Journal of Historical Sociology Vol. 15 No. 3 September 2002
ISSN 0952-1909
On Thanksgiving and Collective Memory:
Constructing the American Tradition
AMY ADAMCZYK
Abstract Relying on the approach by Maurice Halbwachs who argued that collective
memory is based on contemporary interests and concerns, this article shows how
Thanksgiving has changed over time in accordance with the ideas of the day.
Aspects of the analysis support Barry Schwartz’s theory that commemoration
reflects the historical past. Similar to the pilgrims’ celebration, many people
commemorate Thanksgiving by, for example, feasting and praying. But in contrast
to Schwartz’s thought, this paper also shows that there are other elements of
traditions that have minimal connection with the original event. Forms of
commemoration like the Macy’s Day Parade challenge the idea that commemoration
and celebration contain some connection to the initial occasion. In general, the
findings lend support to historical research and theories that implement social
constructionist approaches.
*****
A representative story of America’s first Thanksgiving celebration
begins with the Pilgrims leaving England because of religious
persecution and moving to Holland. From there they sailed on the
Mayflower to America, and before landing at Plymouth Harbor wrote
the Mayflower Compact, often believed to be the forerunner of the
American Constitution. Unfortunately, they were not prepared for
the New England winter, but friendly Indians aided them by giving
them food. When warm weather came they planted their first crop
with the Indians’ help and after harvesting it, celebrated the first
Thanksgiving in 1621 with their Indian friends.
Although the pilgrims formed neither the first American
settlement nor were the first to have a thanksgiving celebration,
they are often remembered in those terms. Every year on the fourth
Thursday in November millions of Americans celebrate the pilgrims’
landing along with the Christian and patriotic virtues with which
they are associated by having family reunions, feasting, and
watching football games or the Macy’s Day parade on television.
Since the pilgrims were not the first to celebrate ‘thanksgiving,’ why
has this memory been perpetuated? What are the disparate ways of
commemorating Thanksgiving? To address these questions, I draw
on theories of collective memory.
Maurice Halbwachs offered one of the first theories outlining the
way present needs and concerns shape how people remember the
past. In his two major works La Memoire Collective and La
Topographie Legendaire des Evangiles, Halbwachs explains that
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human memory can only function within a collective context. These
memories change as societal needs and interests change. Halbwachs
laid the groundwork for further analysis by Maines, Sugre, Katovich1
and Lowenthal.2 Although social constructionist approaches such
as Halbwachs’s have gained popularity in recent years, there are two
other well-regarded theories, which argue that commemoration and
collective memory are not completely based on present concerns. For
example, Barry Schwartz posits that our current image of historical
figures like Washington and Lincoln, is, in part, based on the
attributes and characteristics that these people actually possessed.
Similarily, Edward Shils, Mircea Eliade, as well as the classical
sociology of Emile Durkheim argue that the origins of traditions
influence how they are later remembered.
Looking at the historical development of Thanksgiving Day, argue
that a social constructionist perspective can offer significant insight
into how the holiday evolved. I begin with an examination of other
theories on collective memory and then explain how the meaning
and collective memory of Thanksgiving Day emerged.
Issues in Collective Memory
Collective Memory has been central to many academic debates in
multiple disciplines especially with regard to national discourses. In
this section, I look at several theoretical approaches that consider
the role of the past for explaining the present – as well as the
importance of the present for explaining the past. Where these
theories vary is in their emphasis on the role of the present and the
past for explaining what and how something gets remembered.
The works of Edward Shils and Mircea Eliade emphasize the
importance of social origins for shaping our understanding of
traditions and the continuity between past and present. Shils argues
that people celebrate traditions because they desire a connection to
those who came before them. As a result, there is ‘‘an authority
inhering in symbols which derive their weight and force through
their connection with persons formerly existent, who once filled
certain roles or were members of the collectivity at an earlier state in
one’s history.’’3 Similar to Shils, in his analysis of primitive myth,
Eliade asserts that the most significant events of a society’s past
occur at the beginning. The initial events constitute a ‘‘golden age’’
and give rise to the notion that the first manifestation of a thing is
significant and valid.4
For Shils and Eliade, the origins of a tradition are imbued with
sacredness. This is similar to Emile Durkheim’s understanding of
commemoration and its importance for helping people maintain a
sense of connectedness to the past. Durkheim was one of the first
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sociologists to point out that every society requires a sense of
continuity and unity with the past, which can be maintained
through enduring memories. As he explains in The Elementary
Forms of Religious Life, conceptions of the past are cultivated and
renewed through periodic commemoration rites. The point of these
rites is not to alter the past to serve the present, but to reproduce it,
making it live as it once did.5
Durkheim, Shils, and Eliade emphasize the importance of the past
for shaping our understanding of the present. In contrast to this
perspective, one of the most widely accepted ways of understanding
the link between past and present is the social constructionist view.6
One of the leaders of this perspective is Maurice Halbwachs7 whose
understanding of collective memory follows George Herbert Mead.
Mead argued that ‘‘any reinterpretation of the picture we form of the
past will be found in the present, and will be judged by the logical
and evidential characters which such data possess in a present.’’8
Similarly, Halbwachs contrasts collective memory with historical
study. While historical study aims to tell the facts as ‘‘lived by a
group of men and the significan[ce] of these facts in regard to them,’’
collective memory is ‘‘essentially a reconstruction of the past [that]
adapts the image of ancient facts to the beliefs and spiritual needs of
the present.’’9
By drawing on the distinction between rationality and memory,
Halbwachs explains how the past comes to be shaped by the present.
While memory involves a framework of landmarks referring
exclusively to the past, rational action takes its point of departure
from conditions in which society finds itself at particular moments,
e.g. the present. Memory functions only within the context of
present-day rationality; hence, the present comes to shape the past
based on current concerns and needs. Halbwachs remarks: ‘‘When
instead of letting the past recur, we reconstruct it through an effort
of reasoning, what happens is that we distort that past, because we
wish to introduce greater coherence.’’10
To address the issue of how the individual’s memory becomes
linked with that of the collectivity, Halbwachs explains that ‘‘While
the collective memory endures and draws strength from its base in a
coherent body of people, it is individuals as group members who
remember.’’11 People are located within different groups such as
families, nations, associations and social classes. Individuals are
able to remember and recreate the past by drawing on these specific
group contexts, which is also what makes memories concrete and
meaningful. Thus, as Halbwachs explains, ‘‘Every collective memory
requires the support of a group delimited in space and time.’’12
Halbwachs follows Durkheim’s thought explaining that commemoration can reinvigorate the past. As Halbwachs explains in
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Legendary Topography of the Gospels in the Holy Land, early
Christians had no conception of ‘‘historical preoccupations such as
we think of them [instead] their memories were tied to rites of
commemoration and adoration, to ceremonies, feast, and
processions.’’13 In contrast to early Christians, Halbwachs argues
that today we have historical documentation to which we can refer
for understanding the past. But memories do not necessarily become
salient for people through historical facts, but rather through
collective memory. Because collective memory is a social
construction based on presentist needs and concerns, embedded
in the context of group affiliation, elements minimally related to
initial practices of certain traditions can become part of the
commemoration of these traditions.
