November 21, 2007
Happy bird day
…listen
…about the musicI’m thankful.
You were expecting a turkey?
Meet Petey, one of the Pileated woodpeckers who comes ’round to bang away on our trees.
We do have wild turkeys on the island, but since none has waddled onto my property yet, you get served woodpecker instead. Well, virtually. I’m a vegetarian, and I doubt this guy tastes that good anyway. A happy holiday to all my e-friends!
Doug Palmer said,
November 22, 2007 @ 10:48 pm
A perfect day to say thanks for the prompt delivery of the CD.
Glenn Buttkus said,
December 10, 2007 @ 2:40 pm
Looking back I see that Doug was “thankful” for the delivery of his CD. One must assume that he refers to NOTES FROM THE KELP. I too will order it, listen to it, enjoy it, and add it to my meager conglomerate of CD’s.
Interesting to hear that you are a vegetarian. So all the meat-bearing critters afoot out there on the island are perfectly safe from the Shapiro axe. But what about Phillip? Does he sink his teeth into burned, brazed, fried, or baked flesh? Often it is difficult for a Vegen to convince her mate to have the same view of sustenance.
The wild turkey is native to northern Mexico and the eastern United States. Later it was domesticated in Mexico, and was brought into Europe early in the 16th century.
Since that time, turkeys have been extensively raised because of the excellent quality of their meat and eggs.
Some of the common breeds of turkey in the United States are the Bronze, Narragansett, White Holland, and Bourbon Red.
Though there is no real evidence that turkey was served at the Pilgrim’s first thanksgiving, but through ages it became an indispensable part of the Thanksgiving tradition. The tradition of turkey is rooted in the ‘History Of Plymouth Plantation’, written by William Bradford some 22 years after the actual celebration.
In his letter sent to England Edward Winslow, another Pilgrim, describes how the governor sent “four men out fowling” and they returned with turkeys, ducks and geese.
Unfortunately the Bradford document was lost after being taken away by the British during the War of Independence. Later it was rediscovered in 1854. And since then turkey turned out to be a popular symbol of the Thanksgiving Day. And today of all the the Thanksgiving symbols it has become the most well known.
Most of us have heard the rumor that Benjamin Franklin wanted to use the Turkey as the symbol for our national bird.
National Thanksgiving Proclamations proclaim thanks for God’s providence in the events of the nation and, as President Washington explained in his Thanksgiving Proclamation, “for the many signal favors of Almighty God” in the lives of the people.
As Congress recognized the importance of Thanksgiving observance, President George Washington issued a national Thanksgiving Proclamation in 1789[5]. He wrote, “Now therefore I do recommend and assign Thursday the 26th day of November next to be devoted by the People of these States to the service of that great and glorious Being, who is the beneficent Author of all the good that was, that is, or that will be—That we may then all unite in rendering unto Him our sincere and humble thanks—for His kind care and protection of the People of this Country…for the signal and manifold mercies, and the favorable interpositions of His Providence which we experienced in the tranquility, union, and plenty, which we have since enjoyed…and also that we may then unite in most humbly offering our prayers and supplications to the great Lord and Ruler of Nations and beseech Him to pardon our national and other transgressions—to enable us all, whether in public or private stations, to perform our several and relative duties properly and punctually…To promote the knowledge and practice of true religion and virtue, and the increase of science among them and us—and generally to grant unto all Mankind such a degree of temporal prosperity as He alone knows to be best.”
In 1789 Washington designated a national thanksgiving holiday for the newly ratified Constitution, specifically so that the people may thank God for “affording them an opportunity peaceably to establish a form of government for their safety and happiness” and for having “been enabled to establish constitutions of government for our safety and happiness, and particularly the national One now lately instituted, for the civil and religious liberty with which we are blessed… ”
The first official Thanksgiving Proclamation made in America was issued by Henry Laurens as President of the Continental Congress of the United States on December 18, 1777.[6] However, the precursor to the Thanksgiving Proclamation was issued by John Hancock as President of the Continental Congress of the United Colonies and was entitled “Fast Day Proclamation” on March 16, 1776.[6] Six national Proclamations of Thanksgiving were issued in the first thirty years after the founding of the United States of America as an independent federation of States. President George Washington issued two, President John Adams issued two, President Thomas Jefferson made none and President James Madison issued two. After 1815 there were no more Thanksgiving Proclamations.
If it weren’t for Sarah Josepha Hale, the editor of Godey’s Lady’s Book, the popular women’s journal of the 19th century, Thanksgiving Day would not have existed beyond that.
She wrote editorials and lobbied “that the LAST THURSDAY IN NOVEMBER shall be the DAY OF NATIONAL THANKSGIVING for the American people.”
President Lincoln succumbed to her pressure and proclaimed the last Thursday in November a “prayerful day of Thanksgiving.”
Since then every U.S. President has always made an official Thanksgiving Proclamation on behalf of the nation.
“I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next, as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens. And I recommend to them that while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliverances and blessings, they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to His tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty Hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to restore it as soon as may be consistent with the Divine purposes to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquillity and Union.” The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln edited by Roy P. Basler, Volume VI, “Proclamation of Thanksgiving” (October 3, 1863), p. 497.
President Franklin D. Roosevelt set the date for Thanksgiving to the fourth Thursday of November in 1939 (approved by Congress in 1941).
So for those Kelpites who cannot get enough of your site, these facts can be added to the mythos and the fact sheets.
Glenn