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By ELMO SCOTT WATSON
Drawing by Ray Walters
LTHOUGH it is true
that Thanksgiving day,
which we will celebrate
on November 27 this
year, is “a distinctively
American institution” in
the way in which it Is
observed, our celebra-
tion of a “Thanksgiving
day” is not unique. As
a matter of fact, the
fundamental idea of the
day as a feast day may be traced back
to anclent times. Read the Book of
Judges in the Old Testament and
there you will find this description of
a practice of the Canaanites, from
whom the Children of Israel derived
some of their customs:
“And they went out into the fields
and gathered their vineyards, and
trode the grass and held festival, and
went into the house of their god, and
did eat and drink.”
This vintage or harvest festival ap-
peared later among the Hebrews as an
act of worship to Jehovah and was
called the Feast of Tabernacles. In
Deuteronomy, Moses gave specific di-
rections for its keeping.
Pagan Greece and Rome, too, had
their thanksgiving season im honor of
the harvest deities. At Athens, in No-
vember, this feast, called Thesmoph-
oria, was celebrated by married wom-
en only, and two wealthy and distin.
guished members of the sex were
chosen to prepare the sacred meal,
which corresponded to the Thanksgiv-
ing dinner of today. The Romans on
October 4 worshiped Ceres, their god-
dess of the harvest, with processions
in the fields, music, rustic sports, and
a feast at the end of the day, which
was called Cerelia.
In the modern world, England for
centuries observed an autumnal festi-
val called the Harvest Home, which
traces its beginning back to the Sax.
ons. In 1258 A. D. “solemne fasts and
general processions” were held in Eng-
land and were thought to have helped
a backward harvest in that year. The
Englishman has always followed the
custom of setting aside days to com-
memorate public blessings, The dis-
covery of the Gunpowder Plot was
thus observed and Guy Fawkes day
was established as a day of “public
thanksgiving to Almighty God.” This
happened only a short time before the
Pligrims left England for Holland, so
it Is easy to see how they later car.
ried to the New world the idea of a
day for giving thanks.
Insofar as all the familiar pictures
of the first Thanksgiving day In Ply-
mouth show Indians taking part in the
Pligrim feasting, we have come to as
sociate the red man with this holiday
particularly. Few of us realize, per.
haps, that the American Indian con-
ributed more to our Thanksgiving day
c¢2lebration than we realize. For the
many American families which will
gather around the loaded Thanksgiv-
ing day tables this year to enjoy their
roast Ptkey will be observing a cus
tom that prevailed before the Pligrims
landed on the rocky shores of New
England.
The records of the Smithsonian In-
stitution in Washington, records which
bridge the gap between the abo-
riginal civilization of thousands of
years ago and ours today, show that
the Indians of the Southwest domes.
tieated turkeys and fattened them for
the cholce morsels at their ceremonial
feasts. The practice of such feasts,
however, had been established long be
fore by the cliff dwellers who ralsed
turkeys and when they wanted a nice,
fat bird for one of their ceremonial
feasts, all they had to do was to go
out to a pen where they kept the fowls
and get one,
More than that, the Navajo Indians
have a November thanksgiving cere-
monial which goes back as far as tri-
bal tradition goes. A series of thanks
giving ceremonies begins about No
vember 1 es at Intervals
during the entire month. The Navajn
name for these occasions is the Yabl-
chi, which means a thanksgiving for
the corn harvest-—a general thanks-
giving to the sun and rain gods for
their respective efforts in alding the
growth of corn and grass.
During the day set aside for the
Yabichi the medicine men and desig-
nated officials of the locality hold a
ceremony In which blessed corn meal,
corn pollen and feathers of the rain
Lird are Few outsiders have
ever been admitted to these meetings.
The same night begins a general good
time and feasting for everybody.
used.
Although we look upon the English
settlers of New England as the orig-
inators of our Thanksgiving day, we
should not forget that the Dutch who
settled the New Amsterdam which be-
came New York also contributed
something to the day. For there is
no doubt that the Pligrims, while they
lived in Leyden and observed the man-
ner in which the Duteh celebrated on
October 3 the deliverance of thelr
country from Spain with much feast.
ing and in a spirit of thankfulness,
were somewhat influenced by the char
acter of this celebration In establish-
ing their own Thanksgiving day after
they came to America.