Pierre Nora adds to Halbwachs’s understanding of the distinction
between collective memory and history with his volumes on the
construction of French history. Although we might think the
memory of an event would closely follow historical accounts, Nora
explains how memories become detached from their historical
antecedents. Whereas history is a representation of the past and a
reconstruction of what is no longer, memory ‘‘ceaselessly reinvents
tradition, linking the history of its ancestors to the undifferentiated
time of heroes, origins, and myths . . . it is a perpetually actual
phenomenon, a bond tying us to the eternal present.’’14 Nora links
memory to commemoration explaining that the dynamics of
commemoration have ushered in an unpredictable and capricious
use of the past. ‘‘[I]t is the present that creates the instruments of
commemoration, that seeks out dates and figures to commemorate,
that ignores some and invents others, sometimes artificially
manipulating dates and sometimes accepting dates as given but
altering their significance.’’15
In contrast to the social constructionist approach, Barry Schwartz
argues that collective memories are grounded in historical
evidence.16 For him, commemoration is a system of interlocking
symbols that enable people to comprehend the world. In his analysis
of Lincoln he points out that commemoration filled up what was
lacking in Lincoln’s memory by generalizing the qualities of others
deemed similar to him. Although Schwartz’s thought is very similar
to Halbwachs, the important distinction comes in his understanding
of the relation between history and commemoration, of which
collective memory is the major crux. As he explains, commemoration
and history are not separate lines of work.17 For example, Schwartz
acknowledges that perceptions of Abraham Lincoln have omitted
and exaggerated different qualities about the former president at
different points in time. But according to Schwartz, all of these
reconstructed images reflect at least some aspects of the ‘‘real’’
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Lincoln. At least with regard to Lincoln, commemoration is based
upon the historical record.
For Schwartz, history constrains the present because the aspect of
a past image or phenomenon that gets emphasized in the present is
taken from the past. In other words, although the present
exaggerates the past, how this is done is taken from the person or
event that spurred the memory of the past. Schwartz illustrates this
point in his analysis of how George Washington’s public image has
evolved since the Civil War. Before the Civil War, Washington was
remembered as a remote man most comfortable associating with
genteel society, and concerned with aristocratic values.18 By
contrast, after the Civil War, Washington was remembered as an
intimate man allied with common people and most concerned with
democratic values.19 Although Washington’s image changed
between the pre- and post-Civil war eras, Schwartz argues that the
‘real’ Washington was both remote and intimate and reflected both
aristocratic and democratic values. Different generations have
focused on the aspects of Washington’s character that reflected
their interests, and overlooked aspects that did not.20
The first aim of this paper is to show that presentist concerns and
interests were more important than the pilgrim’s initial celebration,
for shaping how Thanksgiving has been remembered and celebrated.
I also aim to illustrate that in accordance with Schwartz’s work on
Washington and Lincoln some of the ways Thanksgiving has been
celebrated are rooted in the initial event. By contrast, I also hope to
show that certain elements of Thanksgiving bear no relation to its
initial celebration.
This analysis of Thanksgiving is based on a variety of materials,
including presidential proclamations, speeches, poetry, first hand
accounts, magazines and other historical and social science
interpretations of the holiday. I rely most heavily on newspaper
articles, mainly from the New York Times. There are, of course,
limitations with using these materials to analyze how people
understood and celebrated the holiday. No one can be certain what
most Americans during a given era believed or felt. We can only study
the public tastes and impressions people had of Thanksgiving as they
are illustrated in these materials. Nevertheless the impression given
from these sources will reflect the public tastes, which some writers
shared and others exploited. The way people generally conceived of
the holiday should be reflected in the periodicals of that era.
The analysis presented here covers four different eras, each
signaling an important developmental moment in the meaning of
the holiday, how it is celebrated, and the collective memory that is
attached to it. I begin by looking at the late 16th and 17th centuries,
which is when the collective memory of the pilgrims was created and
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recognized on a national level. Next, I examine the period
surrounding the Civil War, which is when Thanksgiving became a
national holiday and associated with domestic sentiments and
football. I then look at how the Macy’s Day parade was established
in 1924. And, finally, I examine changing interpretations of the
holiday at the end of the 20th century.
How the Memory Was Started
Although the pilgrims are often credited with starting the annual
Thanksgiving Day celebration, they were not the first to have a
festival of this sort in America and there have been many debates over
whether their celebration was an actual ‘‘thanksgiving’’ festival. For
many centuries, days of thanksgiving were frequently observed
throughout the year to signify a deity’s beneficence. According to
Siskind, these days were characterized as serious occasions for long
sermons, prayer and abstinence from work and play, and preparation
and consumption of a meal was not an important part of the ritual.21
According to a letter sent back to ‘old England,’ the Pilgrims’
celebration in 1621 included a large meal, recreational activities like
exercising arms, entertainment, and minimal religious observance.22
The occasion then does not seem to fit the typical description of a
thanksgiving celebration. In addition, settlements before the pilgrims
had events that could be characterized as thanksgiving festivals. For
example, Europeans who arrived at Berkley Plantation in 1619
agreed to observe the day they landed as a day of thanksgiving as did
colonists traveling to Popham Colony in Maine in 1607.23 Moreover,
following their initial celebration in 1621, the pilgrims did not have
another festival for two more years and after that they only had them
sporadically to celebrate the arrival of friends and supplies from
Europe (1630) and the defeat of Indians (1637 and 1676).24
Since the Pilgrims’ initial celebration in 1621 follows a long
tradition of thanksgiving festivals and they were not the first to hold
this celebration in America, why then are they and their initial
celebration, remembered and commemorated as the first
Thanksgiving? By looking at how the pilgrims came to be
remembered we will see that a general interest in forefathers at the
end of the 17th century sparked the collective memory of the
pilgrims, which then flourished during the Revolutionary War
because the pilgrims came to signify America’s break from England.
