Thanksgiving: more Sam Adams, less Pilgrims?

When was the first Thanksgiving? Most of us think of the Pilgrims at Plymouth in 1621. But if the question is about the first national Thanksgiving holiday, the answer is that the tradition began at a lesser-known moment in 1777 in York, Pa. . .

It was the first of many Thanksgivings ordered up by Samuel Adams. Though the holidays were almost always in November or December, the exact dates varied. (Congress didn't fix Thanksgiving on the fourth Thursday in November until 1941.) . . .

After the Revolution, Adams, who was eventually elected governor of Massachusetts, maintained the practice of declaring these holidays. . .

These statements were greeted with cynicism and derision by some of Adams's younger political opponents, who saw them as archaic. One of them, Christopher Gore, wrote a friend that it would be an occasion for a real day of thanksgiving when Adams finally retired.

Read the rest by Ira Stoll, in the Wall Street Journal.

Posted by David on November 27, 2008 1:42 PM