By Mary Marvin, Mayor of Bronxville

Nov. 28, 2024: As I write, Thanksgiving is here and the food purveyors, butchers and bake shops have been teaming with customers bringing additional energy to our wonderful Village.

Small Business Saturday is Nov. 30. Lots of Promotions in the Village

The Saturday following Thanksgiving is also Small Business Saturday. Come to town and take advantage of festivities, promotions and free parking. Succumbing to my love of research, I delved a bit into the history of the upcoming holiday.

Fun Facts About Thanksgiving

Much of the writing about the first Thanksgiving doesn’t quite meet historical muster but we know a meal was held in 1621 sometime between September 21 and November 11 by the Wampanoag Indians and the Pilgrims in Plymouth Massachusetts to give thanks to God for surviving a brutal winter and reaping a plentiful harvest, and it is said the first Thanksgiving feast lasted three days not three football games!

Thanksgiving was historically a religious observance to give thanks to God for a plentiful harvest, to commemorate a military victory, or even to celebrate the adoption of a state’s constitution but has evolved into a secular celebration. As example, a Thanksgiving Day celebration was held in December 1777 in the colonies to commemorate the defeat of the British at the Battle of Saratoga.

Since 1777, a National Proclamation of Thanksgiving has been declared, first by the Continental Congress, who wanted to thank the Almighty for, “The greatest of all humans blessings; independence and peace.”

A little known but poignant tradition in our country since its founding has been a yearly Proclamation issued by the sitting President.

President George Washington created the first Thanksgiving Day Proclamation by a national government, with words that are particularly apropos today. He besieged the people of United States to, “Be a government of wise, just and constitutional laws.” Thomas Jefferson, in contrast, penned no Thanksgiving messages as he felt the holiday supported state sponsored religion as in his view the day was rooted in Puritan traditions.

President Lincoln believed that despite being mired in a divisive and deadly Civil War, we as Americans still had so much for which to give thanks and he asked, “For the Almighty hand to heal the wounds of the nation, and to restore it as soon as may be consistent with divine purposes, to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony and tranquility.”  

Lincoln also declared the final Thursday of November as the national day of Thanksgiving and it was his son Tad who inadvertently began the tradition of pardoning turkeys as he wanted a turkey gifted to the Lincolns to be spared from being cooked for dinner.

Thanksgiving Become National Holiday

However, it took until 1941 and the relentless effort of an influential magazine editor and author Sarah Hale, to make it a national holiday. Miss Hale’s other enduring claim to fame came as the author of the nursery rhyme, Mary had a Little Lamb.

Thanksgiving Moved to Last Thursday of November

In an effort to help businesses, President Franklin D. Roosevelt became embroiled in a major controversy over the date of Thanksgiving. In 1939, retailors asked the President to move the date up from the last Thursday of November to the fourth Thursday in hopes of gaining an additional week of Christmas shopping. When he acquiesced and signed his proclamation with a date of the 23^rd instead of the 30^th of November, school vacations were disrupted and parades and football games had to be rescheduled. The Mayor of Atlantic City was so incensed that he called the “new” holiday “Franksgiving!”

A Thanksgiving Parade

Our cherished tradition of the Macy’s parade also evolved from economic needs. In an effort to launch the shopping season in 1920, Macy’s employees paraded down Fifth Avenue with animals borrowed from the Central Park Zoo!  The official Macy's Day parade began in 1924, and huge balloons were added in 1927.

President Obama's Thanksgiving Proclamation

President Obama‘s first Thanksgiving proclamation has proven so prescient as today one in six of our neighbors in Westchester County live with a food insufficiency. He asked Americans to reach out to our neighbors and fellow citizens in need of a helping hand. “This is a time for us to renew our bonds with one another and we can fulfill that commitment by serving our communities and our nation throughout the year” as he issued a call to action to every American to help others in need. 

More Americans are in need of help this year than years’ past and right in our backyard. Lines are longer at food pantries, supplies are depleted and costs have skyrocketed.  Spending a day in New York City this past weekend, I witnessed the lines for Thanksgiving food sharing stretching around corners. Again, one of the most efficient groups in distributing food to the needy throughout our county is Feed Westchester.

President Biden's Thanksgiving Proclamation

President Biden penned his last Proclamation with the very gracious words, “This Thanksgiving we are grateful for our Nation and the incredible soul of America. May we all remember that we are the United States of America – there is nothing beyond our capacity if we do it together.”