settlements over to grow TOBACCO, and other CROPS, for EXPORT to england. 99% of them failed as they DIDNT grow crops for FOOOOOD, or not enough. they dint have TIME to set up farms. THEY wanted EXPORTS..
Otherwise..
Have a good day off, and see you friday(SUCK).
Thank you Mr. Lincoln – you codified a religious practice and turned it into a secular one. But it had to be done – there aren’t enough national holidays. This being said, why are folks here picking nits over the Hallmark-ish aspects of Thanksgiving? I find comfort in it all actually – gives the holiday some flavor; keeps it alive. I sure as hell ain’t apologizing for it! It’s not worth ranting over John, jeez! We should be thankful it turned out this way.
The correct spelling is Able iNcoln. (Type O umor)
It’s impossible to find a turkey small enought for two so we’re having a standing rib roast this year.
Waitaminnit…
Okay, so there’ll be lots of sandwiches and maybe even some hash…
Happy Thanksgiving everyone!
http://www.history.com/video.do?name=Thanksgiving&bcpid=46875634001&bclid=1672079702&bctid=1586348651
A good synopsis on Thanksgiving. Dvorak… stop pissing on my favorite holiday!
What?! Thanksgiving didn’t start with the Pilgrims?!
Next you will be telling us George Washington didn’t chop down a cherry tree, Betsy Ross did not sew the first American Flag, and World War 1 did not start with the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand!
I’d personally like to wish most everyone here a Happy Thanksgiving and God help the rest of you fuckers.
/heartfelt sentiments
Aw shit Sister Mary, that was sweet – thanks!
/I think…
Don’t thank Lincoln for the myth of thanksgiving, he was just following suit with everyone else that was duped by the mythology spun by writers like Irving and other fanatics of the evangelical movement of the 1840’s.
They all were trying to establish both a national pride of rich history in the new nation (in opposition to vast amount in Europe) and tie in faith with the myth to swell numbers in churches. Whom before the 1840’s were light to none in attendance.
This kind of draping religion in the flag galvanised the later temperance groundswell (leading to disastrous prohibition) and introduced the ideal of God anointing everything that the US does. Thereby making it easier to justify atrocities.
Lincoln only followed in line with these fanatical revisionists and myth makers.
The nation is an ethically poorer place and the truth is seldom if ever taught.
Cursor_
Dear Dvorak & Co.,
Next I expect you will tell us that Santa Claus is a sham. HO HO HO.
Now, that statement not-with-standing, it’s always good to come to this site for that misplaced cup of Holicay Cheer for brighter than bright whites, blasting through the dingy grey days, though I’m wondering about that frequent hit in the head with that cup you use which seems to be causing permanent damage to many of us.
ECA, #3, a modern note, modern day scientists have dicsovered they all died of bird flu, not the winter. Cold precipitation plus wind does not infect people. Winter deaths were caused by a mutating virus, that reverse transcripted itself into the DNA protein coat which all viruses have to keep warm thus forcing each subject cell to shed it’s protective antibody. They labeled it wrong as people do all so often.
i.e. – winter deaths / swine flu deaths / same problem with adjectives
Merry Tommas
John,
Please discuss how and where one finds a ‘real old-fashioned’ turkey on NA.
Gobble, Gobble!
J
#11, Cursor,
Your post couldn’t be further from the truth.
Don’t thank Lincoln for the myth of thanksgiving,
Lincoln proclaimed that the nation would celebrate a holiday that was then celebrated on different days in different states and even localities.
They all were trying to establish both a national pride of rich history in the new nation
More bullshit. Thanksgiving as a religious holiday was particularly strong in the fundamentalist New England States. It was more popular than Christmas. Note that in the mid and southern States, Christmas received far more attention than Thanksgiving.
… tie in faith with the myth to swell numbers in churches. Whom before the 1840’s were light to none in attendance.
Wrong again. Church attendance was near universal right up until after the Civil War when small numbers stopped attending church.
This kind of draping religion in the flag galvanised the later temperance groundswell
There was never anything secular about Thanksgiving until most recently. Thanksgiving in the US has always been a religious outpouring of appreciation to “god” for providing sufficient food to last until next year.
In England the tradition dated back to the Celts and their version of a Harvest Fest. That tradition grew in Canada to incorporate a celebration for the sake of a celebration of appreciation with no religious or national symbolism.
… and introduced the ideal of God anointing everything that the US does. Thereby making it easier to justify atrocities.
When you grow up in a society where everyone belongs to a religion, everything IS anointed by “god”. This concept was universal among Christians (and other religions) from the time of Constantine.
The campaign against alcohol is aged in millennium. As with most opinion, religion usually took an opinion. Some branches of the Christian churches even disallowed any imbibing of alcohol as a sin.
The Temperance movement was concurrent with the Industrial Revolution in America. As urban dwellers had time and money, too often it was spent on alcohol instead of food and shelter. Rural families had little money and thus lived off their harvests. This concentrated the Temperance movement in the cities.
Justify atrocities? Ya right. In war, every side has god on it.
