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Show r T By ELMO SCOTT WATSON Drawing by Ray Walters LTHOUGH it is true thnt Thanksgiving day, which we will celebrate on November 27 this ' year, is "a distinctively ' American institution" in the way in which it is observed, our celebration celebra-tion of a "Thanksgiving day" is not unique. As a matter of fact, the fundamental idea of the day as a feast day may be traced back " " to ancient times. Bead the Book of Judges in the Old Testament and there you will find this description of a practice of the Canaanites, from whom the Children of Israel derived ome of their customs : And they went out into the fields and gathered their vineyards, and trode the grass and held festival, and went Into the house of their god, and Jld eat and drink." This vintage or harvest festival appeared ap-peared later among the Hebrews as an act of worship to Jehovah and was called the Feast of Tabernacles. In Puteronomy, Moses gave specific di-irj.lons di-irj.lons for its keeping. Pagan Greece and Home, too, had their thanksgiving season in honor "of the harvest deities. At Athens, in November, No-vember, this feast, called Thesmoph-orla, Thesmoph-orla, was celebrated by married wom-"en wom-"en only, and two wealthy and distinguished distin-guished members of the sex were chosen to prepare the sacred meal, which corresponded to the Thanksgiving Thanksgiv-ing dinner of today. The Romans on October 4 worshiped Ceres, their goddess god-dess of the harvest, with processions ''I th fields, music, rustic sports, and Lt feast at the end of the day, which was called Cerelia. In the modern world, England for centuries observed an autumnal fostl-" fostl-" called the Harvest Home, .which traces its beginning hack to the Saxons. Sax-ons. In 12.S A. D. "solemne fasts and general processions" were held in Kng-land Kng-land and were thought to have helped n backward harvest in that year. The Englishman has always followed the custom of setting aside days to commemorate com-memorate public blessings. The discovery dis-covery of the Gunpowder riot was thus observed and Guy Fawkes day was established as a day of "public thanksgiving to Almighty God." This happened only a short time before the rilgriuis left England for Holland, so It Is easy to see how they later carried car-ried to the New world the Idea of a day for giving thanks. Insofar as all the familiar pictures of the tirst Thanksgiving day In Plymouth Ply-mouth show Indians taking part In the Pilgrim feasting, we have come to associate as-sociate the red mau with this holiday .particularly. Few of us realize, per- "s, that the American Indian contributed con-tributed more to our Thanksgiving day celebration than we realize. For the many American families which will gather Jlround the loaded Thanksgiving Thanksgiv-ing day tables this year to enjoy their roast turkey will be observing a custom cus-tom that prevailed before the Pilgrims landed on the rocky shores of New England. The records of the Smithsonian institution in-stitution in Washington, records which bridge the gap between the ubo-4taiiml ubo-4taiiml civilization of thousauds of yeirs ago and ours today, show that the Indians of the Southwest domesticated domes-ticated turkeys and fattened them for the choice morsels at their ceremonial feasts. The practice of such feasts, aowBver, had been established long ba- fore by the cliff dwellers who raised turkeys and when they wanted a nice, fat bird for one of their ceremonial feasts, all they had to do was to go out to a pen where they kept the fowls and get one. More than that, the Navajo Indians have a November thanksgiving ceremonial cere-monial which goes back as far as tribal tri-bal tradition goes. A series of thanksgiving thanks-giving ceremonies begins about November No-vember 1 and continues at intervals during the entire month. The Navajo name for these occasions is the Yabl-chl, Yabl-chl, which means a thanksgiving for the corn harvest a general thanksgiving thanks-giving to the sun and rain gods for their respective efforts in aiding the growth of corn and grass. During the day set aside for the Yabichl the medicine men and designated desig-nated officials of the locality hold a ceremony in which blessed corn meal, corn pollen and feathers of the rain bird are used. Few outsiders have ever been admitted to these meetings. The same night begins a general good time and feasting for everybody. Although we look upon the English settlers of New England as the originators orig-inators of our Thanksgiving day, we should not forget that the Dutch who settled the New Amsterdam which became be-came New York also contributed something to the day. For there Is no doubt thnt the Pilgrims, while they lived in Leyden and observed the manner man-ner in which the Dutch celebrated on October 3 the deliverance of their country from Spain with much feasting feast-ing and in a spirit of thankfulness, were somewhat influenced by the character char-acter of this celebration In establishing establish-ing their own Thanksgiving day after they came to