The American Thanksgiving Holiday
by James W. Baker, Curator, Alden House Historic Site
(This is an abridged version of the article appearing in the Encylopedia of American Holidays and National Days, Len Travers, ed., Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2006)
The popular perception of America’s Thanksgiving holiday might be summed up as “it all began with the Pilgrims.” After a successful harvest, so the story goes, Governor William Bradford declared an official thanksgiving day in November 1621 to which Massasoit, the principal sachem of the Wampanoag, was invited. The fifty-or-so Pilgrims who had survived the lethal “First Winter” of 1620/21 and Massasoit, with a royal retinue of 90 men, sat down to a huge outdoor feast prepared by the Pilgrim women. The piéce de résistance was of course turkey, but every local foodstuff imaginable was included as well, thus initiating a Thanksgiving tradition of culinary excess that has continued to this day. Like similar legends, the First Thanksgiving has a factual basis in history. The meal, or something like it, did occur, and the attending Indian guests did join the colonists at dinner and in “recreations” over a three-day period. However, those few facts have been so embellished through art, literature and commerce that it is the symbolic connotation of Thanksgiving, not its historical particulars, that shape our understanding of the American holiday.
The “First Thanksgiving” is an etiologic tale, a story told to explain and define the holiday through an account of its alleged origins. The New England Thanksgiving is thought to have originated in 1621 with the Pilgrims, so it is fitting that the modern holiday adopt the hospitable Pilgrims and their Native American guests as its symbolic patrons. Generations of artists and writers have used their stylized images to represent the holiday. Whenever we see a be-buckled Pilgrim and his natural prey, the turkey, or a generic American Indian amid the fruits of the harvest season, we are immediately put in mind of Thanksgiving. In addition, the imagery of the harvest season – pumpkins, corn, autumn foliage, and the ubiquitous turkey indelibly marks the holiday’s essential seasonality. Thanksgiving plays a significant role in our civic religion as the embodiment of the virtues attributed to the early colonists (or alternately nowadays, their Native neighbors) and as the modern equivalent to the agrarian harvest celebration.
The problem is that historically, the New England Thanksgiving evolved without any association with Pilgrim dinners, Indian guests or harvest celebrations. The Pilgrims’ 1621 First Thanksgiving did not exist before 1841 when Rev. Alexander Young first identified the Plymouth harvest celebration as the “first New England thanksgiving” in his Chronicles of the Pilgrim Fathers (Young 1841) The sole account of the famous three-day celebration, described in an epistle by Pilgrim Edward Winslow, was first published in a small edition in 1622, and soon forgotten. No copy was accessible to American scholars until one was discovered in Philadelphia in 1819. Until then, all that was available was an abridged version in Samuel Purchas’ Hakluytus Posthumus or Purchas His Pilgrimes (1625), which omitted the harvest celebration description.
Furthermore, identifying the famous Plymouth harvest festival as a thanksgiving, let alone the “First Thanksgiving” is problematic in that it meets none of the qualifications for a legitimate Calvinist thanksgiving. It is only after the holiday had evolved to a sentimental secular occasion in the 19th century that the 1621 event could be seen to resemble a New England Thanksgiving in retrospect. “It was not a thanksgiving at all, judged by their Puritan customs, which they kept in 1621; but as we look back upon it after nearly three centuries, it seems so wonderfully like the day we love that we claim it as the progenitor of our harvest feasts.” (DeLoss Love:1895) The successful harvest was indeed a matter for giving thanks and we may assume the colonists did so in the context of their regular Sabbaths and family devotions. There is no indication in the primary sources, however, that the participants considered the 1621 events as a formal thanksgiving. More importantly, the very nature of a celebration, extending over several days or a week with secular “recreations” and non-Christian guests, is what pious Calvinists such as the Pilgrims would be first to protest had no place in any Christian holy day.
Far from initiating a tradition or influencing the actual evolution of the New England Thanksgiving, the 1621 harvest celebration was a unique event that had no effect on history until it was recast as a myth of Victorian invention. The American Thanksgiving holiday evolved out of English Calvinist practices quite independently of Pilgrims and harvest festivals. In fact, before the Civil War, Thanksgiving was always thought of as an early winter rather than fall event and, in New England, a substitute for Christmas. The iconography of the holiday was dominated by snowy scenes of early winter in New England with contemporary family reunions, cozy indoor dinners at in ancestral homesteads, and turkey dinners. Earlier images of sleigh rides to grandfather’s house and snowy farm scenes were only gradually supplanted by our familiar impression of Thanksgiving as an autumnal harvest event towards the end of the nineteenth century, at about the same time the Pilgrims cemented their association with the holiday.
Thanksgiving days originated in the turmoil of the English Reformation as the Puritans sought to eradicate the lingering practices of Catholicism in the Anglican Church. One of the many complaints the Reformation had about medieval Christianity was the inordinate number of holidays that had been introduced over the centuries. Until Henry VIII began the work of reform, there were, including Sundays, 147 religious holidays each year. They included not only the Christological cycle of Christmas, Easter, Whitsuntide, and the feasts of the Virgin, but an ever-increasing number of Saints’ days. The medieval world of wakes, guild celebrations, church-ales and bride-ales (an “ale” being a sort of drinking party celebrating an event or acting as a fund-raiser in support of some cause) had become more of a burden than a blessing. These festivals also contributed to the “beery buffoonery, bawdiness, idleness and profanity” of a susceptible portion of the populace. It was pragmatism as well as piety that influenced the reformers to limit the holidays which threatened people’s livelihoods, stopped craft production, endangered the food supply, and encouraged drunkenness and violent behavior.
Henry VIII’s 1536 reforms reduced the number of holidays to the Sabbath and a more manageable 27 festival days a year. However, the growing Puritan movement was not satisfied. It questioned the fundamental justification for the holidays, declaring them to be “Popish inventions” that were not only unsupported by scripture but of obvious pagan origin. The Puritan faction first demanded that the number of festivals reduced to the primary celebrations of Christ’s life and the Sabbath, and no more. When this did not happen, the reformers became more radical after the example of John Calvin of Geneva, who had gradually arrived at the opinion that the only Sabbath was permissible. Reformers sought to abolish all of the remaining old holidays including Christmas and Easter. However, there was another influence at work that would eventually modify this extreme constraint.
There arose a custom among the Reformed churches of declaring special days in response to God’s providence whenever unexpected disasters or special benefits to society occurred. The English Church declared such days on a national basis from time to time so that appropriate observations might be held in each parish, or as was customary, people from several parishes gathered at officially sanctioned central assemblies. The assembled faithful were treated to pertinent sermons, communion and admonitions to wrongdoers, whereupon the entire company might close the day with an evening community meal (fast days officially extended from afternoon to afternoon, so an evening meal on the day itself was quite acceptable). Fasting became a regular practice not only in response to providence, but in preparation for any important decision or momentous occurrence. As good Protestants they wanted to avoid the “empty practice” or mechanical observance of the Roman Church where corporal abstinence might not be accompanied by earnest spiritual activity, so not only abstinence and prayers, but psalms, preaching and even “prophesy” (informal commenting on theological matters) soon slipped into the mix.
Fasts were declared whenever it was felt that God had visited some unusually threatening or dangerous “judgment” on His people. Similarly, thanksgivings were declared to celebrate some impressive “mercy” awarded by God to his grateful flock. Consequently, fasts were held in response to drought in 1611, floods in 1613, and the plague in 1604 and 1625, while thanksgivings were declared for the victory over the Spanish Armada in 1588 and for the Queen’s safe deliverance in 1605. These special observances were normally included as part of the usual church services on Sunday, Wednesday or Friday, and had appropriate services in the Book of Common Prayer and the orthodox Anglican liturgy. The Puritan holidays also served as a regulatory device whereby the nation, community or family adjusted its behavior so as to stay in tune with God’s will and remain in divine favor. Thanksgivings praised God for his goodness and made sure that His people’s gratitude was made evident. Providential “mercies” were seen as signs that He was pleased with his people while “judgments” with their attendant calamities were believed to be sent by God to mark His displeasure with the way things were going. Days of humiliation or fasts were used to identify the reasons for God’s displeasure and to put the community back on track when it strayed from the path of righteousness. They served the Puritan establishment as a means of controlling the behavior of the community in God’s name, and maintaining the rule of the godly against its enemies and malcontents. It was this tradition of providential holidays, in which fasts and thanksgivings were key elements in maintaining God’s putative will on Earth, that the Puritan migrations carried to New England.
The Puritans brought to America the Sabbath, days of humiliation and fasting, and days of thanksgiving. The Sabbath set the basic pattern of how religious days were observed. The faithful were commanded to prepare for the Sabbath on the “eve” or Saturday afternoon at 3:00 (the hour of Christ’s death) with family devotions and prayers. “And to the end the Sabbath may be celebrated in a religious manner, we appoint that all that inhabit the Plantation, both for the general and particular employments, may surcease their labor every Saturday throughout the year at three of the clock in the afternoon; and that they spend the rest of that day in catechizing and preparation for the Sabbath, as the ministers shall direct.” The Company’s Instructions to Endicott and His Council, April 17, 1629 (Young 1846). They made sure that meals and other necessary labors such as feeding livestock were so arranged as to involve the least amount of effort on the day itself. On Sunday morning, they went to church at around 8:30 AM and remained there the whole day, with a short break at midday, listening to sermons, singing psalms, listening to exhortations to live more godly lives and other uplifting spiritual exercises. Fast days and thanksgivings, which were similarly observed, were two sides of the same providential coin. Normal work was forbidden, as were sports and other worldly pastimes.
The first documented providential holiday in New England was a fast day declared during a serious drought in Plymouth Colony in the summer of 1623. When the Pilgrims began planting their fields in April, the weather was favorable and seasonable. Six weeks after the final sowing, however, drought threatened both the crops and the very existence of the little settlement.
“But it pleased God, for our further chastisement, to send a great drought; insomuch as in six weeks after the latter setting there scarce fell any rain; so that the stalk of that [which] was first set, began to send forth the ear before it came to half growth; and that which was later [set], not likely to yield us any [corn] at all, both the blade and the stalk hanging the head in such a manner as we judged it utterly dead. Our beans also ran not up, according to their wonted manner, but stood at a stay; many being parched away, as though they had been scorched before the fire. Now were our hopes overthrown; and we discouraged: our joy being turned into mourning.” (Winslow: 1986)
The previous year’s harvest had not been good. If the approaching harvest failed as well, Plymouth Colony might not survive another year. A day of fasting and humiliation – “appointed by public authority, and set apart from all other employments” – was held on a Wednesday, most probably July 16, 1623.
The skies were clear when they gathered for public worship. They spent eight or nine hours together in the meetinghouse, praying, singing psalms and listening to sermons and exhortations. When they came out, they were gratified to see that it had clouded over. The next morning “soft, sweet and moderate showers” began, which continued off and on for the next two weeks. The wilted corn and their drooping spirits were revived, and the crops saved. The Indians noticed the providential rescue of the crops. Hobbomock was a Wampanoag Pinese (superior warrior and counselor) who lived near the English settlement. He noticed that the colonists were having a religious service in mid-week only three days after their previous one and asked a boy why they were doing so. When the gentle and effective rains came the very next day, Hobbamock told the neighboring Indians about the impressive power of the white man’s god who had “wrought so great a change in so short a time.”
The Plymouth colonists were no less impressed by this providential mercy. Having so dramatic an example of God’s favor and acceptance, they felt they should do something substantial to show their gratitude and not “smother up the same” or “content ourselves with private thanksgiving for that which by private prayer could not be obtained.” They therefore declared that another solemn day be set apart and appointed for the glory, honor and praise, with all thankfulness, to God. This first recorded Plymouth thanksgiving probably occurred on Wednesday, July 30, the day before the Anne arrived in Plymouth with friends from England and Holland.
In this single two-week period we have the first examples of the Puritan providential holidays in New England. Even Puritans need some ritual in their lives. One question that might arise is “why did they wait until 1623 to declare a fast and a thanksgiving when there had been plenty of earlier events which could have justified such observations?” The simple answer is that we do not know that they didn’t have earlier fasts or thanksgivings. If they did, no reliable record of them has survived. However, the very early years are recorded in sufficient detail by Bradford and Winslow that it is quite unlikely that an official proposal for a public thanksgiving has been omitted.
The Massachusetts Bay colonists brought the same tradition of providential holidays as their Plymouth compatriots. During the 1629 emigration there were two fast days declared at sea, a thing that the sailors said that they had never heard of before. The first was close to the beginning of the voyage on Thursday, May 21. After weeks of contrary winds they had finally cleared the English Channel and were well at sea. Following the practice of having a fast to ask God to look favorably on their momentous enterprise, they observed a day of humiliation. They had a second fast for favorable winds on Tuesday, June 2, which they believed met with immediate results. After they arrived, they had a third fast on Thursday, August 6, preceding their choice and ordination of elders and deacons for the new church. The pattern was repeated with the larger Winthrop fleet in 1630 when fasts were declared for Friday, April 2, Friday, April 23 (St. George’s Day), Friday, May 21 (in regards to the weather), Friday, June 4 and on Monday, June 7 (when they caught some very welcome fresh fish). They had their first thanksgiving on Thursday, July 8, 1630, following the arrival of the last straggling ship.
When colonists from Dorchester settled Connecticut in 1635 (pushing out the Plymouth men who had gotten there first) or New Haven in 1637, the common tradition of providential holidays was present in the new colonies. The first occasion for a providential holiday in Connecticut was the successful conclusion (from a colonial point of view) of the Pequot War in 1637. The war and the terrible massacre at the Mystic village was the result of events stirred up by Massachusetts Bay and its Connecticut settlements for which the unfortunate Pequots got the blame. The Puritan colonies were immensely heartened by the “victory” and declared a day of thanksgiving and praise for October 12. 1637, which was observed in Massachusetts, and in Scituate in Plymouth Colony as well. This event has sometimes been mis-identified as the “first New England thanksgiving” by modern anti-colonial partisans. It was the first Connecticut thanksgiving, however, and was followed by other fast and thanksgiving days after the manner of the other Puritan colonies.
We know about the Plymouth colony celebration of the 1637 thanksgiving at Scituate through Rev. John Lothrop’s church records for Scituate and Barnstable (where Lothrop and his congregation moved in 1639). Lothrop’s records begin in 1634 before the Scituate church had been formally covenanted. The potential congregation met for a fast on November 6, 1634 at James Cudworth’s house, and had another fast on Christmas day before they were joined in a covenant on January 8 – during yet another fast. Altogether, the church observed 34 days of humiliation and fasting but only nine thanksgivings days between 1634 and 1653. The first Scituate thanksgiving was on December 22, 1636,
“…in ye Meetinghouse, beginning some halfe an houre before nine & continued untill after twelve a clocke, ye day beeing very cold, beginning with a short prayer, then a psalme sang, then more large in prayer, after that an other Psaleme, & then the Word taught, after that prayer – & the[n] a psalme, – Then makeing merry to the creatures, the poorer sort beeing invited of the richer.”
The next thanksgiving on October 12, 1637 was
“performed much in the same manner aforesaid, mainly for these tow particulars. 1. Ffor the victory over the pequouts, ye 2. Ffor Reconciliation betwixt Mr. Cotton and the other ministers.”
The third thanksgiving was the congregation’s first at Barnstable on December 11, 1639,
“att Mr. Hull’s house, for Gods exceeding mercye in bringing us hither Safely keeping us healthy & well in o[u]r weake beginnings & in our church Estate. The day beeing very cold o[u]r praises to God in publicke being ended, wee devided into 3 companies to feast togeather, some att Mr. Hulls, some att Mr [Mayo’s], some att Brother Lumberds senior.” (“Scituate and Barnstable Church Records” 1856)
These brief descriptions are the only Plymouth Colony examples of how thanksgiving feast were conducted in the early 17th century.
By 1640, the Puritan holidays were established in every New England colony except Rhode Island. Providential holidays might be declared both by the churches and by civic officials, and Plymouth, Massachusetts, Connecticut, New Haven and New Hampshire passed laws determining the responsibility of civic authorities to declare public fasts and thanksgivings. There was an apparent aversion to official colony-wide fasts and thanksgivings in Rhode Island, and the only examples on record are those that the colony was obliged to observe during the Dominion of New England when Sir Edmund Andros commanded thanksgivings and fasts for all of the colonies, starting with a thanksgiving on Thursday, December 1, 1687. Andros’s subsequent two thanksgivings were on Sundays in the Anglican tradition, which was a bitter pill for the New Englanders. After Andros was deposed in 1688, the colonies returned to their earlier practices, and Rhode Island lapsed back into avoiding colony-wide providential days altogether.
Second and third generation New Englanders, who had no personal memories of the old holiday calendar of Christmas, Easter and saint’s days, grew up with fasts and thanksgivings as a familiar part of their lives, and this familiarity eventually led to a modification of the old system. By the end of the seventeenth century a new tradition of regular springtime fasts and autumnal thanksgivings existed in parallel to the original practice of declaring special holidays in response to providential events. The New Englanders took the possibility of scheduled regularity and made it the basis for seasonal celebrations. Orthodox Puritans such as Samuel Sewell objected to the liberties being taken with the old providential rules: “T’was not fit upon meer Generals as the Mercies of the year to com[m]and a thanksgiving.” (DeLoss Love 1895), but they were overruled by the majority.
The new regular thanksgivings and fast days did not begin in one colony and spread to the others but rather evolved simultaneously throughout the region. There was no single “First Annual Thanksgiving” or “First Annual Fast Day” which started an unbroken tradition for succeeding generations. According to DeLoss Love (who pushes the evidence to some extent), the fall thanksgiving became standard practice first in Connecticut by 1650 and in the other colonies by the end of the century, while spring fasts were regularized about a decade later in the same fashion.
Eighteenth-century practice combined the old occasional holidays with the new seasonal ones in such a manner as to make it seem that it had always been done that way. By the middle of the century, New Englanders were so used to annual days that they tended to believe that such days had been customary throughout the history of the colonies. The oral tradition smoothed over the doctrinal disputes and irregular observances that the holidays had undergone in becoming annual, and presented an idealized past that contributed to later belief that there had always been a November thanksgiving.
Providential holidays were not limited to the more puritanical colonies. During the eighteenth century, Rhode Island and Vermont also appointed fasts and thanksgivings, while New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware and even Virginia had their own occasional fasts or thanksgivings. The American Revolution brought the observance of the providential holidays to a national level when fasts and thanksgivings were declared for the entire thirteen colonies. The first was on June 12, 1775, when the President of the Continental Congress, John Hancock, declared a fast day in the United Colonies for Thursday, July 20th. Hancock declared another pan-colonial fast for Friday, May 17, 1776. Henry Laurens, the President of the Continental Congress, proclaimed the first national thanksgiving for Thursday, December 18, 1777. There were twelve additional national providential holidays declared by the Continental Congress. This thanksgiving followed the New England model with its Thursday date and an admonition in the proclamation,
“And it is further recommended, That servile Labor, and such Recreation, as, though at other Times innocent, may be unbecoming the Purpose of this Appointment, be omitted on so solemn an Occasion.”
George Washington declared his first thanksgiving as President on October 3 for Thursday, November 11, 1789, and a second national thanksgiving for Thursday, February 19, 1795. John Adams declared no thanksgivings during his term, but he had two fast days; Wednesday May 9, 1798, and Thursday April 25, 1799. James Madison proclaimed wartime fast days for Thursday August 20, 1812; Thursday September 9, 1813; and Thursday, January 12, 1815. Madison also declared the last national providential holiday before the Civil War, a thanksgiving for the conclusion of the War of 1812 on Thursday April 13, 1815. In between the national holidays, the New England states continued holding their regular spring, fall and occasional providential days. In the years that followed 1815, all of the New England states including Rhode Island, Vermont (after 1777) and Maine (after 1820) maintained the spring fast and fall thanksgiving tradition.
In the early nineteenth century, the annual fast day receded in importance even as the autumn thanksgiving gained in popularity. As the New England Puritans devolved into Yankees during the eighteenth century, the rigors of daylong services and four or five-hour sermons diminished until a single two-hour morning service sufficed in many churches. In Massachusetts, the annual fast was traditionally held on or about the 19th of April before it was abolished in 1894, and April 19 became Patriot’s Day. Maine replaced Fast Day with Patriot’s day in 1907. The New Hampshire annual fast day lasted until 1991 when it became “Civil Rights Day.” In 1999, this compromise holiday was joined with Martin Luther King Day on the third Monday in January, with the stipulation that the new holiday has “the same status as Fast Day.” The annual fast was combined with the observance of Good Friday in Connecticut in 1795, where it is still observed today in the last of the New England states to do so. After the national thanksgivings ceased in 1815, annual thanksgivings proclaimed by the individual states maintained the holiday tradition. There was still no fixed date for these annual events, a holdover from Puritan providentialism, but most were scheduled in late November or early December. Each year, the date was announced by civil authority. The state governor would “advise” the churches by official proclamation that this was when they should observe the holiday. By the 1850s virtually every state and territory was observing an annual thanksgiving.
The inhabitants of the states of course anticipated the announcement of their particular Thursday in November or December (the dates varied from state to state). Once the proclamation had been published and read in the churches, the flurry of preparation began. Housewives made pies days – even weeks – in advance, depending on cool seasonal temperatures for their safe preservation. On the evening before the day itself, all chores that could be done in advance were taken care of to clear the slate for a day of leisure. On the farm (and the majority of New Englanders were still farmers) animals were foddered, the house cleaned and fowls plucked for tomorrow’s cooking. In town, householders visited the market to bargain for over the necessary ingredients of the feast.
A brief supper (“a sort of ‘picked-up’ dinner”) was provided the evening before for the family and guests who had arrived earlier. The holiday was a time of gathering together as family, friends and neighbors met at church and in the homes of the community, just as they had in Scituate almost two centuries earlier. However, there was seldom any discouragement of secular entertainment, especially if it did not occur during the morning of the day itself. Thanksgiving balls were quite a popular addition to the holiday.
