Threads of Gratitude and Patriotism

P laying Tripoli, making cranberry sauce, and creating splendid table centerpieces — these are popular Thanksgiving rituals in the Schutte home. But even just one house over, Thanksgiving Day might involve an entirely different set of rituals, all equally cherished and enjoyed each November. These differences and the core idea behind them are the topic of Melanie Kirkpatrick’s 2016 book, Thanksgiving: The Holiday at the Heart of the American Experience, now republished as a paperback in time for the holiday’s 400th anniversary.

Kirkpatrick sets the stage by focusing first on modern immigrants’ views of Thanksgiving, then brings readers back to that very first Thanksgiving in 1621 to put some flesh on the story. Filled with well-chosen quotations, her retelling helps us to see the members of that Plymouth colony not as vague characters in an old story but as human beings full of faith and perseverance. Her focus on these Thanksgiving roots illuminates where we may misunderstand the original tale, but she doesn’t ever chide us. Rather, she invites us to see the true ideals at the heart of that day: the gratitude felt by the Pilgrims to God for His abundant blessings of food and the friendship of the Native Americans when it was sorely needed.

With so many competing strings in the Thanksgiving tapestry, Kirkpatrick wisely chooses two to keep as the core of her book, and the entwined threads of sincere gratitude and staunch patriotism run straight through the story.

While some of the various Thanksgiving associations, such as football and turkey, may be familiar to readers, Kirkpatrick not only explores the origins of these associations, she delights readers with surprising, lesser-known historical facts. Few modern readers may know about Sarah Josepha Hale, the “godmother of Thanksgiving”; or the kerfuffle caused by FDR’s moving of the holiday in 1939–41; or that someone sent the Coolidges a raccoon for their Thanksgiving table in 1926.

Kirkpatrick has taken a many-faceted story and woven a compelling narrative that touches on both the beauties and controversies of this holiday. And there certainly are controversies, from the poor treatment of the holiday in our public schools to environmental activists decrying the millions of turkeys killed and eaten this day. Perhaps most striking is the very real concern of Native Americans and their view of the holiday. According to Kirkpatrick:

As Americans, Indians value the holiday as a day set apart to pause and count their blessings. As Native Americans, they recognize that while the First Thanksgiving represented a moment of amity between indigenous people and newcomers from the Old World, it also heralded a tragic period for their people and culture. For that reason, Thanksgiving can also be a time to reflect on the history of Native Americans’ encounters with the European colonists and to remember their ancestors who died in conflicts with the newcomers.

Kirkpatrick treats this topic with delicacy and consideration, giving readers thoughtful quotations and important insights from present-day Native American chiefs and others to help enrich our understanding of this important subject.

Balancing this key reflection with some levity is an amusing account of how San Elizario, Texas, St. Augustine, Fla., and Berkeley Plantation, Va., have — half-seriously, half-jestingly — claimed to be the original location of the first Thanksgiving in the New World. Football also gets its fair share of discussion, with an entire chapter shedding light on just why this sport is a mainstay of the holiday. Some people in the late 19th century, when Thanksgiving Day football games were gaining more popularity, thought the sport “detracted from the more important religious and familial aspects of the holiday,” but Kirkpatrick is quick to show how many more people, including a clever rabbi, thought the opposite. Neither is food forgotten, and we learn that oysters, mincemeat pies, and chicken pies all used to be Thanksgiving-table staples. As a cranberry-sauce devotee, I was horrified to learn about the Great Cranberry Scare of 1959. Thank goodness this lovely berry has regained its popularity!

From the newly added introduction to the well-curated Thanksgiving Day readings section, Thanksgiving is an attractive book. This particular reader found the art elements throughout the book delightful. Amusing, delicate, well-placed — the simple drawings are eye-catching and give the books’ ten chapters an even more cohesive feel.

Kirkpatrick holds to the themes of gratitude and patriotism through the entire book, never belaboring the point, but gently reminding the reader that:

Shades of the Pilgrims and the Wampanoag sit today at every American’s Thanksgiving table, along with the ghosts of George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Mrs. Hale, and other figures who have enriched our Thanksgiving tradition and helped to knit us together as a nation. This history, and more, is worthy of our remembrance, with grateful hearts, on Thanksgiving Day.

Readers will be hard-pressed to come away from this book without a deeper appreciation for this country and a fuller understanding of the concept of gratitude at her core.

So whether you’re home or abroad on the last Thursday of November, eating turkey or brisket (as my family will do this year — scandal!), watching football or playing cards, “On Thanksgiving Day, now and forevermore, may Americans celebrate, in Lincoln’s magnificent phrase, with ‘one heart and one voice.’”