Blog: History

Contrary to popular belief, the Pilgrims did not initiate the annual celebration of Thanksgiving in November. That was Abraham Lincoln, who began the annual Day of Thanksgiving in 1863 (previously, days of Thanksgiving were proclaimed occasionally by Presidents without schedule). Lincoln's Thanksgiving was the last Thursday of November, and remained so until 1939, when President Roosevelt moved it one week earlier, to lengthen the Christmas shopping season in hopes of stimulating the Depression economy.

Democrats (narrowly) supported the change, while Republicans opposed it. As the actual decision was up to the states, some states went along, and some did not. According to Wikipedia, "In the 1940 Warner Brothers cartoon Holiday Highlights, directed by Tex Avery, the introduction to a segment about Thanksgiving shows the holiday falling on two different dates, one 'for Democrats' and one a week later 'for Republicans.'" A compromise in 1941 set the date as the fourth Thursday in November, which is sometimes the last Thursday, and sometimes the second to last.

This year, November has five Thursdays, making Thanksgiving the second to last Thursday. In other words, this year we are celebrating the Democratic Thanksgiving - a fitting conclusion to a very Democratic month.

Approximately 2,400 years ago, Queen Esther saved the Jewish people from persecution at the hands of the evil Haman. Approximately 1,400 years ago, Patrick, second bishop of Ireland, converted many of the Irish to Catholicism.

What these two figures, separated by a millenium and a continent, share in common is their legacies of revelry for two of America's major immigrant groups - the Jewish festival of Purim, and St. Patrick's Day. And this year, both celebrations fall on the same week.

America is often called a "melting pot" or "salad bowl" of cultures. Last weekend, we melted elements of Jewish and Irish celebrations together
by making green Hamantaschen (the traditional dessert of Purim), and made salad and other green foods with traditional Jewish culinary ingredients.
We invented the game of Megillah Mad Libs, where ancient Persia turned out to include a golden robot and a 75-foot crack pipe. And we played Celebrity and Apples to Apples, and reveled.