Thanksgiving Day itself began with the household getting up at dawn, which at that time of year meant they arrived for breakfast rather later than they would on a work day. After breakfast, the cooking of the dinner was begun and family members prepared for meeting (one went to “meeting,” not to “church,” in New England). Not everyone went to meeting, however, as someone had to oversee the preparations for the feast, and the youngest children were not expected to attend the service. The sheer amount of labor involved in preparing the huge dinner for family and assorted guests was a burden to housewives and servants alike, as Mrs. Anne Lyman noted in a rare departure from the generally rosy reminiscences of the old-time holiday in 1840: “We got through Thanksgiving as usual, – after a great struggle on my part – with fifteen at the table, who seemed to enjoy themselves highly – I did not. I am sure, however, that I have much to rejoice in … But the reflections connected with the past most always make these annual festivals, to people who are as advanced as I am, to be days of sad retrospection.”
The meetinghouse bell began to ring at ten o’clock and soon after the congregation arrived and sorted themselves into family pews. Attendance varied from year to year depending on the weather and the enthusiasm of the meeting-goers. In 1800, although meeting attendance was still expected of any respectable citizen, only one in fifteen Americans was an actual member of a congregation. Most churches had only a “forenoon” meeting, with the standard order of service. Thanksgiving sermons were often political or topical in nature; the sermon’s length being determined by the aspirations of the minister and the expectations of his audience. An important part of the Thanksgiving service was the collection for the poor – which might have been begun the week before – with the proceeds given to the less well-off families to insure that they too would have a proper dinner. The conventional charity of the season also included gifts of prepared food sent to poor relations and neighbors not included in the household gathering.
Samuel Goodrich Thanksgiving Dinner (1836)
The most significant characteristic of Thanksgiving at the beginning of the 19th century, however, was that it was still an unselfconscious part of contemporary life. Holiday traditions were simple and unpretentious, focusing on the immediate basics of New England life: church, household, food and domestic leisure. It was a time to review the current year, reminisce about one’s personal past, and recall family members and friends who were no longer among the guests by reason of distance or death. Most importantly, it carried no suggestion of commemoration. The holiday was not perceived as an evocation of olden times or invested with sentimental significance beyond its gathering of clans and family reminiscences, when “conversations run backwards” as Plymouth author Abby Morton Diaz said. It was rather simply unquestioned tradition, the accepted thing to do at each year’s end.
The adoption of these Thanksgiving customs outside of New England was in part a result of the great Yankee exodus that occurred after the American Revolution. The war had brought debilitating debt and inflation to the small New England farmers and shopkeepers, a burden compounded by high state taxes by which local governments tried to recover from the same problems. A steady flow of Yankee emigrants passed into northern New York, the Northwest Territory and beyond, bringing with them all of the particular attitudes and traditions of their old home. In new states with large numbers of Yankee expatriates (such as Michigan or Wisconsin), annual Thanksgivings were soon introduced. By mid-century the Thanksgiving holiday was observed in most states and territories, even southern ones, although the south might follow the older Anglican practice of Sunday thanksgiving services instead of the Yankee custom of the Thursday observation.
The revival of national Thanksgivings may have even begun in the Confederacy. The heartening victory at Bull Run in 1861 was celebrated with a Thanksgiving appointed by President Davis and the Confederate Congress throughout the south on Sunday, July 28. The northern states had little celebrate in 1861 although the individual states and territories declared customary November Thanksgivings. The Union had its turn when President Lincoln declared a national Thanksgiving on Sunday, April 13, 1862 (on the 47th anniversary of the 1815 event) for the victories at Forts Henry and Donelson and at Shiloh. The South had a second and final Thanksgiving on Sunday, September 28, 1862 after the second battle of Bull Run. In 1863, the Union celebrated two national Thanksgivings, one on Thursday, August 6 following the victory at Gettysburg, and on October 3 Lincoln declared a second, general New England-style holiday for last Thursday in November. It is this second Thanksgiving that initiated our modern series of national Thanksgivings.
Perhaps the 1863 November Thanksgiving was due in part to the efforts of Sarah Josepha Hale, editor of the influential Godey’s Ladies’ Book magazine. Mrs. Hale, a loyal New Englander despite having moved to Philadelphia, had lobbied hard for an annual national thanksgiving since 1837. She wrote editorials and other notices in favor of this idea (sometimes twice in a year) and tried to rally all the states to observe the holiday. Although Mrs. Hale continued to extol the annual appearance of the holiday tradition, she also wanted Thanksgiving to be established once and for all by the U. S. Government, a dream best expressed by her editorial in Godey’s in 1871:
We have long endeavored to secure the celebration of this great festival upon the same day in every American State and Territory, so that it might be a National Holiday. In 1863 the Southern States could not be reached. Application was made to President Lincoln, who issued a proclamation, the first since that of Washington from the representative of the nation, and appointing the same day, the last Thursday of November. His example has been yearly followed by his successors. But one thing is wanting. It is eminently fit that this National Holiday shall rest upon the same legal basis as its companions, the Twenty-second of February and the Fourth of July. As things now stand, our Thanksgiving is exposed to the chances of the time. Unless the President or the Governor of the State in office happens to see fit, no day is appointed for its observance. Is not this a state of things which calls for instant remedy? Should not our festival be assured to us by law?
By the end of the century, the custom of holding Thanksgiving on the last Thursday in November was well established, but the legal mandate that Mrs. Hale so desired did not arrive until long after her death. In 1939, the last Thursday in November was also the last day of the month. A Thanksgiving this close to Christmas would considerably reduce the customary shopping season. President Roosevelt was petitioned by the Association to declare an earlier date for Thanksgiving to insure the commercial success of the crucial holiday shopping season. On October 31, the President proclaimed Thursday, November 23, as the national day of Thanksgiving. The result was a storm of protest.
A majority of Americans were dismayed by the apparent victory of commerce over tradition – not to mention the confusion that this change had on college football schedules. Some governors and mayors followed Washington while others chose to keep the 30th as Thanksgiving in protest. In the end, 23 states had Thanksgiving on the 23rd, 23 held out for the 30th, and two (Texas and Colorado) had two Thanksgivings that year. A similar division happened in 1940 when many states kept their holiday on November 28 despite the fact that Roosevelt had declared the 21st as Thanksgiving. In the spring of 1941, the President admitted that the effort had been a mistake (and a failure as well – there had been no improvement in Christmas sales, perhaps due to the confusion) and announced that Thanksgiving would revert to its traditional date in 1942. It was too late for 1941, calendars and schedules already having been prepared. In November 1941, Congress passed a law mandating the fourth Thursday in November as the permanent date for the Thanksgiving holiday. This was a compromise between the old “last Thursday” custom and the recent “Franksgiving” observances. After the few holdouts gave up their attempts to observe the day on the last Thursday regardless, the Thanksgiving holiday quietly assumed its place in the regular round of American holidays. The holiday was at last as Mrs. Hale had wished, nationally guaranteed and legally sanctified.
While the firm hand of tradition kept the basic essentials of the holiday true to their nostalgic roots, new elements were introduced as well, the most important being the annual college football game. The “annual Thanksgiving Day game between the previous year’s two leading college football teams [was] an idea hatched in 1876 by the student-run Intercollegiate Football Association” which was founded in that year. (Pope 1997) Colleges had played casual soccer-style football from the 1860s until Harvard adopted rugby football rules in games against McGill in 1876, which was the beginning of the modern American game.
The next important holiday event emerged in the 1920s – the Thanksgiving Day parade. Strictly speaking, Thanksgiving parades aren’t about Thanksgiving at all but Christmas, but they do provide a Thanksgiving Day activity that is enjoyed by millions of Americans in person or on TV. Initiated by downtown department stores to signal the “official” start of the Xmas shopping season, the parades became a family-oriented event that were very popular in those cities that supported them. The first modern Thanksgiving parade was put on by Gimbel Brother’s Department Store in Philadelphia on November 25, 1920. It consisted of 50 people, fifteen cars and a fireman dressed as Santa Claus who marched in the parade and then entered Gimbel’s toy department by a ladder. The central feature of the Gimbel’s Thanksgiving Parade was the “official arrival of Santa Claus” in his most marketable guise as patron saint of holiday commerce. The theme of children and toys was central to the early Thanksgiving parades, with many of the floats and costumed characters designed to represent nursery rhyme and fairy tale settings. The most famous Thanksgiving parade of all also began in 1924, when the employees of Macy’s Department Store volunteered to conduct a parade of costumed characters in New York. Now billed as “America’s Parade,” the Macy’s parade has grown over the years into a spectacular media event and a continually changing mirror of popular culture.
The way in which Americans observed the Thanksgiving holiday changed little after the Civil War except for the inclusion of football and parades. What did change was the way in which the holiday’s symbolic significance was interpreted in popular culture. Thanksgiving was joined with other holidays in the school-year cycle in the 1890s. The Progressive movement seized the opportunity to use holidays as a means to inculcate American values in the socialization of the young and immigrants.
How do the Pilgrims fit in all this? For a century and a half following the 1620 landing, the Plymouth colonists were not recognized as anything more than the first wave in the great New England Puritan emigration. They were honored by New England historians such as Nathaniel Morton, Cotton Mather and Thomas Prince for their role in establishing the Puritan commonwealth, but the anniversary of their arrival in 1720 passed unobserved. The first effort at commemoration did not occur until 1769, when the Old Colony Club of Plymouth instituted a celebration (Old Colony Day, subsequently Forefathers’ Day) on the anniversary of the date the exploratory expedition from the Mayflower first set foot on the shore of Plymouth harbor. By a tradition dating to 1741, the mainland landing had taken place on or near a singular boulder on the Plymouth waterfront on December 11, 1620, Old Style. As the old Julian calendar had been discarded in favor of the Gregorian model only seventeen years earlier, the clubmen decided to adjust the anniversary by the eleven extra days that had been added to the calendar in 1752. This made the anniversary December 22, which became the established date for “Forefathers’ Day”, the original Pilgrim holiday.
In 1774, the rock identified with the Forefathers’ landing was levered from its bed, and, the upper half splitting off, that was dragged up to the Town Square and placed at the foot of a liberty pole. Thus began the process by which the humble Plymouth colonists became the symbolic founders of New England, and by extension the new United States as well. Their voluntary separation from the Old World to establish a new Christian commonwealth in America was seized on as historical sanction for the American separation from England, and their high ideals and simple way of life extolled as a model for all Americans. In contrast to the sordid history of early Virginia or the authoritarian nature of Massachusetts Bay, the Plymouth story was refreshingly virtuous and unexceptionable.
The Pilgrims’ legend blossomed despite (or perhaps because of) the relative lack of original accounts. Governor Bradford’s manuscript history of the colony had disappeared during the British occupation of Boston, leaving historians dependant on Nathaniel Morton’s New Englands Memorial (1669), a simplified version of his uncle William Bradford’s chronicle. The detailed account of Plymouth’s first year, familiarly known as “Mourt’s Relation” (1622), was only available in the abridged version published by Samuel Purchase in 1625 beforel 1841, and Bradford’s history was only rediscovered in 1856. However, the basic liniments of the of the Plymouth Pilgrims’ history were sufficiently well known to support the central story of courage, suffering and perseverance without these additional resources.
Just as the American thanksgiving tradition had its own well-developed associations and customs, the Pilgrim Story was firmly focused on the 1620 landing and Longfellow’s Courtship of Myles Standish (1858). That the Thanksgiving holiday had originated among the New England Puritans was widely acknowledged, but it was usually represented in a generic and diffused manner as one of the many legacies from the colonial era along with blue laws, excessive sobriety and humorlessness. There were isolated references to the Pilgrims’ First Thanksgiving after 1841, but none of any significance. There are few references to the Pilgrim event in Mrs. Hale’s Godey’s editorials, even after 1865 when she expressly credited the Pilgrim event as initiating the holiday.
Thomas Nast Uncle Sam’s Thanksgiving Dinner (1869)
Edwin White The Pilgrims’ First Thanksgiving (ca.1850)
A survey of Thanksgiving illustrations and articles in the popular Harper’s Weekly and Frank Leslie’s Illustrated newspapers turns up only a few isolated references to the 1621 event. An engraving entitled “Thanksgiving Day Among the Puritan Fathers in New England” that appeared in the December 3, 1870 issue of Harper’s Weekly presents a unique representation of the 1621 celebration. The scene is an interior where a group of colonists are arrayed around a dinner table and six Indians stand on the sidelines before the meal begins. A similar interior representation painted at about the same time by Edwin White (who was also responsible for other Pilgrim scenes) depicts a New England household interior with a single Indian standing as a witness.
“The First Thanksgiving Dinner with Portraits of the Pilgrim Fathers” by W. L. Taylor
In 1889, Jane G. Austin (the American author, not her more famous English namesake) published Standish of Standish: A Story of the Pilgrims, the first and most popular of several titles dealing with the Pilgrim saga. It was an immediate success, going through at least 28 imprints, and a dramatization in 1919. In Standish of Standish, Austin includes a fictional and sentimental account of the “First Thanksgiving” which appears to have had an important influence on the Thanksgiving myth. Austin’s embellishment of the 1621 harvest celebration led to a new appreciation of the origins of the Thanksgiving holiday. In the 1897 November issue of the Ladies Home Journal, Clifford Howard drew heavily on Austin’s fictional account for an ostensibly historical description of the First Thanksgiving. Accompanying Howard’s article was “The First Thanksgiving Dinner with Portraits of the Pilgrim Fathers” by W. L. Taylor. This is the first recognizable illustration of the now familiar autumnal outdoor feast commonly associated in popular culture with the Pilgrim Thanksgiving.
The new version of the First Thanksgiving story struck a resonate chord with the American public. It fulfilled the cultural desire for a romantic origin for the holiday, and also provided the Pilgrims with a new role as tolerant American peacemakers. The cessation of the Indian Wars in the West and a widespread sentimental interest in Native American culture made it possible for a reassessment of Thanksgiving’s colonial roots. Another factor was the Progressive mindset at the turn of the Twentieth century that sought to bring reform and a rational order to American society. It was now time to create unity out of diversity and invite others to join together at the national table, as Thomas Nast’s prescient cartoon had suggested in 1869.
Jennie Brownscombe The First Thanksgiving (1914) Pilgrim Hall Museum
The 1621 First Thanksgiving had yet to achieve hegemonic status. The postcard fad that flourished between 1905 and 1912 produced a large number of Thanksgiving Day images, many of which employed colonists, Indians and turkeys in various combinations, but illustrations of the famous dinner are noticeably absent. A survey of standard primary school textbooks from 1900 to 1940 shows that references to the Pilgrims often omitted any mention of the 1621 Thanksgiving. Nevertheless, there was sufficient awareness of the 1621 myth among the American public to prepare the nation for a widespread acceptance of the “First Thanksgiving” by World War Two. Samuel Eliot Morison captured the prevailing consensus when he observed that “the Pilgrims in a sense have become the spiritual ancestors of all Americans, whatever their stock, race or creed.” (Morison 1937) The First Thanksgiving began to edge out the Mayflower, Plymouth Rock and the “Courtship” as their fundamental contribution to the American Way of Life. The Pilgrim Story now had a romantic happy ending, with all parties gathered together on an eternal golden autumn afternoon around a table laden with the fruits of the first New England harvest. The 1621 feast found its way onto calendars and into magazine advertising and cover art. An increasing number of children’s books brought the story to younger generations, each adding its own fictional gloss to the picture. Greeting cards and schoolroom decorations left no uncertainty that the Pilgrims were at the core of the Thanksgiving tradition.
By the post-World War II period, Thanksgiving was the primary focus of the Pilgrim story in popular culture. The association of the popular holiday with its supposed Pilgrim origin had become a self-evident historical truth – the world had been sold on the “Pilgrim” brand of Thanksgiving. The First Thanksgiving myth was supported by the social consensus that reigned from the late 19th century to the mid-1960s because it effectively mirrored the values and beliefs of that society. It was only after the turmoil of the 1960s brought traditional authority and its beliefs into question that the questionable canonical status of Thanksgiving (and a lot of other cultural icons) became generally apparent. The recognition that something was wrong with the way in which American society portrayed its own past became clear, but identifying exactly where the truth lay amid the fallacies and myths was far more difficult.
Conscientious scholars sought to exorcise the First Thanksgiving myth by painstakingly exposing its various historical inaccuracies and anachronisms. The American public was told repeatedly that there were flaws in their conception of the First Thanksgiving, that the Pilgrim did not eat cranberry sauce, that buckles and huge white collars were not a Plymouth fashion, and that turkeys are not mentioned in the more important of the two references to the event. Yet these very iconic elements continued to turn up in classrooms and popular culture every November, regardless. To attempt to explode a myth by carping about the minute details of its narrative is to attack the symptoms, not the disease. Myth is not a rational but an expressive understanding of history, a matter of unconscious belief rather than intellectual conviction, and is all but immune to objective criticism.
On one hand, the conservative evangelical community has waged a spirited defense of the classic First Thanksgiving story and the traditional significance of the Pilgrims in American society. At the other extreme, the Native American community and its allies understood that the optimistic portrayal of Native-Colonial relations embodied in the holiday stereotype has obscured the tragedies that had afflicted their culture for over three hundred years. In 1970, the United American Indians of New England and the local Wampanoag community instituted the National Day of Mourning, an annual “counter-holiday” in answer to Thanksgiving to reasonably enough address the other side of the symbolic coin. Turning Morison’s observation on its head, the new perspective proposed that it was the Native Peoples who are the true “spiritual ancestors” of the American people, and that the American Thanksgiving holiday should rightly celebrate Native American traditions of giving thanks rather than continue to focus on what is portrayed as a dishonest and unworthy Puritan Thanksgiving tradition. The 1621 Plymouth celebration was recast as an event at which the local Wampanoag were the hosts and suppliers of most of the food to an inept and treacherous colonial community whose survival depended solely on the aid as well as the forbearance of the Native population. As historical interpretation, this is largely rhetorical nonsense, but it is a potent basis for new myth.
Neither the conservative defenders nor the reformist opposition have had much influence beyond their own partisans and sympathizers. The general public remains unconcerned with the failings of the traditional Thanksgiving story. They continue to enjoy their decorative be-buckled Pilgrims and war-bonneted Indians while consuming turkey and cranberry sauce in the perfect confidence that they are maintaining a tradition that began in 1620. They may be aware of the cultural battles surrounding Thanksgiving and give intellectual allegiance to one version or the other, but as with the contest between Santa Claus and Christ’s Nativity, this cognitive dissonance has no effect on habitual practices and tastes.
The current effort to substitute a more satisfying myth for the older tradition is no answer to the problem. It simply puts the injustice on a different footing, and does not honestly confront the real problem, which is that popular history continues to oversimplify the American past in all of its lights and shadows. As permanent residents in Thanksgiving Land, the Native Americans, be they aboriginal heroes or mere straight men for the Pilgrims, can never transcend the limitations that stereotypes impose. The ideal solution might be to institute an entirely separate holiday that is focused on their real heroes and escape as far as possible from the confines of the Thanksgiving table. After all, if the First Thanksgiving wasn’t one at all, why should they accept a Phyrric victory that mythically binds them to this event?
The benefit of a release from the Thanksgiving table would perhaps be even greater for the Plymouth colonists. It is not always appreciated that the burden of a favorable stereotype can have even more harmful consequences than a negative one. In the case of the Pilgrims, they have been essentially turned into mythical figures, the Ghosts of Thanksgiving Past. Their predetermined role is restricted to a brief, strictly scripted appearance each fall before lapsing into irrelevancy during the rest of the year, at least outside of Plymouth, Massachusetts. The Plymouth colonists would greatly benefit if they could once again seen as real people rather than historical May[flower] flies who sprang to life, had their brief bright moment of glory before disappearing off the stage of history in an autumnal haze. If Thanksgiving’s potential has squandered over the years, its message is still one that all Americans can share, that through a respect for diversity and cooperation, the cooperation the Pilgrims and the Wampanoag prefigured can thrive and grow.
Diana Karter Applebaum. Thanksgiving: An American Holiday, An American History. New York: Facts on File, 1984
James W. Baker. Thanksgiving: The Biography of an American Holiday. Durham, NH: University of New Hampshire Press, 2009
Davies, Horton. Worship and Theology in England From Andrewes to Baxter and Fox, 1603-1690. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1975.
Davies, Horton. The Worship of the American Puritans, 1629 – 1730. New York: Peter Lang, 1990.
Davis, Susan G. Parades and Power. Berkeley; University of California Press, 1986.
DeLoss Love, William. Fast and Thanksgiving Days of New England Boston: Houghton, Mifflin, 1895.
Gildrie, Richard P. “The Ceremonial Puritan Days of Humiliation and Thanksgiving.” New England Historical and Genealogical Register, CXXXVI (Jan. 1982).
Gillis, John R. A World of their Own Making: Myth, Ritual, and the Quest for Family Values. New York: Basic Books, 1996.
Hough, Franklin B. Proclamations For Thanksgiving Albany: Munsell & Rowland, 1858.
Litwicki, Ellen M. America’s Public Holidays 1865-1920. Washington DC: Smithsonian Press, 2000.
Pope, S. W. Patriotic Games: Sporting Traditions in the American Imagination, 1876 – 1926. New York: Oxford University Press, 1997
Morison, Samuel Eliot. The Pilgrim Fathers Their Significance in History. Concord, N.H.: Society of Mayflower Descendants in the State of New Hampshire, 1937.
Nissenbaum, Stephen. The Battle For Christmas. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1996.
Pleck, Elizabeth. Celebrating the Family: Ethnicity, Consumer Culture, and Family Rituals. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2000.
“Scituate and Barnstable Church Records,” in The New England Historical and Genealogical Register (Boston: 1856), Vol. X.
“Thanksgiving Day in New York Up to Date.” Harper’s Weekly, 11/28/1891, p. 950.
Travers, Len. Celebrating the Fourth. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 1997.
Winslow, Edward. “Good News From New England,” in A Library of American Puritan Writings: The Seventeenth Century, Volume. 9, Histories and Narratives, New York: AMS Press, 1986.
Young, Alexander. Chronicles of the First Planters of The Colony of Massachusetts Bay, From 1623 to 1636. Boston: Charles C. Little and James Brown, 1846.
Young, Alexander. Chronicles of the Pilgrim Fathers of the Colony of Plymouth. Boston: Charles C. Little and James Brown, 1841