Then, too, Thanksgiving as it is ob-
served in New York city today is in
many respects so different from the
New England Thankagiving as to
cause the stranger in Gotham to in-
quire Into the Mardi Gras nature of
the day, and the answer Is that it is
a survival of an old Dutch custom.
For New York holds a great mum-
mers’ show on Thanksgiving, that is
to say, juvenile New York does. For
while their elders are going to church
to acknowledge their blessings and
housewives and cooks are busy pre-
paring the Thanksgiving dinner, the
youngsters are engaged In blacking
their faces and turning their clothes
inside out, or converting themselves
into clowns and earicatures of movie
actors and hobgoblins,
It is a juvenile celebration almost
exclusively, though now and then one
beholds a bedecked adult Ingratiating-
ly trying to come In on the shower of
pennies. Mostly the coppers are well
earned. To the tune of mouth harps,
comb and tissue paper and other child-
ish instruments, or just a whistle,
pigeon wings are cut, hand springs are
turned, songs are rendered and break-
downs executed, In keen competition
for “something for Thanksgiving.”
The phrase is heard from the time the
day's first ring at the doorbell gets
one out of bed until the last theater
is closed at night, It dins in one's
ears all day long, as often repeated as
the “Merry Christmas” greeting later
in the year.
As a matter of fact not one New
York boy or girl In a thousand ean
tell the stranger in the city the origin
of the custom. All that most mum-
mers seem to know of it Is that they
“always go out for Thanksgiving”
Boys who have grown up In the city
will say that they, too, did the same,
Some of them add that the sport then
es)
2
Tall
i o 1
y
TNR
Fre
Cs ala
had much more spice than now. Years
ago It used to be the thing for house
holders to throw hot pennies out of
the window to the costumed urchins,
Then there was a scramble as never
is seen in these days of merely drop
ping cold cash into a cap.
the researches of a New
Singleton,
history recently
that mumming on
has been practiced
in that city for nearly three centur-
les. Under the Dutch, the Dutch Re.
formed church in this colony endeavy-
ored to stop popular observance of an-
cient Catholic festivals by legal Inter.
diction. Rhrove celebrations
til}
ten avond”
nainly
them
However,
York woman,
ancient Manh
disclosed the
Thanksgiving day
Esther into
attan
fact
Tuesday
Holland as
found
the children
continued in “yas
were irrepressible
because liked
Children persisted
ten masquerade. “They
streets,” says Miss
“Dutch New “carrying
rommel-pot. a covered with a
tightly stretched bladder. In the cen
ter was a hole through which a stick
was jammed. When moved up and
down the stick would make a dull
rumbling noise. Children went from
door to door singing (in Dutch):
in their pre-Len
walked the
Singleton in
York”
pot
her
the
I've run so long with the rumbling-pot
And have as yet go no money to buy
bread.
Herring packery, herring-packery,
Give me a penny and I'll go by!
and sometimes a
clothes." This masking and dressing
up still survives
Thanksgiving day.”
Manhattan's Thanksgiving
‘devil's suit of
Director General Keift of the
West India company instituted
fasting and
for a
outhreanks,
prayers of
excited by tribal resent.
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Modern Mechanics
Conscience Is a still, small
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Explanation
“Briggs is dressing better and liv-
i Ing better than he ever did before.”
“Yes. His new valet has very ex-
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Colonists to young braves,
were soon resumed, lasted
the savages.”
final
y not now?
mouth and Massachusetts bay,
among themselves even though their
elders had long lost track of what it
meant and whence it locally derived.
It is also worthy of note that the
state of New York saw the first offi
clal proclamation of a Thanksgiving
day as an annual custom which has
been observed without interruption for
more than 110 years. In 1817 Gov,
Dewit Clinton officially proclaimed
Thanksgiving day, and ever since that
time New York governors have fol.
lowed the precedent. It was also fol
lowed by governors of other northern
states, but it did not become a gen-
eral national holiday by Presidential
proclamation until 1863, The first
Presidential proclamation was I[ssaed
by George Washington from New York
city, then the Capital of the nation in
1780, Several later Presidents issued
such proclamations from time to time,
but it remained for Abraham Lincoln
in 1868 to fix the last Thursday in No.
vember as the national day of thanks.
giving.
(@ by Western Newspaper Union.)
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