Although early Americans were not interested initially in
remembering the pilgrims’ first celebration, in the late 17th century
people began to develop a general interest in and idealize early
settlers. As Dixon Wecter points out, around 1675 ‘‘a spirit of
romance . . . turned to a composite ideal called the Pilgrim Fathers or
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the Puritans.’’25 In 1676 an early Boston schoolmaster named
Benjamin Tompson illustrated this point in his poetry where he
dreamed about the first settlers and their ‘‘golden times, too
fortunate to hold,’’
‘‘No sooner pagan malice peeped forth
But valor snubbed it. Then were men of worth,
Who by their prayers slew thousands; angel-like,
Their weapons are unseen, with which they strike.’’26
Although in the late 1600’s people began to romanticize early
settlers, the symbol of the Pilgrim fathers was important for only
those who resided in the Northeast. Southerners did not begin to
participate in this celebration until the American Revolution. It was
shortly before this time that the flight of the pilgrims to the New
World from English tyranny was seen to have patriotic meaning. The
Mayflower compact made the ‘Pilgrim Forefathers’ appear
particularly democratic. In response to the Boston Tea Party, John
Dickinson in 1768 wrote one of the most popular poems of the time,
‘‘The Liberty Song’’:
‘‘Our worthy Forefathers-let’s give them a cheerTo Climates unknown did courageously steer;
Thro’ Oceans to Deserts for Freedom they came,
And dying bequeath’d us their Freedom and Fame.’’27
In addition to the Liberty Song, other poems such as the
Massachusetts Liberty Song and speeches such as Peter St. John’s
‘‘Taxation on America’’ became popular. They honored the
forefathers and invigorated feelings of patriotism. Washington added
to these feelings by giving the first national Thanksgiving
proclamation at his presidential inauguration in 1789. He used his
proclamation to mark the establishment of the Constitution and give
thanks to God for the new nation.
‘‘[Let’s all give thanks] for His kind care and protection of the people of this country,
previous to their becoming a nation . . . for the peaceable and rational manner in which
we have been enabled to establish Constitutions of Government for our safety and
happiness and particularly the national one now lately instituted; for the civil and
religious liberty with which we are blessed.. .’’28
The Pilgrims’ first Thanksgiving was not remembered continuously from the initial events, rather the memory was sought after
and developed later because people in America became generally
interested in early settlers. Likewise, during the period leading up to
the American Revolution, Americans sought out the pilgrims’ story
and imagery because it expressed and invigorated feelings of
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patriotism. As Halbwachs explains, collective memories change
according to the needs and concerns of each generation. The
analysis of Thanksgiving seems to take this point even further as
present concerns determined what, if anything, about the pilgrims
and how their initial celebration should and would be remembered.
Civil War, Changes in Industry, and the Making of a Tradition
Although in 1789 Washington issued the first national Thanksgiving
Day proclamation, the holiday was not yet associated with spending
time with family and friends or coming home, and the day was not
yet established as a ‘national’ holiday. In addition, subsequent
presidential proclamations were only sporadically given as some
presidents, such as Thomas Jefferson, thought giving a Thanksgiving Day proclamation would indirectly assume authority over
religious exercises, which were forbidden by the Constitution.29 If we
look at the needs of the nation shortly after the Civil War, we will see
that interests in social solidarity and family created a need for the
holiday.
Thanksgiving Day was officially established in 1863 shortly after
the battle at Gettysburg. The Civil War had been a devastating blow
to the new country and, as Robert Bellah points out, it involved so
much national self-understanding that it required an expression in
the civil religion.30 Thanksgiving marked this important moment in
America’s history. Abraham Lincoln expresses this sentiment in his
proclamation, which he couches in terms of the war and God’s
blessings on the nation:
‘‘In the midst of a civil war of unequalled magnitude and severity, which has
sometimes seemed to foreign states to invite and to provoke their aggression, peace
has been preserved. . . . The year that is drawing towards its close, has been filled with
the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies. . . . No human counsel hath devised
nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of
the Highest God.’’31
Immediately following the war the major political and cultural
challenges were to find some common ground on which the North
and South might envision themselves as part of a national family.
According to Cecilia Elizabeth O’Leary, leaders in this movement,
particularly Black southerners, tried to create this union by linking
patriotism to racial equality and democracy.32 Although Thanksgiving imagery was used to express racial aversion, there were some
that clearly expressed equality and democracy. For example, in
1869, a cartoon by Thomas Nast appeared in Harper’s Weekly on
November 20, 1869 entitled ‘‘Uncle Sam’s Thanksgiving Dinner’’,
which shows an optimistic view of the holiday as a metaphor for the
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Figure 1.
peaceful diversity of the nation. Beneath the portraits of Lincoln,
Washington, and President Grant, Uncle Sam carves a turkey for his
multinational guests, which include Columbia (The United States)
seated between an Asian family that is being hosted by an AfricanAmerican family. Included in the scene are mottos like, ‘‘Come One,
Come All,’’ ‘‘Free and Equal,’’ ‘‘Self Government,’’ and ‘‘Universal
Suffrage.’’
In addition to representing patriotism and social solidarity, the
holiday at this time was being cultivated into a domestic occasion.
One of the people who helped persuade Lincoln to make
Thanksgiving an official holiday was Sarah Josepha Hale, and she
also had an important influence on establishing the day as a quiet
occasion to spend with family. In 1827, when she was the editor of
the Boston Ladies’ Magazine, Hale began writing editorials to have
Thanksgiving recognized as a national holiday.33 She also sent
hundreds of letters to governors, presidents and anyone else who
she thought might be influential in advancing her ideas. In her
editorials, Hale emphasized the national and domestic aspects of the
holiday such as coming home. As she explains in her last article
before Thanksgiving Day was ‘officially’ declared a national holiday,
‘‘The pious and loving thought that every American was joining in
heart with the beloved family at home and with the church to which
he belonged would thrill his soul with the purest feelings of
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patriotism and the deepest emotions of thankfulness. . .’’34 Hale’s
efforts and emphasis on coming home to spend time with family were
supported by the New York Times and Harper’s Weekly, as the latter
explains, ‘‘This private celebration, in the thanksgiving dinner is the
most attractive feature of the occasion. It is not the costly dinner that
gives it its value and chief attraction, but the opportunity thus
afforded for the social mingling of family relatives and nearest
friends.’’35
Like the emphasis on patriotism after the Civil War, Hale’s focus
on the domestic aspects of the holiday, such as coming home and
spending time with family, reflected the interests and concerns of the
era. As Rogers M. Smith explains, the nation at this time was
crossing the watershed between a largely agrarian society of small
family farms to a new manufacturing one with large corporations
and masses of workers.36 Industrial and commercial revolutions
dislocated the family and a large-scale migration from New England
had begun to weaken kinship ties. The ritual of returning home at
Thanksgiving made it possible to reconcile individualism and
obligation to family, and it also affirmed the importance of the
extended family.37
How Football Became a Part of the Holiday
Thirteen years after Lincoln made the holiday ‘official’, the first
Thanksgiving football game was played on a field at Stevens Instate,
Hoboken, New Jersey. The trend rapidly grew and by 1895 the
Chicago Tribune estimated that as many as 120,000 athletes were
involved in Thanksgiving Day games throughout the country.38
Today, millions of Americans will watch football with friends and
family on Thanksgiving Day. However, football, in addition to rugby,
its precursor, had not yet been invented when the pilgrims had their
celebration in 1621. Moreover, the first Thanksgiving Day game was
not held until thirteen years after Lincoln made the holiday official. If
we take a look at the relationship between football and American and
Christian virtues during the nineteenth century, we will see that
football was introduced and remained a part of the holiday because
it could be shaped to enrich the national and later the domestic
meaning of the Thanksgiving celebration.