kebiasaannya kanak2 yang suka kartun ni....tapi kan...ade juga orang dewasa yang suka....dan salah sorangnye ialah tuan punye blog ni..hehe
korang suke kartun disney x? sue suka ...hehe..
jom kite kenal nak? pastu korang vote..mane satu yang korang suke...hehe
Although soft-spoken, Cinderella has a sense of humor, which she hides from her Stepmother and jealous Stepsisters. Finding delight in her tiny animal friends, Cinderella has true dignity. Despite moments of heartbreak and disappointment, Cinderella holds onto her hopes until goodness is rewarded and her dreams do come true.
Raised by fairies Flora, Fauna, and Merryweather, Aurora is a gentle and loving girl. But when she meets Prince Phillip in the woods, she ignores the fairies' warnings about strangers. Soon, upon learning the truth of her birth, her life is plunged into turmoil. By the time Sleeping Beauty is awakened by the Prince, she has been transformed into a mature young woman ready to become a bride.
Snow White is a beautiful young Princess who, in her efforts to escape the Evil Queen, befriends the Seven Dwarfs. Her gentle ways and trust allow the Evil Queen to trick her. But her pure, lovable nature also wins her the friendship and protection of the forest animals, the Seven Dwarfs, and - of course - the handsome prince.
When Tiana first wishes upon the Evening Star, her father tells her to wish and dream with all her heart, but to remember that bright star can only take her part of the way. After meeting Prince Naveen, her life takes many unexpected twists. Still, with the help of new friends Ray, Louis, and Mama Odie, Tiana's dreams come true.
Belle loves books because they take her on adventures where she dreams of excitement and romance. She thinks the Beast is horrible for imprisoning her father. Courageously, she convinces the Beast to let her trade places with her father. There, she finds kindness beneath the Beast's gruff exterior, and she brings life back to the castle by falling in love with him.
Jasmine doesn't want much - just to marry for love and to experience life outside the palace. An independent young woman, she's ready for adventure and takes matters into her own hands, rejecting unsuitable suitors and sneaking off into the marketplace alone. When she meets Prince Ali, she finds the freedom she has longed for.
Although Mulan is as lovely as a blossom, she can't seem to behave like the gentle daughter she is supposed to be. In fact, she's quite a tomboy, whose spirit leads her into situations that defy the traditions of her society. She loves her family, but her behavior risks bringing dishonor to the family.
Ariel, the Little Mermaid, longs for adventure and romance...and to visit the human world. The mischievous princess of the undersea world risks everything to visit the human world...and perhaps find true love. By the time Ariel's wish to be human is finally granted, she realizes that there is something to be gained from a father's wisdom.
The beautiful daughter of Chief Powhatan is a free-spirited young woman who knows every tree, waterfall, and wild creature in her forest home. With a name that means "Little Mischief," Pocahontas loves adventure. Her curiosity and independence make her a strong girl whose passionate spirit touches all who know her.
so, korang suke yang mane? sue suke Belle..hehe
p/s: nantikan prince lak...
~cam bebudak lak sue ni~


