What we remember
19/11/12 05:32
When we tell the story of Thanksgiving, we sometimes like to credit the origin of the holiday to the Pilgrims who founded the Massachusetts Bay Colony after landing at Plymouth. The truth is that whatever celebration of harvest was held in 1621, it was poorly documented and is difficult to authenticate the exact timing of that festival. The 1623 Thanksgiving festival declared by Governor Bradford is better documented. Several days of Thanksgiving were held in early New England history by Pilgrims and Puritans emigrating from England in the 1620’s and 1630’s. A Puritan holiday in Boston in 1631 is also well documented. It is probably not accurate to call any of these events the first Thanksgiving because the tradition was also emerging in England at the same time. It is likely that the process of fasting and feasting was part of the culture that the Pilgrims and Puritans brought with them as they left one continent for another.
Canadians believe that their Thanksgiving celebration, which is held in October, pre-dates any observances in the United States. They trace the roots of their holiday to 1578 and the explorer Martin Frobisher who was trying to find a northern passage to the Pacific. He celebrated not the harvest, but the survival of a long passage from England through storms and icebergs. Preacher Robert Wolfall led a service of communion in Frobisher Bay in Baffin Island to give thanks to God.
Of course we don’t need absolute historical accuracy to have stories worth telling. We like the stories of the Pilgrims celebrating their first harvest and are likely to repeat them again and again. And we are unlikely to tell the complete story. In fact we probably don’t know the whole truth. Given the religious convictions of the Pilgrims, for example, it is likely that part of the preparation for the feast of Thanksgiving was a period of fasting. So perhaps we ought to begin our preparations for our festival this Thursday not by shopping, but by fasting. It might be healthier than diving into a spectacle of food on a full stomach.
The day of celebration also is unclear. Our modern celebration of Thanksgiving on the fourth Thursday of November was established on December 26, 1941 by federal legislation. President Franklin D. Roosevelt had moved the date earlier in 1939 in an attempt to stimulate the economy. The uproar that followed prompted the legislation that President Roosevelt signed.
President Lincoln is credited with establishing the holiday as a nation-wide observance. He issued a proclamation in 1863 calling for the final Thursday in November to be observed as a day of Thanksgiving in an attempt to pull the fractured Union together. Because the Southern stated did not recognize Lincoln’s authority, the concept of a “nationwide” Thanksgiving did not really take effect until the 1870’s after the war.
But there is a November date from the Lincoln presidency that we do remember. On November 19, 1863, Lincoln delivered the Gettysburg Address. In the speech, Lincoln noted: “the world will little note, nor long remember what we say here.” Lincoln was wrong. The world did note what he said. Senator Charles Sumner commented a couple of years later: “The world noted at once what he said, and will never cease to remember it. The battle itself was less important than the speech.”
I memorize the speech when I was a child.
“Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.
“Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.
“But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate -- we can not consecrate -- we can not hallow -- this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us -- that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion -- that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain -- that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom -- and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”
It was recited at a wide variety of public occasions and celebrations throughout my childhood. I know very little of the dynamics of the actual battle fought at Gettysburg. But I know the words that President Lincoln said there when the national cemetery was dedicated on this day in 1863.
In a similar way, it is nearly impossible for us to predict what of our lives will be remembered by future generations. Will they remember the over-indulgence of our feast tables? I would prefer for them to remember our generosity in sharing with our neighbors. Will they remember our obsession with technologies that rapidly become dated and are replaced by more gadgets? I would prefer for them to remember our use of technologies for worldwide conversation. Will they remember our denial and inaction in the face of global climate change? I would prefer for them to note that ours was the generation that made the commitment to changing our behavior for the sake of future generations.
In each generation we are given the possibility of making history. We add to the long line of history that preceded our time. Our time, however, is short and we don’t get to choose which stories will be remembered. That will be left to those who follow us.
It does make me want to be a bit more accurate in the way that I tell the stories of my forbears.
Of course we don’t need absolute historical accuracy to have stories worth telling. We like the stories of the Pilgrims celebrating their first harvest and are likely to repeat them again and again. And we are unlikely to tell the complete story. In fact we probably don’t know the whole truth. Given the religious convictions of the Pilgrims, for example, it is likely that part of the preparation for the feast of Thanksgiving was a period of fasting. So perhaps we ought to begin our preparations for our festival this Thursday not by shopping, but by fasting. It might be healthier than diving into a spectacle of food on a full stomach.
The day of celebration also is unclear. Our modern celebration of Thanksgiving on the fourth Thursday of November was established on December 26, 1941 by federal legislation. President Franklin D. Roosevelt had moved the date earlier in 1939 in an attempt to stimulate the economy. The uproar that followed prompted the legislation that President Roosevelt signed.
President Lincoln is credited with establishing the holiday as a nation-wide observance. He issued a proclamation in 1863 calling for the final Thursday in November to be observed as a day of Thanksgiving in an attempt to pull the fractured Union together. Because the Southern stated did not recognize Lincoln’s authority, the concept of a “nationwide” Thanksgiving did not really take effect until the 1870’s after the war.
But there is a November date from the Lincoln presidency that we do remember. On November 19, 1863, Lincoln delivered the Gettysburg Address. In the speech, Lincoln noted: “the world will little note, nor long remember what we say here.” Lincoln was wrong. The world did note what he said. Senator Charles Sumner commented a couple of years later: “The world noted at once what he said, and will never cease to remember it. The battle itself was less important than the speech.”
I memorize the speech when I was a child.
“Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.
“But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate -- we can not consecrate -- we can not hallow -- this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us -- that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion -- that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain -- that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom -- and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”
It was recited at a wide variety of public occasions and celebrations throughout my childhood. I know very little of the dynamics of the actual battle fought at Gettysburg. But I know the words that President Lincoln said there when the national cemetery was dedicated on this day in 1863.
In a similar way, it is nearly impossible for us to predict what of our lives will be remembered by future generations. Will they remember the over-indulgence of our feast tables? I would prefer for them to remember our generosity in sharing with our neighbors. Will they remember our obsession with technologies that rapidly become dated and are replaced by more gadgets? I would prefer for them to remember our use of technologies for worldwide conversation. Will they remember our denial and inaction in the face of global climate change? I would prefer for them to note that ours was the generation that made the commitment to changing our behavior for the sake of future generations.
In each generation we are given the possibility of making history. We add to the long line of history that preceded our time. Our time, however, is short and we don’t get to choose which stories will be remembered. That will be left to those who follow us.
It does make me want to be a bit more accurate in the way that I tell the stories of my forbears.