The nation is an ethically poorer place and the truth is seldom if ever taught.
When history is invented with no regard to the truth yes, we do become a poorer place. And you sir have tried to invent history with your own prejudices.
John, deep fried turkey is absolutely wonderful. It would be even better with one of your special “real” turkeys that the common folk like us never get to eat. You should try it sometime, it makes the skin so nice and crispy, but leaves the meat so tender and soooo juicy. Yummm!
To the guy having the rib roast: I heard your wife enjoys it standing with the bone in…. ba ba boom! At least that’s how she liked it when I was around… ba ba ba boom!
Happy Thanksgiving to everyone except pedro. Hopefully he will choke on a bone, pass out and on the way to the floor knock over a candle thus starting a fire that burns the whole house down.
Curiously you’d think that “common folks” WOULD be getting the scrawny real turkeys and the upper crust would get the high-tech big-breasted super birds, no? What does that tell you?
Holy revisionist history Batman! Just because Honest Abe declared the holiday doesn’t mean he made it up! Egad. How about just a little journalistic integrity. The atheistic jihad here at dvorak.org is getting a little old.
# 2 amodedoma
“Hey Mr. D, OK you old crank, shut up an eat your turkey, you ingrate!”
Agreed. You tell that crank. I love Thanksgiving.
Have a great Thanksgiving to all here.
17,
It tells me we have decimated this wild bird, to the point that we have to raise domesticated, DNA altered birds.
And likewise people only celebrated Martin Luther King, Jr. when Ronald Reagan signed the holiday into law in 1983.
RBG
As a resident of a state with a wild turkey population and a hunter, I have consumed many “natural” turkeys. Except for one antifreeze injected Butterball variety from ConAgra every turkey on my table at Thanksgiving time has been superior to a wild turkey.
No need to denigrate our feeding habits when they provide for our breeding habits need to overpopulate the world. A Happy Thanksgiving to all, even you assholes who disgust me with your backwoods limited intellect and republican addiction.
We to have plentiful wild turkeys in our state. They are among the weirdest critters I have had the luxury to observe in the wild. Wild turkeys are also capable of very short distance low altitude bursts of flight. Hiking one fall I spooked one hiding along side the trail. It nearly ran me over as it fled; it scared the living bejeezuz out of me too! They can get quite large in the wild if conditions are good. Anyways just thought I would share that crazy story and some turkey facts. Happy Thanksgiving Everyone !
Look at it this way, Beaujolais Nouveau and wild game were made for each other.
While Halloween might be fairly ancient. The tradition of “Trick or Treat” is not. It got its start, sometime after the Depression (1930s). My elderly mother recalls hearing about it for the first time, on a radio broadcast, when Mary Martin (Broadway star) promoted the idea. Even then, it wasn’t too popular for a time. Children were even protesting (probably aided by adults) against being beggars. But I guess the constant pressure of the candy companies, overcame this stigma. It wasn’t adopted in Canada until the 80s. And I believe the UK only recently has.
I believe that the recent change of the DST (ending) date, to 1st Sunday in November, was one more concession to aid candy sales. So the parents wouldn’t be concerned about it being too dark for their kids to be out begging for treats.
Frankly I think it’s kooky to put kids at risk this way, just to use up the stale candy supply, before Christmas. It may have been a fairly safe marketing trick, back in the 1930s. But with kids becoming endanger of abductions, and other weirdness. I think it’s something that should have been phased out by now. Not promoted anew, by the mainstream media, and protected from any negative opinions and accounts. A couple years ago, on a US Tv series, a character said “Needles in candy bars, never happened”. They certainly x-rayed a lot of candy, for something that never happened. More media propaganda.
#25, Glenn,
Modern Trick or Treating grew out of the Scottish tradition of “guising”, going door to door asking for coins.
Dressing up in costume has been traced back to the Celts and begging for favors was a tradition for many religious celebrations.
The first noted modern Hallowe’en Trick or Treating as we know it can be traced to Kingston Ontario in 1911 when the local newspaper reported on the “tradition”. So it must have been done for years before that and Kingston has a strong Scottish immigrant history.
Mr parents have told stories of trick or treating during the 1920s and ’30s.
Every holiday and celebration has evolved with modern practices and concerns. Where homes used to provide home made treats, today home made treats are treated with scorn by children and extreme caution by parents. Where costumes used to be home made, today almost all costumes are store bought. What hasn’t changed is that parents or older siblings take their children from door to door with the children yelling “Trick or Treat” at each one.
I thought that on this day in 1801, Lewis and Clark landed on Fraggle Rock, made friends with the neighboring Mexicans, ate turkey, drank beer, and watched NFL. Back then, the Pilgrims had a great quarterback.
Isn’t that why we eat prime rib and cheesecake?
Regardless, I still love Thanksgiving, maybe even more than Christmas.
Have a Happy Thanksgiving.
Did you know that the Pilgrims landed on Plymouth Rock because they ran out of beer?
http://beerinstitute.org/tier.asp?bid=141