Sources of type Web allow imglab to access resources on a specific Web address.
To explore how Images API URLs are used for Web Sources please take a look to the serving images documentation section.
To generate a Web source follow these steps:
On imglab go to Sources section and click on Add Source.
Set a valid Name.
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ISSN: 2518-7929 (Print).
ISSN: 2663–5011 (Online).
Journal is registered in The International Centre for the registration of serial publications ISSN (UNESCO, Paris, France) ISSN 2518-7929 (Print). ISSN 2663–5011 (Online).
Publisher: Academician Ye.A. Buketov Karaganda University
Languages of publications: English
Periodicity: 1 time per quarter.
Indexing: : Web of Science,
The editorial policy of the journal was approved by the decision of the Editorial Board of the journal «Bulletin of the Karaganda university. Mathematics series» (Protocol №2 from 07.08.2020).
Publication of carefully selected original research papers in all areas of mathematics written by mathematicians first of all from Europe and Asia. However, papers by mathematicians from other continents are also welcome. From time to time « Bulletin of the Karaganda University. Mathematics series» will also publish survey papers in math. Submissions sent for peer-review are selected on the basis of novelty and general significance, in addition to the usual criteria for publication in scholarly journals
The journal does not publish:
- materials that do not correspond to the subject of the magazine;
- materials published by authors earlier in other publications;
- materials containing spelling, mathematical or other errors that cannot be corrected, as well as statements and hypotheses that directly contradict established scientific fact


