Show AND LONG FACES irly thanksgivings were not festive but solemn occasions modernized by circumstances so strong was the sp r t of our ancestors that when t he detested gov andros issued hs thanksgiving proc lamat on they refused to eat turkey just to spit h m notwithstanding a quite prevalent opinion to the contrary tor which certain historical writers are large ly responsible thanksgiving is a day for family reunions feasting and social enjoyment is practically a modern institution owing to its present import ai ce in the main to the conveniences of travel that came f no labor on v ng in the old days with the introduction of the steam railway the holiday observance in the au dumn of 1621 b the people of ply mouth so often referred to as our earliest new england thanksgiving cannot be justly so characterized be cause our early thanksgiving in massachusetts for generations were solely religious observances while that famous plymouth celebration 0 was a harvest festival festi ial never de signaled as by its pro motors and having no religious sig ance whatever so tar as known moreover it comprised not merely a s agle day of feasting and merryman mer ing but a whole week of it and was designed solely for relaxation after many months of privation and ous toll is no record of a similar joy ous celebration in our annals for gen orations erat ions afterward referred to in subsequent years until after the revolution having been near ly as strictly religious affairs as sun day itself and so tar as we have any existing evidence not greatly given to gastronomy no mention of thanks giving Is found in a contemporary list of holidays for merrymaking as late as 1700 until as late as the war of 1812 oi later thanksgiving was not a regular annual affair either its appointment being in recognition of special bless ings either spiritual or material and usually deferred until such an excuse for its appointment offered even though it might be for two or three years as was frequently the case it usually came in the autumn however and generally a bountiful harvest was mentioned as an incidental cause for more than 60 years after the arrival of the pilgrims thanksgiving was appointed by the legislature and its respectful religious observance was quite as obligatory as was obeal ence to any law of the common wealth that carries with it a legal penalty |