By Deacon
Mike Manno
Thanksgiving is that one, unique
American holiday that serves as an introduction to the Christmas season. It is
both cultural and religious, depending on your particular point of view, which
can embrace either one or both at the same time.
Hopefully, most will see the holiday
as a time for family, fellowship, and gratitude for those things for which this
life has provided us. For many it will be a day of loneliness and regret.
Others will take the day as a simple day away from our normal routine and
cares.
But there are a few things, that in
this time of deep political and secular divisions, will unify most Americans: food,
football, and parades. Let’s quickly look at all three.
Food: While turkey seems to be
the popular main dish for the day, its historical links to the holiday are
rather murky. It is generally thought that the Pilgrims feasted on turkey at
the first Thanksgiving celebration with the Indians. However, there is no
indication turkey was on the menu that day. But, for religious people of that
day, a celebration of thanks would normally have occurred after a successful
harvest, which, for an agrarian people, would suggest the possibility of game
birds, but nothing more special than that.
There were similar thanksgivings
celebrated by Spanish settlers in Florida which pre-date the Pilgrims, yet
their diet would more likely have been fish, lobster, clams, and oysters, not turkey.
So why is turkey the staple of
Thanksgiving dinners? Most likely the idea was popularized by Charles Dickens’ A
Christmas Carol, published in 1843. It also should be remembered that as
Thanksgiving became more popular in America, wild turkeys had become plentiful
and cheap to acquire. Thus, turkeys are more an accident of history than a specific
diet for a special day.
Parades: The largest and best
known of the Thanksgiving parades is the Macy’s parade in New York. It is
televised throughout the United States, as well as elsewhere, by two national
networks: the official broadcast by NBC and an unofficial one by CBS. On NBC
you will hear references to Macy, on CBS you won’t.
The Macy’s parade was televised in 1939,
and NBC has been the official broadcast since 1953. The “unauthorized” coverage
by CBS began when the parade went by its New York studios. The outdoor public
events could be broadcast by anyone, but since NBC had the rights to broadcast
the parade, certain logos and performers could not be shown by CBS, which calls
the parade simply, The Thanksgiving Day Parade, rather than the official
title, The Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.
The Macy’s parade began in 1924, which
makes it the second oldest – Philadelphia was first in 1920 with Gimbel’s
parade, started by Ellis Gimbel to popularize his department store. The Macy’s
parade started with store employees marching to the store in festive costumes.
Both parades end with the appearance of Santa Clause, but in Philly in 1920
Santa not only appeared, but he also climbed a fire department ladder to
Gimbel’s eighth floor, where the toy department was located, and climbed
through the window.
The same year Macy’s started, Detroit
began its American Thanksgiving Parade, tying it for second oldest. It
was started by the J. L. Hudson department store, and while the other parades
are famous for balloon figures, Detroit is famous for the use of the Big Head
Corps, a collection of papier-mâché heads, and the Distinguished Clown Corps of
civic and business leaders dressed as clowns.
All three of the parades have appeared
each Thanksgiving, save for the war years in the early 40s in which Macy’s and
Detroit cancelled. During the Covid year 2020 the parades were produced but
closed to the public who could only see it on television or via computer.
One of the most iconic uses of the
Macy’s parade was in the 1947 film Miracle on 34th Street,
which follows the hiring of an old man, who calls himself Kris Kringle, as the
parade and store Santa Clause and his relationship to a young girl, Susan
Walker, played by a young Natalie Wood. The movie used actual footage of the
1946 parade.
Of course, there are other places
where Thanksgiving parades are held, but these three seem to be the oldest and
best known.
Football: It is now a tradition
that three NFL games are broadcast on Thanksgiving Day. The tradition started
in 1920 in a similar fashion to the collegiate practice of Thanksgiving play.
The history of the Thanksgiving game
dates back to 1876 before the NFL was formed. The University of Michigan hosted
19 Thanksgiving Day games starting in 1885. Michigan’s game against the Chicago
Maroons in 1890 has been cited as the beginning of the tradition of
Thanksgiving Day football.
Founded in Canton, Ohio in 1920, the
National Foodball League and several teams did play on Thanksgiving. In Detroit
the Lions started the tradition of hosting a Thanksgiving game in 1934 to get
people to go to the Lions’ games. The Lions lost that first game to the Chicago
Bears (16-13) before a sold-out crowd. The Lions have played in 83 such games
over the years with a 37-44-2 record.
In 1966 a second Thanksgiving game was
added by the Dallas Cowboys, and a third game was added in 2006 to satisfy the
AFC who was restricted to only play as a visiting team since both Thanksgiving
home teams, Detroit and Dallas, were NFC clubs.
During the 1939 and 1940 seasons, only
the Pittsburg Steelers and the Philadelphia Eagles played on Thanksgiving Day
due to President Franklin Roosevelt who moved the normal day for Thanksgiving
from the last Thursday of November to the second to last Thursday. He did so
because he thought that it would spur another week of Christmas shopping during
the Great Depression. The president’s date conflicted with that of some states and
was referred to as Franksgiving.
I guess the point here is that no
matter how you spend the day, try to remember what it is first and foremost:
family, friends, and faith. After that, enjoy the turkey, watch the parade, and
relax to a lot of football, if that is your taste. Can life get any better?
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