As our logo says, Pemberton Holmes was established in 1887. This date has given the family-run company time to not only amass an extensive history, but also to grow an archive of materials that go along with that history. In the spirit of remembrance this November, we will be pulling out a few items from our archives to take a closer look at the lives and losses of those before us in this three-part article series.
Over the past year and a half, the concept of connection and communication with our loved ones has shifted drastically. While technology has helped us bridge the gap of distance, whether small or large, it still leaves a bit to be desired. And with the novelty of video chat meetings wearing off, we can’t help but turn our mind to our loved ones of the past, and their more classic methods of staying connected. We are of course referring to the ever-loved art of letter writing.
While this practice has existed as long as writing has, the introduction of the Canadian Mail Corps was not until 1911 and was created specifically to handle military correspondence. By the first world war during 1915 alone, over eight million letters were sent from Canada to the four hundred thousand soldiers overseas, and at least four million were sent back (Macleans, 2018). As Philippa (née Pemberton) Holmes’ eventual brother-in-law Lancelot de Sausmarez Duke puts it “One can’t imagine how really lovely it is to get a letter, it is the only thing to live for here.”
Of these millions of letters sent, our own archives hold 2 letters sent to Philippa (née Pemberton) Holmes from two family friends, as seen below. While some parts have proven difficult to decipher, the general content of each letter demonstrates the longing and joy they shared in sending and receiving correspondence. An optimism that certainly has solidified our own interest in penning a letter to a loved one, post haste.
While the photos above can be found within our own archives, an amazing project, called the Canadian Letters and Images project began in 2000 that allows access to an extensive database of wartime letters. This project “…is an online archive of the Canadian war experience, from any war, home front and battlefront, as told through the letters and images of Canadians themselves.” Check out their website here, where you can search for letters to and from members of your own family, donate, or even submit letters of your own.


