Fall Holidays - Thanksgiving and Perseverance

Thanksgiving Day is the most obvious choice among the Fall Holidays, but I intend to take a slightly different track. Since Thanksgiving is high on my list of favorite holidays, I would like to give homage to Sarah Josepha Hale, who ardently campaigned for its creation. She would not back down, but pursued her dream for seventeen years. Hey, that’s perseverance! Of course she was a writer. Writers understand rejection and perseverance. 

Hale wrote letters to five American presidents, asking that they declare Thanksgiving Day a national holiday. Up to this time, it was only celebrated in New England and those states chose their own day to celebrate. Abraham Lincoln was persuaded by her letter to support legislation for the holiday in 1863. Thanksgiving became the third national holiday, joining George Washington’s birthday and Independence Day. 

For more information on this fascinating individual, you can click the link (her name above) or under research, below. I would encourage you to read about her life and perhaps you can include her, or references to her, in your historical writing.

My son's first turkey

Of course I can’t leave the discussion of Thanksgiving without also giving homage to the humble turkey. If Benjamin Franklin had had his way, the turkey would have been declared our national bird, instead of the eagle. 

Franklin wrote, “For a truth, the turkey is in comparison a much more respectable bird, and withal a true original native of America . . . a bird of courage, and would not hesitate to attack a grenadier of the British guards, who should presume to invade his farmyard with a red coat on.”

Ha! So as you slice into your golden-brown turkey on Thanksgiving Day, be sure to thank him (the turkey) for his ongoing contribution to your celebration.

Research:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thanksgiving

http://www.baldeagleinfo.com/eagle/eagle9.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarah_Josepha_Hale

http://www.uvm.edu/~hag/godey/hale.html

List of Fall Holidays:

September

Autumnal Equinox - Sept 22 @ 10:49 a.m. Northern Hemisphere

Native American Day 28

Sukkot (begins at sundown) 30

Yom Kippur 30

October

Columbus Day 8

Thanksgiving Day 8 (C)

Boss’s Day 16

Sweetest Day 20

United Nations Day 24

Halloween 31

November

All Saint’s Day 1

All Soul’s Day 2

Veteran’s Day 11

Sadie Hawkins Day 13

Thanksgiving Day 22

December

Pearl Harbor Day 7

Chanukah 8 (lasts 8 days) 

Poinsettia Day 12

This week’s prompt: 

When Ardmore grabbed the knife to begin carving the Thanksgiving turkey, Charlotte’s face paled. . .