America. Then, too, Thanksgiving as it is observed ob-served in New York city today Is In many respects so different from the New England Thanksgiving as to cause the stranger in Gotham to inquire in-quire into the Mardi Gras nature of the day, and the answer Is that it is a survival of an old Dutch custom. For New York holds a great mummers' mum-mers' show on Thanksgiving, that Is to say, juvenile New York does. For while their elders are going to church to acknowledge their blessings and housewives and cooks are busy preparing pre-paring the Thanksgiving dinner, the youngsters are engaged In blacking their faces and turning their clothes inside out, or converting themselves into clowns and caricatures of movie actors and hobgoblins. It Is a juvonile celebration almost exclusively, though now and then one beholds a bedecked adult ingratiatingly ingratiating-ly trying to come In on the shower of pennies. Mostly the coppers are well earned. To the tune of mouth harps, comb and tissue paper and other childish child-ish Instruments, or just a whistle, pigeon Wings are cut, hand springs are turned, songs are rendered and breakdowns break-downs executed, in keen competition for "something for Thanksgiving." The phrase Is heard from the time the day's first ring at the doorbell gets one out of bed -until the last theater Is closed at night. It dins in one's ears all day long, as ofteu repeated as the "Merry Christmas" greeting later in the year. As a matter of fact not one New York boy or girl in a thousand can tell the stranger In the city the origin of the custom. All that most mummers mum-mers seem to know of It is that they "always go out for Thanksgiving." Boys who have grown up in the city will say that they, too, did the same. Some of them adU that , the sport then i had much more spice than now. Years ago It used to be the thing for householders house-holders to throw hot pennies out of the window to the costumed urchins. Theu there was a scramble as never is seen In these days of merely dropping drop-ping cold cash into a cap. However, the researches of a New York woman, Esther Singleton, Into ancient Manhattan history recently disclosed the fact that mumming on Thanksgiving day has been practiced in that city for nearly three centuries. centur-ies. Under the Dutch, the Dutch Reformed Re-formed church in this colony endeavored endeav-ored to stop popular observance of ancient an-cient Catholic festivals by legal Interdiction. Inter-diction. Shrove Tuesday celebrations still continued In Holland as "vas-ten "vas-ten avond" were found irrepressible mainly because the children liked them. Children persisted in their pre-Len-ten masquerade. "They walked the streets," says Miss Singleton in her "Dutch New York," "carrying the rommel-pot , a pot covered with a tightly stretched bladder. In the center cen-ter was a hole through which a stick was jammed. When moved up and down the stick would make a dull rumbling noise. Children went from door to door singing (in Dutch) : I've run so long with the rumbling-pot And have as yet go no money to buy bread. Herring-packery, herring-packery, Give me a penny and I'll go by! "They wore masks and false faces and sometimes a 'devil's suit of clothes.' Thft masking and dressing up still survives in New York on Thanksgiving day." Manhattan's Thanksgiving is now one hundred and eighty-six years old. Director General Keift of the Dutch West India company instituted the first on March 4, 10-43, as a day of fasting and prayers of thanksgiving for a temporary cessation of Indian outbreaks, excited by tribal resentment resent-ment against the sale of rum by the Colonists to young braves. Hostilities were soon resumed, lasted till 1G45, and then on September 6 came another anoth-er thanksgiving day for "peace with the savages." After the surrender of the colony to England a generation later and the final adoption in New York of the Thanksgiving day instituted at Plymouth Ply-mouth and Massachusetts bay, the New York children transferred their Shrove Tuesday mumming to the autumn au-tumn holiday, preserving the custom among themselves even though their elders had long lost track of what It mount and whence it locally derived. It is also worthy of note that the state of New York saw the first official offi-cial proclamation of a Thanksgiving day as an annual custom which has been observed without interruption for more than 110 years. In 1S17 Gov. Dewit -Clinton officially proclaimed Thanksgiving day, and ever since that time New York governors have followed fol-lowed the precedent. It was also followed fol-lowed by governors of other northern states, hut it did not become a general gen-eral national holiday by Presidential proclamation until 1SG3. The first Presidential proclamation was Isswtl by George Washington from New York city, then the Capital of the nation in 17S0. Several later Presidents Issued such proclamations from time to time, but It remained for AbrahRm Lincoln In 1S6S to fix the last Thursday In November No-vember as the national day of thank giving. (A by WeJt.rn M.wapp.r Unlon-iy |