Book Store by Aroma Retail
Book Store by Aroma Retail Fragrance Oil
A sophisticated experience of paper pulp and leather from an old-school library, with notes of thyme, mild floral citrus and spices, paper, leather, amber, and woods. This complex blend also includes notes of basil, saffron, violet, jasmine, rose, amber, musk, cedarwood, patchouli, and vanilla.
Paper, Basil, Violet, Patchouli, Leather, Saffron, Jasmine, Thyme, Citrus, Musk, Vanilla, Amber, Cedarwood, Rose
Bookstores offer an atmosphere like no other. The enjoyment of sitting with a captivating book in front of the window, offers a sense of peace like no other. Book Store by Aroma Retail brings back childhood memories of old classics, sitting on your grandfather’s shelf.Book Store is a sophisticated experience, reminiscent of simpler days.


Paige Turner (JR Hartley’s agent)
Smart and presentable, but very superior and patronising, Paige knows the book world well and always backs a winner.
Seymour Heathens (Local vicar)
Never without his dog collar, Seymour is carefully enunciated, quietly spoken and often found in the religious section researching for his sermons. (BUT HE’S NOT A VICAR!)
Lotta Hushes (Librarian)
Carefully groomed and very stern, Lotta operates a zero tolerance policy in the library. Any rabble-rousing is met with a harsh “Shh!”
Rex Tuff (Juvenile delinquent)
A poor reader, Rex is often found larking about in the children’s section. He rarely has his head in a book, preferring to use the computer terminal or just generally make a nuisance of himself.
Wanda Lust (Backpacker)
Independent and an avid reader of Lonely Planet guides, Wanda is often found in the travel section researching in preparation for her next holiday.
Dee Major (Music teacher)
With an artistic temperament and an extremely strong voice, Dee enjoys reading about the composers she favours in her music lessons, thus ensuring she accurately reflects their personality when performing their pieces.
Archie Ologie (Local historian)
With his stuffy attire often as dusty as the tomes he pulls from the shelves, Archie is a pedant for factual accuracy.
Ivor Spade (Keen gardener)
Earthy and strong, Ivor knows everything there is to know about the local growing conditions and has been working the land his entire life.
Whatever happens this evening, the inspector will always get his man (or woman). The question is will any of the other library patrons be able to solve the case first?


‘Now or Never: Your Epic Life in 5 Steps’ is a book designed as a self-help manual to get the reader back on track to maximising their potential and achieving their best. These simple steps derive from lessons learnt through experiences in the authors lives and are taught as part of the authors 12 step online program ‘The Bridge Method’.
I often like to look at how I can improve my outlook on life, usually these are based in my Christian faith or professional learning but I wanted to look at something that is written from the specific standpoint of ‘fix yourself’ mentality.
I listened to this book as an audio book and hence can not really have picked up all the nuance as if I had read it in print but these main steps and personal experiences certainly were positive.
The 5 Principles of Understanding in this book were:
You Always Have a Choice
Be Radically Responsible
Own Who You Are
Have a Blast
‘Now or Never’ is a useful book in taking the steps to controlling your own future. Worth reading as a taster for what can be undertaken in the authors online course. Maybe in the future I will read it in book form and undertake its surveys and apply its concepts.