Prior to the mid nineteenth century many Christians were
opposed to sports because they thought they had a tendency toward
idleness, worldly pleasure and gambling. However, in the mid
nineteenth century when changes took place in industry,
technology, physical sciences and the social climate, people began
to associate sports and physical fitness with Christian and American
virtues such as self-reliance, courage, endurance, and self-denial. As
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many young men migrated to major cites in search of work, there
was growing concern with how they would spend their free time. The
Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA) describes the situation of
men in London during the mid nineteenth century, ‘‘Far from home
and family, these young men often lived at the workplace. They slept
in crowded rooms over the company’s shop, a location thought to be
safer than London’s tenements and streets. Outside the shop things
were bad – open sewers, pickpockets, thugs, beggars, drunks, lovers
for hire and abandoned children running wild by the thousands.’’39
As they built lives for themselves in major cities, physical fitness
came to be seen as an acceptable way for young men to spend their
free time.40 With 397 locations across America and Europe in 1853,
YMCAs played a major role in encouraging and providing a place for
them to do this. Because it was also a Christian organization the
YMCA contributed to the link between Christian virtues and sports.
As the relationship between sports and morality developed,
organized games such as football began to be seen as a way to
display national ideals. In 1889 a distinguished spokesmen for
sports and Harvard geology professor, Nathaniel Shaler, announced
that ‘‘football was coming to be seen as both a moral training ground
and a mirror of American industrial capitalism.’’41 Around this same
time a writer for Outlook contended that ‘out of the old Rugby game
the people of the United States have made a game of unified team
play that is distinctive and unique, corresponding to something
fundamental in American instincts which it expresses and
satisfies.’’42 After the game was associated with both American and
Christian virtues, college football began to be played on
Thanksgiving Day. A YMCA writer in 1892 explains the significance
of football on Thanksgiving Day as he tries to justify the lack of
church attendance as a result of it. ‘‘Because the old way of keeping
Thanksgiving Day Christian is no longer adequate to hold the young
men, does not prove that young men are becoming un-Christian . . .
[rather] it suggests a new way to make them more Christian than
they ever were under the old observances.’’43 After football games
became televised, people could remain at home and celebrate the
holiday by listening and watching the game with family and
friends.44 In this way football became associated with the domestic
aspects of the occasion.
Fantasticals and the Macy’s Day Parade
In addition to football, many Americans watch the Macy’s Day
Parade on Thanksgiving Day. Macy’s sponsored its first parade in
1924, which was an almost instant success, and since that time it
has continued to offer one annually. However, unlike football, the
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parade has seldom been associated with national or religious
sentiments. In fact, writing in 1924, journalist Samuel Strauss
explained that the parade was to stand for ‘‘Consumptionism’’ and
not for traditions invoking poverty (feeding the ‘poor’) or ethnic
heritage.45 By looking at how the Macy’s Day parade developed we
will see that parades in the form of marching fantasticals and
ragamuffins have long been a part of the tradition. After
Thanksgiving Day became a national holiday and domestic occasion,
parades were still considered a somewhat acceptable way to
celebrate because for many years they had been associated in some
form with the day.
During the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries in many
major North East American suburbs and cities such as New York,
groups of men and boys would dress up in women’s clothing, and
parade through the city blowing horns, making noise, getting drunk
and harassing pedestrians on Thanksgiving Day. The men who
participated in these events were referred to as Fantastics or
Fantasticals and the custom, according to Elizabeth Pleck, seems
to be derived from the English practice of masquerading door to door
for treats.46 In addition to Thanksgiving, the Fantasticals would
parade on other major holidays such as New Year’s Day, Christmas,
Fourth of July, Washington’s Birthday, Easter Monday.47 An article
in the New York Times for November 1885 when the practice was
quickly declining describes one of the parades:
‘‘A mass of moving, shouting beings, whose costumes were as varied as the whims of a
coquette, dazzling the eye with the variegated brilliancy of a kaleidoscope flitted about
on the dancing platform with a quick step the pace of which Strauss’s most charming
waltz could not have accelerated.’’48
In addition to parading in women’s clothing, the Fantasticals
would often blacken their faces and masquerade as African
Americans. On December 1, 1911 an interesting article appears in
the New York Times about the recent Thanksgiving Day events. The
title reads, ‘‘Hooting Mob Chased Black-Face Mummer: Crowd
Thought Blonde Columbine Had a Negro Escort and Started Hue
and Cry, Both Were White Youths.’’ According to the article, as
20,000 people gathered to participate in and watch the
masquerading, a crowd mistook a white boy and his partner for a
black man and a white woman. After someone shouted that it was a
black man and white women a crowd gathered and started to chase,
throw stones, and yell at the couple.
Elements of black minstrelsy in the fantasticals performance
expressed the racial relations that prevailed in the nineteenth and
early twentieth century. Referring to minstrelsy, Robert Toll explains
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that the ridiculed caricatures of African-Americans by working class
white men demonstrated the tensions between the two groups who
were competing for similar jobs and resources.49 Like the fantastics’
parades, Susan Davis explains that ‘‘Christmas impersonations, like
minstrel shows, mocked urban blacks’ attempts to ‘act white’; that
is, to participate equally in city life the homemade masquerades were
part of an informal means of creating group unity.’’50 Eric Lott adds
more complexity to this display of racial aversion explaining that
these performances embodied a peculiar kind of love, although more
akin to identification than affection. Minstrelsy was ordered by ‘‘envy
as well as repulsion, sympathetic identification as well as fear.’’51
Along with racial tension, blackening up and then being able to wash
off the burnt cork to bare white skin expressed for immigrant groups
like the Jews, according to Michael Rogin, their assimilation into the
racially exclusionary American melting pot.52
In addition to illustrating the racial tensions, Fantasticals also
expressed the strained relations between poor and middle classes.
