BOCA RATON — It’s beginning to look a lot like Thanksgiving. The holiday that celebrates everything from the Pilgrim harvest to Charlie Brown to the Macy’s Parade will be held Thursday, Nov. 22 in millions of homes around this nation.
In the United States, the modern Thanksgiving holiday tradition is commonly, but not universally, traced to a poorly documented 1621 celebration at Plymouth in present-day Massachusetts. The original Plymouth feast and the idea of “giving thanks” were prompted by a good harvest that followed a difficult winter.
In later years, religious thanksgiving services were declared by civil leaders such as Governor William Bradford of Massachusetts, who planned a thanksgiving celebration and fast in 1623. But the practice of holding an annual harvest festival like this did not become a regular affair in New England until the late 1660s.
Pilgrims and Puritans who began emigrating from England in the 1620s and 1630s carried the tradition of Days of Fasting and Days of Thanksgiving with them to their new home in New England. Several days of Thanksgiving were held in early New England history that have been identified as the “First Thanksgiving”, including Pilgrim holidays in Plymouth in 1621 and 1623, and a Puritan holiday in Boston in 1631.
Thanksgiving proclamations were made mostly by church leaders in New England up until 1682, and then by both state and church leaders until after the American Revolution. During the revolutionary period, political influences affected the issuance of Thanksgiving proclamations. Various pronouncements were made by royal governors, by John Hancock, General George Washington and the Continental Congress, each giving thanks to God for events favorable to their causes.
As president of the United States, George Washington proclaimed the first nation-wide Thanksgiving celebration in America marking November 26, 1789, “as a day of public thanksgiving and prayer to be observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many and signal favours of Almighty God.”
It’s said that the first Thanksgiving featured shellfish and fish. American tastes and palates have changed over the years, making for a cornucopia of possibilities on the Thanksgiving table – from ham to tofu, mashed potatoes and gravy to collard greens.
Following the early tradition, Legal Sea Foods, a Massachusetts-based restaurant chain with several locations in Florida, will serve everything from stuffed turkey to stuffed lobster on Thanksgiving Day at its location in the Town Center at Boca Raton mall. Signature cocktails such as the Cranberry Bog Lemon Martini are on the beverage list to help kick off the holidays in style.
The city of Boca Raton will begin to glow on the night of Friday, Nov. 23 – one day after Thanksgiving — when the holiday light festival for the 2012 season will be illuminated in downtown Boca. It all starts at 5:30 p.m. in Mizner Park. Festivities include a visit from Mr. and Mrs. Santa Claus, children’s rides, holiday treats and beverages — and even real snow.
Special events are upcoming in the Christmas and Hanukkah season, and details will be carried in future editions of the Boca Raton Tribune.