Winter is the perfect time to plan this year’s garden. Take this time to gather all of your resources- seeds, books and your imagination- to get a plan on paper, ready for planting when the weather warms up. If you are new to gardening or if you are just looking for new information and fresh ideas, here is a list of some of the best garden planning resources you can find!
Garden Planning Books
Let’s start with books. Many of these books can be found at your local library, but many of them are worth the investment and deserve a permanent spot on your bookshelf.
Carrots Love Tomatoes: This book is the ultimate resource for companion planting. It will take you through what to plant together and what to keep away from each other. The author not only includes sections on vegetable and fruits but also herbs, nuts, wild plants and much more. related post: 16 Ways to Use Companion Planting to Control Pests Naturally
All New Square Foot Gardening: This book covers everything you would want to know about square foot gardening. Square foot gardening is a perfect way of gardening for those with limited space or those who need help and guidance through the gardening process.
Vertical Vegetable Gardening: If you are short on space, yet have big plans, Vertical Vegetable Gardening will help you plan your garden to maximize your space and efforts! Chris will take you through how to garden and what structures to use to grow up, plus how to tend your vertical plants and the best varieties to plant.
The Week-by-Week Vegetable Gardener’s Handbook: Don’t know when to start your seeds, plant them out, or start harvesting for the best flavor? This book is here to save the day! With weekly do-to lists the task of planning, planting and tending a garden is broken down into manageable tasks. As most gardening books are, this handbook is written from the zone of the author. You will have to make adjustments for length of time and such if you have a longer or shorter growing season.
Backyard Farming on an Acre (More or Less) :This is not only a gardening guide, but one on how to live more sustainably in general. It does have quite a large section on gardening that will walk you through the planning stages, tools you will need, what to plant and how.
If you like to plan on paper, but need some help staying organized, The Gardening Notebook might be for you. Angi Schneider has put all of your garden planning needs in one spot. With tips on how to get started, enriching your soil and how to grow individual vegetables plus a planting calendar, layout pages and many other worksheets you will have all of your planning in one spot so that you can spend more time actually gardening! Click here to view more details
Garden Planning Websites
SproutRobot: SproutRobot is a simple service- you input your zipcode and it comes back with a list of what to plant and when. They have a limited free option which will give you planting dates for many of the most popular crops or you can purchase a yearly subscription for more specialized features. I have only every used the free service, but it is a handy tool to use when you forget when you should be starting certain seeds.
GrowVeg.com is a garden planner in which you can draw out and plot your entire garden online. Their software shows your how much space each of the plants require and how to group them for maximum success. They offer a 30 day free trial of their interactive garden planner, if you want to try it out. I warn you though- it can be a bit addictive!
Find the Best Seeds!
At one time you could just run down to your local garden center for your seeds, but in this modern world you can’t be too careful about what goes into your seeds or where you spend your money. If you are looking for a responsible seed company- that sells heirloom and/or organic seeds and has take the Safe Seed Pledge, here are some of my favorites:
For a complete list of companies that have taken the Safe Seed Pledge, visit the Council for Responsible Genetics.
Garden Planning Blog Posts
And finally, if you are the type that learns best from the experiences of others. Here is a listing of top-notch garden planning blogs posts from some of the best homesteading and garden bloggers on the web!
- Kristi from The Mind to Homestead shares about how to start seeds inside in her article Spring Planting: Sowing Seeds Indoors.
- Angi from SchneiderPeeps tells you 8 Things You Can Do Now to Have a Great Spring Garden.
- Gretchen from The Backyard Farming Connection helps give you tips on Planning Your Homestead Garden.
- Little Mountain Haven gives you tips on Garden Planning by What Your Family EATS.
- Julie from Growing Days talks about last expected frost dates in Ready, Set…Grow!
- If you are just starting out, read Garden Planning for Beginners from Runamuk Acres.
- Gear Up for Spring Planting with Black Fox Homestead- complete with a printable chart on favorite cool weather crops.
- Lesa from Better Hens and Gardens gives a simple system for Garden Crop Rotation.
- You can find articles on Re-purposed Seed Starting Containers, Companion Planting and lists of my favorite Tomato and Pepper varieties right here on The Free Range Life.
Have you started your planning for this year’s garden?
This post may contain affiliate links. For more information please see my disclosure page. Thank you for your support!
© 2014 – 2016, Sarah R Toney. All rights reserved.


The History of Modern France ~ Winter Quarter: France in the Mid-Nineteenth Century (1820-1870). We will discuss rebels in art, rebels in the street, and rebels in the literary world. Presented by William H. Fredlund, Ph.D. 10 Wednesdays, January 10 - March 14, 2018, at 7:00PM.
Warning: Last items in stock!
In the Winter Quarter, we will be studying the most fascinating era of modern France: 1820-1870. Rebels in art, rebels in the street, rebels in the literary world: Delacroix, Corot, Courbet, Manet, Flaubert, Zola, Monet, Renoir, Morisot, Degas, Gauguin, Van Gogh, Seurat, Cezzanne, Baudelaire, Gide, Jarry and more—all these brilliant writers and painters changed modern history forever. Presented by William H. Fredlund, Ph.D. 10 Wednesdays, January 10 - March 14, 2018, at 7:00PM.
The full, 30-week "The History of Modern France" course (fall, winter, and spring) studies the French story from the French Revolution of 1789 to World War I. Over the academic year, we will study history, read fiction and poetry, discuss art and artists, and try to connect all these fields into one narrative explaining the formation of modern France.
William H. Fredlund, the Director of the Institute, obtained his B.A. and M.A. from UCLA, where he specialized in European history and art history. He studied in Italy on a Fulbright Fellowship and completed a double Ph.D. in history and humanities at Stanford, specializing in Renaissance Italy. Dr. Fredlund has taught for UCLA, the University of Florence, Stanford, and UCSC Extension.


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The classic fairy tale of the siblings Hansel and Gretel, who get lost in the dark forest. Their adventures lead them to a tempting gingerbread house inhabited by an evil witch.
The children are captured by the witch, but with courage and cunning they manage to outwit and defeat her. In the end, they find their way back home and are greeted by their relieved parents. The opera is full of magical moments, enchanting music and a timeless message about courage, solidarity and the victory of good over evil.
London, Christmas around 1890: a Victorian family gathers comfortably around the Christmas tree in the living room.
The father surprises everyone with a mysterious new device, a magic lantern, which projects all kinds of unknown and wonderful images onto the wall and at the same time opens the door to a strange, fairytale world ...
Instead of doing their assigned chores, the hungry siblings Hansel and Gretel pass the time singing and dancing in their miserable hut at home.
They eagerly await the evening and the return of their parents, because this time there will finally be something to eat before they go to bed: The two children hope that their mother will cook a rice porridge from the milk that a neighbor has brought as a gift. But when their mother finally comes home, the mood suddenly changes.
Furious that Hansel and Gretel have spent the day playing together instead of tying brooms and knitting stockings, she rushes towards the children to beat them up. In the process, she accidentally knocks the pot of milk off the table. Hänsel's giggles at her mischief, the broken pieces on the floor and the spilt milk make the mother lose her head - she drives the children out into the neighboring forest to pick strawberries. Left alone, she complains about her family's poverty and hunger and falls asleep tired.
She is woken up by her cheerful, somewhat inebriated husband who, for once, has been able to sell all his goods and has acquired a large stock of all kinds of food from the proceeds. But the joy is short-lived - dismayed that his children have been sent out alone, he tells his wife about the man-eating crispy witch on the Ilsenstein, a particularly dark and disreputable place in the forest. Full of worry, the parents rush out of the hut to find Hansel and Gretel before nightfall and bring them home.
While Hansel collects strawberries and fills the basket to the brim, Gretel winds a wreath.
Happy to have done their mother's bidding this time, they lose themselves in all kinds of games and forget to go home on time. To make matters worse, the two of them eat all the strawberries they have collected, one by one, without realizing it.
When Hansel and Gretel are terrified and want to look for new ones, they realize that they have lost their way in the dark of the forest. Then the good Sandman appears and sprinkles sand in their eyes. Closely embraced, Hansel and Gretel fall asleep after evening prayers. In a beautiful dream in which 14 angels float past, they are given a reassuring glimpse of death and new life.
The next morning, Hansel and Gretel are woken up by the Taumännchen and discover the witch's crispy house. When Hansel breaks off a piece of the crispy house, the witch's voice can be heard from inside.
However, as nothing else threatening happens, the children start snacking on the little house until the witch comes out. Although she appears friendly at first, her true face is soon revealed: she casts a spell on Hansel and Gretel and locks Hansel in a cage to fatten him up.
In exuberant anticipation of eating the children, the witch mounts her broom and, sitting on it, flies through the air for some time in great ecstasy. After her witchy ride, she tries to persuade Gretel to look into the oven. Her plan to push the unsuspecting girl into the oven and bake her into a gingerbread cake fails because Gretel, warned by her brother, plays dumb and asks the witch to show her how to look into the oven. The witch impatiently agrees to Gretel's suggestion and leans far into the oven.
At this moment, Hansel and Gretel push her inside and she dies miserably. As soon as the witch is dead, the numerous gingerbread men who had been standing around the crunchy house become living children. They had all once fallen into the clutches of the witch and been turned into gingerbread in the oven. But now the spell is broken. Hansel and Gretel caress the children and break the final spell with the help of the magic wand: the grateful children dance around their two rescuers in jubilation. A little later, Hansel and Gretel's parents, who had been looking for their children all night, meet the happy flock. Grateful and full of joy, they sing together: "When adversity rises to the highest, the Lord God will have mercy on us!"
It is the successful mixture of folksong-like simplicity and the complex musical language of the direct successor to Wagner, of simple melodies and artful orchestral treatment, of socio-critical realism and atmospheric magic that makes this setting of the well-known story by the Brothers Grimm so appealing.
Since its premiere in 1893, Engelbert Humperdinck's fairytale opera "Hansel and Gretel" has awakened a passion for musical theater in generations of children. But great composer colleagues - such as Richard Strauss, Gustav Mahler and Johannes Brahms - were also enthusiastic about this work. And so the Vienna State Opera's production is aimed equally at children and adults and takes us right into the heart of the fairy-tale story through wondrous projections from a magic lantern.


The Soviets planned to invade Manchester.
(A map showing the route Soviet tanks would have taken is on display in an exhibition at the University of Manchester's John Rylands Library, Manchester. It shows the route chosen for taking the city which went along Washway Road, the Mancunian Way and Princess Road. These roads were considered wide enough for armoured vehicles and tanks to roll into the city centre.
Personally speaking, if I was going to invade a city, it wouldn't be Manchester. I think a nice little village in the Cotswolds would be more to my liking.)