Writing in 1908, novelist W. D. Howells explains that, while the
middle classes recognized the holiday as a domestic occasion, ‘‘The
poor recognized the day largely as a sort of carnival,’’ a time to get
drunk and break rules.53 The way the working class behaved on
Thanksgiving collided with the private celebration and middle-class
expectations for behavior on the holiday. The different ways of
celebrating revealed the tensions between the two groups and
created an occasion for the people within them to express their
solidarity.
In 1885 the New York Times described the Fantasticals’ masquerading as ‘‘Fun of a Lively Sort’’54 and in 1870 a Pennsylvania
newspaper editorial defended the Fantastics on the grounds that ‘‘it
is better to be merry than sad.’’55 However, by the beginning of the
nineteenth century the Fantasticals had dissolved into bans of
children called ragamuffins who would dress up in Fantastics’
clothing and go door to door begging for money. Charitable
organizations, government officials, and the middle class
disapproved of the children’s begging on the grounds that it did
not fit with the ‘meaning’ of the holiday. A November 1911 New York
Times article affirmed this sentiment; ‘‘Here in New York we are in
danger of falling into a custom which is inconsistent with the whole
spirit of the day. This is the habit of giving pennies and larger coins
to children who put on fantastic clothing. . .’’56 Similarly, a November
1913 article protests against the children, ‘‘With the recurrence of
Thanksgiving one of our most characteristic national holidays, we
must expect to have the cheer of the day again molested by the
hordes of ill-bred, ungovernable children. . .’’57 Likewise, a November
1920 newspaper article submits an ‘‘Annual Protest’’ explaining, ‘‘It
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is difficult to understand by what crook of fate it happened that
‘Ragamuffins’ Day’ and ‘Thanksgiving Day’ occur on one and the
same date. Certainly the two occasions could not be more opposite in
meaning and signification. . .’’58
Why the Fantasticals’ disruptive behavior declined and people
began to see the ragamuffins’ begging as inappropriate is related to
the changing social climate in America at the turn of the century.
Between 1890 and 1920 an influx of immigrants produced a greater
fear of social disorder that resulted in public disapproval of the
Thanksgiving holiday’s disruptive aspects. According to Pleck, there
is no evidence that misrule was more disruptive than before, but the
public now felt more threatened by even minor disturbances of
peace.59
Along with a greater concern over social disorder, the government
became increasingly interested in ways to ‘‘Americanize’’ new
immigrants, who were seen as failing to be sufficiently American.
One of the major ways they did this was through public education.
As Rogers M. Smith points out, few scholars would disagree that one
of the major functions of public education at the turn of the century
was propagation of cultural homogeneity.60 Americanization in
public schools was, as Desmond King explains, transmitted through
English language instruction, expressing allegiance to the American
flag, singing American songs, learning about the historical narrative
of the United States, and celebrating American holidays such as
Thanksgiving.61 By the 1920’s Thanksgiving had become the most
frequently celebrated holiday of the school year.62 It encouraged
immigrant children to celebrate with their fellow citizens the
founding of the nation and collectively remember the struggles and
successes of the pilgrims – the ‘first’ group of immigrants, who were
also model citizens, imbued with religious conviction, and members
of a Chosen people. For national sentiments to be consistently
associated with Thanksgiving Day, aspects of the holiday such as
begging, drinking and harassment, which were socially disruptive
and inconsistent, had to be eliminated.
Although the Fantasticals and ragamuffins gradually disappeared, they paved the way for the Macy’s Day parade, which
started in 1924 and included floats such as the Old Lady Who Lived
in a Shoe, Little Miss Muffet and Red Riding Hood.63 There were also
marching bands, acrobats, men on stilts, clowns, wild animals in
cages, Santa, and numerous children of Macy’s employees dressed
as the comic strip characters Mutt and Jeff.64 Because they thought
the events did not fit with the patriotic and religious meaning of the
holiday, the parade was protested by groups such as the Allied
Patriotic Society (APS), which was made up of citizens interested in
preserving what they believed valuable in American life, including
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the exclusion of communist ideas 65 and restrictions on
immigration.66 Hugh White Adams, a member of the APS explained
to a New York Times’ editor in 1926 ‘‘that there was growing up in
America an attempt to vilify the Pilgrim fathers; and that
Thanksgiving Day was the suitable day for worshiping their memory.
A parade put on by a commercial house should not be allowed on
that day.’’67 However, the APS could not gain enough support to get
the parade cancelled. The closest they came was in 1926 when they
convinced Macy’s to move the parade to the afternoon instead of the
morning because it interfered with morning worship services.68 But
a few years later Macy’s returned to the earlier time presumably so
that the parade would not compete with afternoon football games.69
Although it did not express the ‘national’ meaning of the holiday, the
Macy’s Day parade gained acceptance because it was not disruptive.
In addition, Northeastern parades in the form of ragamuffins and
Fantasticals had long been associated with this and other major
holidays.70
Collective Memory and Change
The analysis of the Macy’s Day parade shows how the holiday has
become conflated with the celebration of others. Similar to football,
the parade also illustrates how the concerns and needs of the era
affect the way it is celebrated and represented. But in addition to the
influence of contemporary interests, there is another way that the
celebration of the holiday, its memory, and what it symbolizes, has
evolved, and that is when forgotten elements of the tradition are
brought to light. Drawing on the historic past, many Native
Americans and their sympathizers see the holiday today as
representing the defeat of native peoples and the exploitation of
other ethnic groups at the hands of white settlers.
As mentioned above, since their initial celebration, the pilgrims
had additional harvest festivals and thanksgivings for a variety of
different reasons. One of the subsequent thanksgivings was the
celebration of triumph by the people in Plymouth after Captain
Church, who was from Plymouth colony and led a ranger company
that supported the English army, defeated the Wamapanoag and
their leader, King Philip. The Wampanoag was an Indian tribe
located in Southeastern Massachusetts, not far from the Pilgrim’s
settlement. Squanto, who was one of the first people to befriend the
Pilgrims and show them how to plant crops, was originally from this
tribe. According to the records of Plymouth church, as the
congregation at Plymouth finished their Thanksgiving, Captain
Church’s company returned carrying the head of King Philip.71 As
the text on the plaque commemorating King Philip in Plymouth’s
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Post Office Square explains, ‘‘his head was impaled on a pike and
was displayed near this site for more than 20 years. One hand was
sent to Boston, the other to England. King Philip’s wife and son,
along with the families of many of the Native American combatants,
were sold into slavery in the West Indies by the English victors.’’72
Since it was one of the early thanksgiving celebrations, the holiday
could be seen as representing the defeat of Native Americans. In
addition, although many Americans see Thanksgiving as a time to
celebrate the first European settlement, Europeans brought
genocide, disease and war to millions of Indians. However, until
recently little attention on a national level has been given to the
Native Americans’ perspective of the celebration and meaning of
Thanksgiving Day. But in 1970 this perspective gained national
attention when Wamsutta, a descendent of the Wampanoag Tribe,
which first met the pilgrims, was asked by the Commonwealth of
Massachusetts to deliver a speech celebrating the 350th anniversary
of the landing of the pilgrims. Before he delivered it, the Department
of Commerce and Development reviewed Wamsutta’s speech, found
it unacceptable, and asked that he change it. In the speech,
Wamsutta explained that after they arrived, the pilgrims robbed
his ancestors’ graves, and stole corn, beans and other provisions for
the winter.73 He pointed out how ‘‘the early Pilgrim settlers led the
Indian to believe that if he did not behave, they would dig up the
ground and unleash the great epidemic again.’’74 And he mentioned
how the white man sold natives into slavery, took their land, and
abused it.
