Thanksgiving Day in America means travel, family reunions, cooking , food, the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade and the traditional high school football games. It is the official start of the holiday season which concludes on New Years Day.

It is said that Americans feast on 535 million pounds of turkey on Thanksgiving Day. It is the holiday that is the busiest travel day of the year. Thanksgiving Day lacks the commercialism of other American holidays and, for this reason , it is the preferred holiday of many Americans.

As we look forward to Thanksgiving 2007, it is interesting to look back on how this American holiday came about. In fact, the more I read about that first Thanksgiving Day in 1621, the more I think that my previous education on the subject may have been somewhat limited.

My childhood perception of the first Thanksgiving in the fall of 1621 was formulated through illustrations in elementary school books showing picnic tables covered with white table cloths. There appeared to be a real connection between that first Thanksgiving and contemporary Thanksgivings in the pictures of the proceedings. A Pilgrim with hands folded looking up to pray was blessing the meal as Native Americans curiously looked on. I was sure after the first Thanksgiving that it had become a tradition every year from 1621 to the current day. However, reading and researching the facts concerning the Thanksgiving holiday brings me to a somewhat altered state of awareness.

The observations of Edward Winslow are our only historical recollection of that first Thanksgiving of 1621 in Plymouth Massachusetts. Winslow describes a somewhat different event from the one that is captured through some of the illustrations in elementary school books. The first Thanksgiving occurred in late September or early October, not late November. It was really more of a secular harvest festival than a religious Thanksgiving Day. There were no picnic tables with white tablecloths. Deer, duck, and goose were the main meal of a harvest type festival which lasted three days. There were approximately 100 Native Americans and about 50 Pilgrims in attendance. It could be said that the first Thanksgiving was more of a Native American festival attended by Pilgrims. The Pilgrims and Native Americans sat on the ground around wooden sticks which were used to cook the deer, duck and goose. The food was eaten by hand since there was no silverware. Wild turkey was abundant but difficult to catch at the time. Wild turkey was easier to track after the first snow and was more of a food staple at Christmas for the early Pilgrims. There was no milk, cheese, bread, butter or pumpkin pie at the original Thanksgiving Day feast. The first Thanksgiving was never repeated by the Pilgrims and Native Americans after 1621 and did not become an annual event.

In fact, the first national celebration of Thanksgiving was not declared until 1777 by the Continental Congress. President George Washington issued the first national Thanksgiving Day proclamation in the year 1789 and again in 1795. However, even these proclamations did not cause Thanksgiving Day to become an annual holiday event in America.

In 1827, Sarah Josepha Hale, (editor of Boston based "Lady's Magazine" and author of the popular nursery rhyme "Mary Had A Little Lamb") started a thirty five year campaign to make Thanksgiving a national holiday. Her campaign included her skill as a writer as can be seen in her words that follow: "Let us consecrate the day to benevolence of action, by sending good gifts to the poor, and doing those deeds of charity that will, for one day, make every American home the place of plenty and of rejoicing. These seasons of refreshing are of inestimable advantage to the popular heart; and if rightly managed, will greatly aid and strengthen public harmony of feeling. Let the people of all the States and Territories sit down together to feast and drink, in the sweet draught of joy and gratitude to the Divine giver of all our blessings, the pledge of renewed love to the Union, and to each other; and of peace and good-will to all men. Then the last Thursday in November will soon become the day of American Thanksgiving throughout the world".

Her efforts were rewarded in 1863, when Thanksgiving was finally observed as a national holiday. Abraham Lincoln issued a Thanksgiving Proclamation on October 3, 1863 which officially set aside the last Thursday of November as a national day of Thanksgiving.

It can be said that Sara Josepha Hale had as much to do with the tradition of an annual Thanksgiving holiday in this country as the two principal people involved in the harvest festival in that fall of 1621, Pilgrim Governor William Bradford and Wampanoag Indian Chief Massasoit.

So, wherever you are on Thanksgiving Day; whether it's on a train, plane, or in your car traveling to meet family and friends, whether you are enjoying that second helping of turkey or pumpkin pie, whether you are watching the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade from New York or whether your favorite football team is winning or losing, consider what really occurred on that first Thanksgiving Day in 1621. Also, remember to give thanks for the persistence of Sara Josepha Hale and her thirty five year campaign for a national holiday. Her vision and dedication helped insure that every year on the last Thursday in November there will be a Thanksgiving Day in America.