Fatwa on Suicide Bombings and Terrorism:
Shaykh-ul-Islam Dr Muhammad Tahir-ul-Qadri issued a historic fatwa, or Islamic decree, on the vital matter of suicide bombings and terrorist attacks carried out in the name of Islam. It is regarded as a significant and historic step, the first time that such an explicit and unequivocal decree against the perpetrators of terror has been broadcast so widely. The original fatwa has been written in both Urdu & English as well and amounts to 600 pages of research and references from the Qur’an, Hadith, opinions of the Companions (of the Prophet), and the widely accepted classical texts of Islamic scholarship.
Dr.Muhammad Tahir-ul-Qadri Delivered his lectures to the American think-tanks and universities in the wake of publication of his historic 600-page Fatwa. The first his speech on November 8, 2010 at The Prince Al-Waleed Bin Talal Centre for Muslim Christian Understanding, Georgetown University, on the subject of A Major Fatwa against Terrorism with Dr Tahir-ul-Qadri. The event held at Copley Hall (Copley Formal Lounge) and attended by many high profile audience, including the personnel from Pentagon.
The second important event was the Shaykh-ul-Islam’s lecture at the United States Institute of Peace on the subject of “Shaykh Dr Muhammad Tahir-ul-Qadri’s Struggle against Radicalism in Islam”. The lecture was held on November 9, 2010 at the USIP Headquarters and was webcasted live. Shaykh-ul-Islam Dr Muhammad Tahir-ul-Qadri spoke on the issue of terrorism and the real concept of Jihad and how Islam stands against militancy, extremism and terrorism.
The comprehensiveness and extent of the original work is meant to leave no doubt, and no stone unturned, in order to remove any possible justification for the suicide attacks that the perpetrators or their supporters may offer. Indeed, Shaykh-ul-Islam went that crucial step forward and announced categorically that suicide bombings and attacks against civilian targets were not only condemned by Islam, but rendered the perpetrators totally out of the fold of Islam, in other words, to be unbelievers. Furthermore, in what is unprecedented in recent Islamic scholarship, this work draws out scriptural, historical, and classical scholarly references highlighting the obligations of Governments of Islamic nations to deal decisively to root out terrorist elements from society. This historic work has been translated into major languages of the world.


ENGS283 - Early Modern Sex and Sexuality
Course Long Title
Early Modern Sex and Sexuality
This course applies the methods of gender and sexuality studies to early modern literature. Taking up Michel Foucault’s contention that sexual identity was an "invention" of the nineteenth century, students theorize and historicize sex and sexuality in the three centuries prior to this moment. Can we see the traces of identity in sexual desire in early modernity? How is sexual desire related to gender? To race? To class? To other intersectional identities? What might it mean to queer an early modern text? And how do literary genres from the period – poetry, drama, prose – enable the exploration of these questions? Recommended background: ENG 213 or 214.


University of Massachusetts Amherst
I taught CS646 Information Retrieval in Fall 2016, which is a graduate level course for M.S./Ph.D. students in Computer Science and Data Science. The enrollment of the course in Fall 2016 is 24. I was nominated for the University Distinguished Teaching Award.
University of Pittsburgh
During 2009–2013, I have been a teaching assistant for many technology courses in the Master of Library & Information Science (MLIS) program and the Master of Science in Information Science (MSIS) program at the School of Information Sciences, University of Pittsburgh.
- LIS 2600: Intro to Information Technology (Fall 09, Spring 10, Fall 10, Fall 11, Spring 12, Fall 12)
- LIS 2635: Information Architecture (Fall 09, Fall 10)
- LIS 2658: Advanced Topics in Information Retrieval (Spring 10, Spring 11)
- LIS 2670: Digital Library (Fall 09, Fall 10, Fall 12)
- LIS 2680: Database Design & Applications (Summer 12)
- LIS 2690: Information Visualization (Spring 11)
- INFSCI 2140: Information Storage and Retrieval (Spring 12, Spring 13)


Savannah came home with an assignment to count all the books in her house.
She was overwhelmed by this and just that made me smile.
I helped her count. And solved the little question David asked last night at our budget meeting: "Where does all our money go?" Apparently, Barnes and Noble has most of it
Here are the books in our house, by the numbers:
(though this does not include phone books, cookbooks, music books, quilting books, or dictionaries.)
837 children's books
140 of those just in Caleb's room
I told you I had a thing for words.
I'm not sure if I should be delighted or embarrassed.
But in my defense, Ethan and I did hit the library earlier this afternoon where he checked out an armful of Halloween books and I checked out The Westing Game to read aloud in the evenings. So I don't actually buy everything I read.
Caleb just read the numbers in this post, patted me on the shoulder, and said, "That's cool."
I am inclined to agree.


Search from our Knowledge Centre and library. Enter a title or key word to find the information you want.
Welcome to the Centre's online Knowledge Centre — a restricted section of our website that allows members to research and download resources and information that will be useful in helping them manage their work, learn from peers, academics and commentators and better understand public affairs as a management function.
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Search for key words or practice areas (government relations, CSR, issues management for instance) to quickly and most easily find what you are after.
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Belgium-Turkey: 50 years of Migration (Centre for equal opportunities and opposition to racism)
Today the Centre for equal opportunities and opposition to racism en the "Centre de recherche en démographie et société" presented a demographic study about Turkish migration in Belgium.
The author of the study is Quentin Schoonvaere (Centre de recherche en démographie et sociétés, UCL) and the report was commented by Frank Caestecker (UGent) and Andrea Rea (ULB).
The study has been realised in a series of 3 demographic studies about the most important non-European populations in Belgium: Congolese migration (2010), Turkish migration (2013) and Moroccan migration (2014).
The study is available in French and Dutch. A summary of the study is available on the website of the Centre for equal opportunities and opposition to racism (Dutch/French).


Concord Media are a distributor of educational films covering a whole range of subjects such as social, moral, welfare & health issues.
Our films cannot be described as mainstream, but in many cases are still important documentary records of societal attitudes & developments at various points in time.
Our ever increasing catalogue makes Concord Media an important outlet for independent film-makers and a valuable resource for research material.
Here is a small selection of our films on anthropology. We are slowly putting them all on our new 'video on demand facility.
If there any you might want to rent or buy via VOD and they are not yet transferred please email us and we will let them 'jump the queue*. To have a quick look at all of them please visit this section of our website
The journey of a traditional Tibetan healer and her students in Ladakh.
For centuries the only medical system accessible to people in Ladakh was the Amchi, the traditional doctor following ‘Sowa Rigpa’, Tibetan medicine. 84% of Ladakh’s population lives in villages and rural areas in the mountains which are difficult to reach. There are no hospitals or clinics.
We follow amchi Karma Chodon on a journey into the wilderness of the Himalayas where she will meet her students for the last time. Although she has passed on the traditional knowledge to the next generation, the film questions the future of the amchi tradition which is threatened with extinction.
Although made in difficult circumstances, this is a unique documentary of a way of life which may soon disappear.
This programme is now available to rent or buy via our new Video on Demand service which uses the website (Vimeo). The 48-hour rental price including vat on Vimeo is £4.68 / $7.34 making viewing more accessible to people or organisations with limited budgets. The buying price on Vimeo is the same as the DVD price on our website but includes VAT which is an 'add on' for DVD To learn more about this new facility go to our ‘Home’ page and click in the Video on Demand box. To buy or rent this film on Video on Demand just click the 'Video on Demand' button below. Prices on Vimeo are quoted in US Dollars but it comes to approximately the same as in Pounds. £39.00 plus postage, and VAT if applicable
How we can learn about ecological solutions from an ancient culture.
Ladakh is a wildly beautiful desert land in the western Himalayas, with few resources and an extreme climate. Yet there is an ancient and thriving culture. Traditions of frugality and co-operation, and a knowledge of the local environment, enabled the Ladakh is not only to survive, but to prosper. This is changing with the impact of 'progress', particularly in the capital. This study forces us to examine wider issues, as what is happening in Ladakh can teach us about the root causes of environmental, social and psychological problems in general, and provides valuable guidelines for our own future. A video clip can be seen on our website. £34.50 plus postage, and VAT if applicable
The moko, or facial tattoo of Maori women reflects an ancient and spiritual culture
In the 60s Allan Baldwin, then a young photographer, travelled through Aotearoa (New Zealand), obsessed with preserving the image of the moko, a Maori tattoo put on the chins of the Kuia women. Allan Baldwin looks back on that time, uncovering his memories and a moving collection of photographs, some seen for the first time. The culture of the moko, their beautifully crafted facial tattoos, is vitally important to the Maori people. One woman explains ‘I’ve been carrying my people on my back all these years and now I ‘m going to carry them on my face’. Allan Baldwin has captured these mokos, and with them the beauty and wisdom of an ancient and fragile culture rarely encountered. This beautifully observed documentary examines an extraordinary spiritual society and a sensitive artist, asking powerful questions about the balance between maintaining tradition and living in the modern world. Only available in the UK. £39.00 plus postage, and VAT if applicable
Gypsy music - this film was made by Jeremy Sandford, who made 'Cathy Come Home' and 'Edna The Inebriate Woman', and features David Essex as presenter. There are vivid portraits of the Stow-on-the-Wold Gypsy Horse Fair, and the Romany camp sites, linked with Romany folk songs, and portraits of families and individuals like Dave Rawlings, still travelling behind a horse on the open road. You can see a video clip on our website. £23.00 plus postage, and VAT if applicable