Instead of speaking at the anniversary, Wamsutta gathered with a
few hundred other Native Americans and their supporters on
Thanksgiving Day in 1970 to observe the first National Day of
Mourning, which ‘‘honors Native ancestors and the struggles of
Native peoples to survive today.’’75 The ceremony of mourning
turned into a demonstration that included speeches denouncing the
‘white man’s society’ and symbolic destruction of Plymouth Rock
and a replica of the Mayflower.76 The demonstrators covered
Plymouth rock with piles of sand and after boarding the replica of
the Mayflower they tossed a pilgrim dummy overboard and replaced
the flag of St. George with the flag that had flown over liberated
Alcatraz Island.
Since these events, American Indians and their supporters gather
every Thanksgiving Day in Plymouth to observe the National Day of
Mourning, and this has often included a demonstration of some
kind. Although most of the demonstrations have been peaceful, in
1997 a number of protesters were arrested on charges of disorderly
conduct and riotous assembly; in turn some alleged police
brutality.77 To settle charges of police misconduct, Plymouth officials
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agreed to put up $100,000 to educate the public about Indian
history. They also allowed American Indians to post in Plymouth two
plaques; one to honor King Philip and another commiserating the
National Day of Mourning.78
Wamsutta and others have brought to light forgotten elements of
the pilgrims’ story, which is contributing to a shift in the holiday’s
meaning. The reason for this shift is related to developments in
America’s social climate. In the late nineteenth and early twentieth
century, the pilgrims represented for many new Americans an
immigrant group, which had struggled and successfully made a life
for itself in America. For recent immigrants the holiday provided
hope for the future, a national identity, and solidarity with other
Americans. However, as European immigration has slowed and the
Civil Right’s Movement has passed, attention has been gradually
brought to the inconsistency between the traditional story of
Thanksgiving and how many Americans came to the United States
on slave ships79 or how people such as native Americans were largely
destroyed because of European settlements. As events such as the
killing of King Philip and his people are reintroduced, more people
are recognizing that the pilgrims’ story is not applicable to everyone
or shared by every community. Many schools still have Thanksgiving
Day pageants and numerous textbooks continue to give the
traditional story. Nevertheless, many Americans are beginning to
see the holiday simply as a time to be thankful for what one has, or
they have tried to incorporate the struggles of groups, such as
American Indians, into their interpretation of the tradition.
Conclusion
This paper has sought to show how perceptions of Thanksgiving Day
have changed many times throughout history. As Halbwachs’
argues, collective memory reconstructs the past rather than
preserving it whole. The past is reconstructed with the aid of the
material traces, rites, text and traditions left behind, and with the
aid of recent psychological and social data.80 We have seen that as
time has passed, Americans’ interpretation of the pilgrims’ first
Thanksgiving events, as well as the associated symbolism, changed
dramatically. In the late seventeenth century and early eighteenth
century, a desire to generate patriotic fervor in the face of war and
concerns with further nation building gave rise to the initial
construction of collective memory of the pilgrims’ Thanksgiving
Day. Then, in the late nineteenth century at the end of the Civil War,
Lincoln made the holiday official. Eventually, the holiday became a
domestic occasion due in part to the influence of editorials in a
popular women’s magazine. Thirteen years later, football was
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incorporated into the Day’s celebration because people felt the game
represented patriotism and Christian values. At the turn of the
twentieth Century, the Macy’s Day Parade superceded the
marauding fantasticals and ragamuffins of a previous age. Finally,
in contemporary times, criticism by Native Americans and their
supporters has prompted further reevaluation of the meaning of
Thanksgiving.
This analysis shows that theories emphasizing the influence of the
past on current collective memories cannot explain how Thanksgiving has been transformed over the years into the holiday as
currently commemorated. In Shils’ theory of tradition, the past
becomes infused with sacredness because of its origins, and initial
events determine what comes later.81 If the main influence for
Thanksgiving was the pilgrim’s initial celebration, neither the Macy’s
Day parades nor football games would have become integrated into
the holiday.
Although Thanksgiving’s origins may not be critical to the
celebration today, we retain some symbolic connection to the initial
events. Contemporary interests shape how people celebrated the
pilgrims, but some elements of the tradition are connected to the past,
in support of Schwartz’s theory of collective memory. For Schwartz,
collective memory ‘‘is a representation of the past embodied in both
commemorative symbolism and historical evidence.’’82 Moreover, the
present, according to Schwartz, can sustain different memories,
which is perhaps illustrated best in the different representations of
Thanksgiving reflected in contemporary American society.83 Similar to
the pilgrims’ initial celebration, many people today celebrate the
holiday by having a large meal accompanied by a prayer where they
may give thanks for God’s blessings. For others, Thanksgiving
symbolizes European settlers invading indigenous Americans’ land,
and by analogy, persistent mistreatment of other minorities.
Like Schwartz, Halbwachs argues that shifts in collective memory
take place in accordance with larger societal changes. Although it is
possible for various groups in society to reconstruct the past in very
different ways, Halbwachs argues that society can only congeal if
there is sufficient consensus among these different perspectives. In
order to achieve relative consensus, individual and group memories
that diverge from the norm may be suppressed. Society will also
rearrange its recollections in such a way as to adjust them to the
variable conditions of its equilibrium.84 The different memories
maintained by various groups in America illustrate this shifting
equilibrium.
Although some elements of the tradition have a link to the initial
event, there are others that have a minimal relation to the historical
events, which challenges the idea that forms of commemoration and
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celebration always contain some connection to origins. Perhaps the
clearest example of this is the Macy’s Day parade. Taking cues from
the Fantasticals and other holidays like Halloween and New Year’s
Day, the parade illustrates how the tradition has been conflated with
that of other celebrations. The parade contains some elements of
American pop culture. For example, characters like Snoopy and Bart
Simpson now appear and Santa Clause comes at the end of the
parade. These characters are tied to the symbolic message that it is
the beginning of the gift giving and buying season. However, the
Macy’s Day Parade bears no resemblance to initial Thanksgiving
celebrations, nor any relation to early thanksgiving concerns such as
the nation’s origins or Christianity.
