We Gather Together

September 7, 2020
Journalist Kiernan (The Last Castle) examines the “cultural, ancient, religious, and secular customs” behind Thanksgiving, and the campaign to make it a national holiday, in this wide-ranging account. Noting that harvest festivals and “observations of thanks and gratitude” have taken place on nearly every continent throughout recorded history, Kiernan reveals that the 1621 gathering attended by Pilgrims and Wampanoag Indians in Plymouth Colony wasn’t actually “the first thanksgiving” in America—Indigenous peoples had been holding their own ceremonies for centuries, and European settlers and explorers held thanksgiving feasts as early as 1541. Though George Washington proclaimed the first national “Day of Thanksgiving” in 1789, it wasn’t until 1863 that Abraham Lincoln, seeking unity in the midst of the Civil War, made it an annual holiday, thanks largely to the efforts of magazine editor Sarah Josepha Hale (1788–1879), who had been imploring presidents to issue such a proclamation for years. Tracking how the myths and traditions of Thanksgiving have evolved (and sparked controversy) over the decades, Kiernan contends that the holiday should symbolize “one element above all”: gratitude. Packed with vivid character sketches, intriguing historical tidbits, and lucid meditations on the psychology of giving thanks, this unique chronicle casts the holiday in a new light.