Happy Thanksgiving! This week our
Pathfinder Produce market is closed so our staff may enjoy the holiday with
their friends and loved ones, but we’ll be open next Thursday, December 5, to
assist you with all your fresh produce needs for this busy time of year. We
look forward to seeing you between noon and 5 p.m. at the Village Commons.
Pathfinder Produce … we’re rooted in the community!
Pathfinder Village is getting into
the seasonal spirit and we have a few events planned: On Saturday, December 7
at 2 p.m., our Pathfinder Village Hand Bell Choir will perform at the National
Baseball Hall of Fame as part of their traditional holiday Deck the Hall event.
The event runs from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m.; details are here. Guests are encouraged to bring a new, unwrapped toy
or five non-perishable food items for free admission and to help brighten the season for families in need.
On Sunday, December 8 at 3 p.m., our
very dear friends from the Sidney Community Band will perform a concert of
carols and musical favorites at the Pathfinder Village Gym; all are invited to
enjoy this heartwarming concert. And to round out their holiday performances,
the Bell Choir members will play at the First United Methodist Church in
Oneonta on Saturday, December 14 at 2 p.m.
***
On Thursday and through the weekend, many of us will gather
with friends and family to celebrate Thanksgiving. While many will enjoy turkey
with all the trimmings, it’s always best for your
health to focus on small portions, check your carb and fat intake, eschew
alcoholic drinks, and to eat a selection of healthy fruits and veggies.
It’s also recommended to have some physical activity after the
meal, whether it’s helping with the clean-up chores or taking a brisk walk to
get some fresh air. (Other new traditions could include playing basketball or
touch football, refilling the woodshed, playing tag or going to the playground
with the little ones, or sledding and making snowmen if there’s snow).
History buff that I am, I also enjoy feeding my brain by
reading non-fiction on Thanksgiving -- after the dishes are done, the fire is
blazing, the dog is snoring, and quiet settles over the house. Recent research
indicates a formal thanksgiving first may have occurred in the Continental U.S.
as early as 1565 in St. Augustine, then under Spanish rule.
Most of us are familiar with the story of the Plymouth
Colony’s Thanksgiving in 1621. Feasting on field- and
forest-sourced delectable dishes, the Pilgrims, 90 Wampanoag warriors, and lone
Patuxet surviving tribe member Squanto (Tisquantum)
celebrated their harvest bounty for three days after the settlement’s starving
time decimated their population earlier that year.
Other Thanksgiving celebrations were held locally through the
early years of European settlements. The next celebration of note followed the
Colonists’ victory at the Battle of Saratoga during the Revolution; the
Continental Congress and General Washington proclaimed Thursday, December 18,
1777, as a day of national thanksgiving. The Continental
Congress continued its annual thanksgiving proclamations through 1784.
Five years later, when the United States was a new,
independent nation, President Washington declared the first national Thanksgiving on November
26, 1789. The President attended church services and donated beer and food to
imprisoned debtors in New York City, then the nation’s capital city. While I
haven’t been able to find a clear source on the web, I recall an article from
the New York State Historical Association’s Heritage Magazine from
the early 1980s, which cited Washington’s choice of Thursday to celebrate on was
to avoid overlapping with the regularly observed sabbaths for Muslims, Jews,
and Christians.
From Washington’s administration onward, days of thanksgiving
were declared intermittently by various presidents or state governors. The
modern tradition of Thanksgiving began during the dark days of the Civil War when Abraham Lincoln proclaimed the last
Thursday in November 1863 as a special day of gratitude for both military gains
and seasonal harvests. Later, another great war-time president, FDR, changed
the day to the fourth Thursday of the month.
Until next time, be thankful and be well,
Lori