Commemoration is linked to collective memory in the sense that it
reinvigorates what gets remembered through union with others.
Historical accounts potentially challenge the authority and
authenticity of collective memory but group affiliations, which
maintain collective memories, preclude the application of historical
analysis to collective memory.
As this analysis of Thanksgiving has shown, present interests and
needs are the main source of change in collective memory and
commemoration. Although some collective memories are grounded
in historical accounts, other elements of commemoration emerge sui
generis. On Thanksgiving, participants may find as much meaning
from the Macy’s Day Parade and football, of relatively recent origin,
as centuries-old traditions like eating turkey and feeling patriotic.
Commemoration can formulate and perpetuate new memories and
meaningful forms of celebration bearing no relation to the initial
event.
Acknowledgement
The author gratefully acknowledges David Lavin for support on an
early version of this paper and Jacob Felson for comments and
encouragement on the final draft. A version of this article was
presented at the 2001 annual meeting of the American Sociological
Association.
Notes
1
David Maines, Noreen Surge, and Michael Katovich, ‘‘The Sociological
Import of G. H. Mead’s Theory of the Past’’ American Sociological Review 48
(1983: 161–173).
2
David Lowenthal, The Past is a Foreign Country, (Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press, 1985).
3
Edward Shils, Center and Periphery: Essays in Macrosociology,
(Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1975), 198.
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4
Amy Adamczyk
Mircea Eliade, Myth and Reality, (New York: Harper & Row, 1963), 34.
Emile, Durkheim, Elementary Forms of Religious Life, (New York: The
Free Press, 1995).
6
See Eric Hobsbawm and Terence Ranger, ed., The Invention of Tradition,
(London: Cambridge University Press, 1983). Howard Schuman and
Jacqueline Scott, ‘‘Generations and Collective Memories,’’ American
Sociological Review 54, (1989: 359–381).
7
Maurice Halbwachs, On Collective Memory, (Chicago, The University of
Chicago Press, 1950). For an elaboration of Halbwachs’s s theory see Paul
Connerton, How Societies Remember, (Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press, 1989).
8
George Herbert Mead, The Philosophy of the Present, (Chicago: Open
Court Publishing Company, 1932), 29.
9
Maurice Halbwachs, La Topographie Legendaire des Evangiles (The
Legendary Topography), (Paris: Presses Universitaires de France, 1941), 7.
10
Halbwachs, On Collective Memory and Legions of Topography, 183.
11
Maurice Halbwachs, The Collective Memory, (New York: Harper & Row,
1951), 48.
12
Halbwachs, The Collective Memory, 84.
13
Halbwachs, On Collective Memory, 222.
14
Pierre Nora, ‘‘Between Memory and History,’’ Representations 26 (1989:
7–25), 8.
15
Pierre Nora, ‘‘The Era of Commemoration,’’ in Realms of Memory: The
Construction of the French Past, Volume III: Symbols, edited by Lawrence D.
Kritzman, translated by Arthur Goldhammer, (New York: Columbia
University Press), 618.
16
Barry Schwarz, ‘‘Collective Memory and History: How Abraham Lincoln
Became a Symbol of Racial Equality,’’ The Sociological Quarterly 38 (1997:
469-496), 471.
17
Schwartz, ‘‘Collective Memory and History,’’ 491.
18
Barry Schwartz, ‘‘Social Change and Collective Memory: The
Democratization of George Washington,’’ American Sociological Review 56
(1991: 221–236), 232.
19
Schwartz, ‘‘Social Change and Collective Memory,’’ 232.
20
Schwartz reiterates his point in his analysis of how Abraham Lincoln
became a sign of racial equality. He explains that ‘‘if Lincoln’s historical role
had been less decisive, his place in the black community’s memory would not
now be what it is. African Americans made Lincoln a symbol of racial equality
by starting with the real man and improving him.’’ See Schwarz, ‘‘Collective
Memory and History.’’ See also Barry Schwartz, ‘‘The Social Context of
Commemoration: A Study in Collective Memory,’’ Social Forces 61 (1982:
374–399).
21
James Baker cited in Janet Siskind, ‘‘The Invention of Thanksgiving: A
Ritual of American Nationality,’’ Critique of Anthropology 12 (1992: 167–191),
170.
22
Mourt’s Relation or Journal of the Plantation at Plymouth, (Boston: John
Kimball Wiggin, 1865). The documents found here are usually cited as
Mourt’s relation on account of the signature of G. Mourt, found at the end of
the address to the reader, though it is clear that he did no more than
commend the work to the public. There is general agreement that G. Mourt
was George Morton, and that the Relation was the work of William Bradford
and Edward Winslow.
23
Edwin T. Greninger, ‘‘Thanksgiving: An American Holiday,’’ Social
Science 54 (1979: 3–15). 4. See also Siskind, ‘‘The Invention of Thanksgiving,’’
170.
5
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24
Robert Myers, Celebrations: The Complete Book of American Holidays
(New York: Doubleday and Company, Inc., 1972), 277.
25
Dixon Wecter, The Hero in America: A Chronicle of Hero-Worship,
(Michigan: University of Michigan Press, 1963), 42.
26
Cited in Wecter, The Hero in America, 42.
27
Cited in Wecter, The Hero in America, 43.
28
Cited in Myers, Celebrations, 278.
29
Many of the southern states were also slow to establish the holiday
because presumably they did not like the idea that New Englanders who were
urging abolition were promoting the occasion. See Greninger, ‘‘Thanksgiving:
An American Holiday,’’ 4–5.
30
Robert N. Bellah, Beyond Belief: Essays on Religion in a Post-Traditional
World, (Berkeley: University of California Press), 176.
31
Abraham Lincoln, The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln VI, 1862–
1863 ed. Roy Basler and Christian Basler (New Jersey: Rutgers University
Press), 496.
32
Cecilia Elizabeth O’Leary, To Die For: The Paradox of American
Patriotism, (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1999.
33
Myers, Celebrations, 279.
34
Sarah Josepha Hale, Godey’s Lady’s Book of Philadelphia, (1863).
(Quoted in Myers, Celebrations, 280).
35
‘‘Thanksgiving,’’ Harper’s Weekly, November 30, 1867, 754. See also
‘‘Thanksgiving,’’ Harper’s Weekly, November 28, 1868, 762 and The New
York Times, November 25, 1864.
