The Providence news. (Providence [R.I.]) 1891-1906, 1891-11-25
OLD THANKSGIVING DAY.
This Week Brings the Popular
National Holiday.
ITS NEW ENGLAND ORIGIN
The Festival and How IL Has Enlarged
Its signifcance-The Colonial Meeting
House Sermons, Mince Pic and
Turkeys.

brated than that or Thanksgiving lay,
which has been appointed for this year on
next Thursday Though of New England
origin and for many years confined almost
exclusively to that section, it has slowly
but surely extended itself all over our
great country.
We are indebted for it to the Pilgrim
Fathers, who may be said TO have cele-
brated it for the first time upon the COM
pletion of their first harvest at Plymouth
in 1921, when Gov. Bradford sent out four
fowlers in search of game, that they
might after a more special manner re-
joice together" But fasts were mucl
more common among those hardy Puri-
tans than feasts, and though they occa-
sionally observed a general Thanksgiving
| Day for some specially propitious occur
| renee, such as some action favorable TO
| them on the part of the mother country or
| the arrival of shipload OF provisions,
| they devoted much more time TO deploring
their miseries than they did to rejoicing
over their blessings.
IL is said that their adoption of the Gus
tom of annually appointing Tbanksgiv-
ing day was due to "A sensible old farmer
whose name tradition has unfortunate
ly failed to preserye-who rose up when IL
was proposed in the Assembly to proclaim
another fast and plainly told them that
| he believed God was weary of their COM
plants, in view of the fact that He was
| causing the carth to reward their labors;
| that He had filled the seas and rivers with
| fish, had made the air sweet and the eli
mate healthful and was permitting them
| the full enjoyment of civil and religious
| liberty
The speaker therefore proposed that in
| s cad of fast a day of thanksgiving and
feasting should thereafter be annually
| proclaimed, which sensible suggestion
was unanimously adopted.
Whether or not this is a true account of
| the origin of the practice, IL is thorough
| ly est ablished fact that by the year 1850 1t
| had become a fixed custom for Governors
| of the colonies of Plymouth and Nassa-
| chusetts Bay to appoint Thanksgiving
| Day late in the autumn OF each year--a
| usage that soon extended TO all the other
| New England colonies.
| The adoption of this custom outside of
| New England was very slow. How slow
| will be readily understood from the fact
| that rs recently as 1885 it was considered
a remarkable event in Virginia when Gov.
| johnson recommended the observance of
| n Thanksgiving Day and that Gov. Wise
| refused TO appoint one in 1857, on the
| ground that he had no authority to inter
fere in religious matters. Thanksgiving
| Day was not regularly appointed by the
| Governors of New York until 1917.
| During the Revolutionary war Con-
| gress annually recommended a general
| Thanksgiving Day. Washington pro-
claimed one in 1889, on the adoption of the
Constitution, and another in l795 for the
suppression of the whisky insurrection in
Western Pennsylvania, while Madison
| proclaimed one for peace with England in
| iSl5 After Madison, Abraham Lincoln
was the first President to proclaim a
Thanksgiving Day, and he did it in 1862
and 1853 for war victories. In 1864 he pro-
/ L ix,tn No in,
ber for general blessings, and his example
| of that year has since been annually fol-
| lowed by every one of his successors and
| by nearly every State Governor down to
| the present time.
But popular as THANKSGIVING Day now
| is throughout the length and breadth of
this land, it is in New England that it still
continues to be what it has been for more
| than two centuries-the greatest and most
| eagerly anticipated holiday of the entire
| year. The old Puritans and their descend
| ants, who so long frowned severely upon
| Christmas-which, indeed, many of the
| latter still continue to do, refusing to give
| il any recognition whatever-found an eX-
| cellent substitute for its cheerful hilarity,
peace and goodwill in Thanksgiving Day.
| For at least week before the important
| occasion all was activity in an old
| fashioned, rural New England household.
| A bushel or more of the best wheat was
| sent to the mill to be converted into -four.
| Great rounds of beef were chopped up
/ into mincemeat. Carloads of yellow
| pumpkins, with an abundance of milk,
| spices, ginger, molasses and sugar, were
! made up into pumpkin pies, An abund-
| ance of turkeys, chickens and geese were
| killed and made ready for roasting. a
pair of immense plum puddings were
baked in the largest-siZed earthen pots,
with Indian puddings and custard pud-
dings to match, while there was baking of
pound cake, plum cake and sponge cake
from morning till night.
From its very beginning divine wor-
ship was an important feature of the days
observance, and that term "divine wor-
ship" meant something very different in
rural New England in old colonial days,
and even for some forty or fifty years af-
forwards, from what IL means now. a
great majority of the members of the re-
ligious congregations Of that time lived at
n considerable distance from the meeting
house, and had to be up bright and early
on III lnksgiving morning 10 prepare for
their long drive through "a nipping and
an eager air. for the weather in New
England is often bitterly cold by the mid
die of November. and it was no uncommon
thing TO ride TO Thanksgiving meeting !"
I'm sleigh
On Thanksgiving and on all other feasts
and fast days, as well as on the Sabbath,
there were held two services-morning
and afternoon--each of some hours dura-
| tion, and for places of rest and refresh
ment during the noon intermission be
| tween them there were erected in the inn
mediate vicinity of the meeting house, for
| the accommodation of distant worshipers,
small buildings called sabbath day
houses" These structures were usually
| built and held in partnership by two fami-
| lies and consisted Of two rooms, some ten
| or twelve feet square, with chimney be-
tween them, having n fireplace in each
apartment
! On Thanksgiving morning n bountiful
/ supply of good cheer was slowed away in
/ the wagon or sleigh that was TO convey a
] household to meeting" Arriving in the
vicinity OF the sacred ediflce the sabbath
day house" was visited and the provisions
! deposited there. \ fire was then lighted
and soon all were thoroughly thawed out
and well warmed after their long, cold
ride. At q o'clock, the hour for worship,
they were ready to sally forth and shiver
| i'm the cold during the three-hour morn
! ing service, for the meeting houses" or
churches of those days were wholly un-
warmed by artificial heat Of any kind. As
| n consequence the minister preached in
/ his overcoat and mittens, aud when the
/ services drew near an end on n cold day
/ everybody was anxious TO escape from the
/ chilling atmosphere OF the church and
seek warmth i'm their adjacent homes or