36
Rogers M. Smith, Civic Ideals: Conflicting Visions of Citizenship in U.S.
History, (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1997), 349.
37
Elizabeth Pleck, ‘‘The Making of the Domestic Occasion: The History of
Thanksgiving in the United States,’’ Journal of Social History (1999: 773–
789), 775.
38
‘‘Chicago Tribute, November 29, 1895; 13. (Cited in Pope, ‘‘God Games
and Glory’’).
39
‘‘A Brief History of the YMCA Movement,’’ YMCA Official Website,
www.ymca.com 7/20/00.
40
A New York YMCA illustrates this point in 1866 with its statement of
purpose in 1866 to improve the ‘‘spiritual, mental, social and physical
condition of young men.’’ See ‘‘A Brief History of the YMCA Movement,’’ 2000.
41
Nathaniel S. Shaler, Atlantic, (1889). Quoted in Steven W. Pope, ‘‘God,
Games and National Glory: Thanksgiving and the Ritual of Sport in American
Culture, 1876–1926,’’ International Journal of the History of Sport 10 (1993:
242-249), 243.
42
‘‘The Fall War Game,’’ The Outlook, November 2, 1927; 369.
43
Warren H. Wilson, ‘‘College Department,’’ Young Men’s Era 18 (1892),
1554.
44
Pleck has pointed out the irony of the football game characterized as a
‘family’ event. As Peck explains, mostly men listen to the game, which it noted
for its aggressive body contact, warlike language, male bonding, and the
ability of contestants to withstand pain. Similarly, it is mostly women who
make the Thanksgiving Day meal. The separate activities in which the sexes
participate in creates gender segregation on what is usually considered a
family holiday. See Pleck, ‘‘The Making of the Domestic Occasion,’’ 782–783.
45
William Leach, Land of Desire: Merchants, Power, the Rise of a New
American Culture, (New York: Pantheon Books, 1993), 334.
46
Pleck, ‘‘The Making of the Domestic Occasion,’’ 776.
47
See also Myers, Celebrations, 114.
48
‘‘Fun of a Lively Sort,’’ New York Times, November 27, 1885; 8.
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49
Robert Toll, Blacking Up: The Minstrel Show in Nineteenth-Century
America, (New York, 1974).
50
Susan Davis, ‘‘Making Night Hideous: Christmas Revelry and Public
Order In Nineteenth-Century Philadelphia,’’ American Quarterly 34 (1982:
185–198),193
51
Eric Lott, Love and Theft: Blackface Minstrelsy and the American
Working Class, (New York: Oxford University Press, 1993), 8.
52
Michael Rogin, Blackface, White Noise: Jewish Immigrants in the
Hollywood Melting Pot, (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1996).
53
W. D. Howells, Through the Eye of the Needle: A Romance, (New York:
Harper and Brothers Publishers, 1907), 48.
54
‘‘Fun of a Lively Sort,’’ New York Times, November 27, 1885; 8.
55
Alfred L. Shoemaker, ‘‘Fantasticals,’’ Pennsylvania Dutchman 4 (1953),
31.
56
‘‘Don’t Give to Mummers,’’ New York Times, November, 29, 1911; 10.
57
‘‘Thanksgiving Nuisances,’’ New York Times, November 26, 1913; 10.
58
‘‘An Annual Protest,’’ New York Times, November 30, 1920; 10. See also
‘‘O’Shea Acts to End Parades of Thanksgiving Ragamuffins,’’ New York
Times, November 22, 1930; 17 and ‘‘Thanksgiving ‘Fantastics,’’’ New York
Times, November 29, 1902; 8.
59
Pleck, ‘‘The Making of the Domestic Occasion,’’ 778.
60
Smith, Civic Ideals, 465.
61
Desmond King, Making Americans: Immigration, Race, and the Origins
of the Diverse Democracy, (Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University
Press, 2000), 89.
62
For survey see Clarice Whittenburg, ‘‘Holiday Observance in the
Primary Schools,’’ Elementary School Journals 35, (1934: 193–195). For
more on Thanksgiving and how it was observed in the classroom see
Thanksgiving; its Origin, Celebration and Significance as Related in Prose and
Verse, ed. Robert Haven Schauffler. (New York: Moffat, Yard & Company,
1907).
63
‘‘Greet Santa Clause as ‘Kind of Kiddies,’’’ New York Times, November
28, 1924: 5.
64
William, Leach. Land of Desire: Merchants, Power, and the Rise of a New
American Culture. (Patheon Books: New York, 1993). 335.
65
Frederick Lewis Allen, Only Yesterday: An Informal History of the
1920’s, (New York, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 1997).
66
‘‘Jewish Involvement in Shaping American Immigration Policy, 1881–
1965: A Historical Review,’’ http://www.p-m-s.freeserve.co.uk/texts/USpol1.htm, 12/10/01.
67
‘‘Object to Parade on Thanksgiving Day,’’ New York Times, November 4,
1926: 27. See also ‘‘Concerning Holiday Observance,’’ New York Times,
November 22, 1926; 22.
68
‘‘Alters Macy Parade Plan,’’ New York Times, November 23, 1926; 19.
69
Pleck, ‘‘The Making of the Domestic Occasion,’’ 782.
70
Leach, Land of Desire, 332.
71
William De Loss Love, The Fast and Thanksgiving Days of New England,
(Boston: Houghton, Mifflin, 1895), 203.
72
‘‘Text of Plaque Commemorating Metacomet (King Phillip) in Plymouth’s
Post Office Square,’’ United American Indians of New England Website,
http://idt.net/~uaine19, 6/8/00.
73
‘‘The Surpressed Speech of Wamsutta (Frank B.) James,’’ United
American Indians of New England Website, http://idt.net/~uaine19, 6/8/
00.
74
‘‘The Surpressed Speech of Wamsutta (Frank B.) James,’’ 6/8/00.
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75
‘‘Text of Plaque Commemorating Metacomet (King Phillip) in Plymouth’s
Post Office Square,’’ 6/8/00.
76
‘‘Mourning Indians Dump Sand on Plymouth Rock,’’ New York Times,
November 27, 1970; A26.
77
‘‘Protest in Massachusetts’’, New York Times, November 28, 1997; A28.
78
‘‘Revenge of the Wampanoags’’, New York Times, November 25, 1998;
A25.
79
See ‘‘America: Haven for Some,’’ Letter to the editor, New York Times,
December 7, 1970; 44.
80
Halbwachs, On Collective Memory, 91.
81
Shils, Center and Periphery, 198.
82
Schwartz, ‘‘Collective Memory and History,’’ 471.
83
Schwartz, ‘‘Social Change and Collective Memory,’’ 234.
84
Halbwachs, On Collective Memory, 183.
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