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A slice of Thanksgiving pie
11/21/2018 2:21:03 PM

There are certain foods that are made just for Thanksgiving. I love to eat pumpkin pie this time of year. As much as I savor the flavor, I would think it odd to eat pumpkin pie at other times of the year. Could you even imagine having a slice of pumpkin pie while you are grilling out on Memorial Day? How about while the kids are hunting for Easter eggs, when you are watching the fireworks during the Fourth of July, or over a romantic dinner on Valentine’s Day? Pumpkin pie is simply out of place with other holidays, but is certainly in style right now.

Pumpkin flavoring is not just a pie thing. You can find everything pumpkin spiced this time of year, from Garden of Eatin’s Pumpkin Tortilla Chips to Ben and Jerry’s Pumpkin Cheesecake ice cream. Starbucks has even come out with a Pumpkin Spiced Cookie Straw, an edible drinking tool to go along with your Pumpkin Spice Latte.

Now from a marketing perspective, I am thinking that someone long ago did a very good job of promoting pumpkin and tying it to the Thanksgiving holiday. Was it the National Association of Pumpkin Growers? Was it some Madison Avenue advertising agency? No, it was a determined woman who had a great imagination and a passion to see our nation set aside a day to express gratitude. That person would be Sarah Josepha Hale, a prolific writer and editor of magazines in the 19th century. In 1827, Hale wrote a fictional novel entitled Northwood: A Tale of New England, where she described one family’s Thanksgiving Day celebration when their son came back home unexpectedly from England. She described the day as "a tribute of gratitude to God.” The family believed that this kind of gratefulness would have a great impact on anyone taking time to give thanks. They longed for the day "when Thanksgiving will be celebrated together across the nation, it will be a grand spectacle of moral power and human happiness such as the world has never witnessed.”


Hale’s fictional story reflected on her belief that the nation needed a day of thanks. Hale became the editor of Godey’s Lady’s Book, a prominent magazine circulated to 150,000 women in the United States. From there, she began to petition people in power for a permanent Thanksgiving Day. Many states took up her challenge and declared state holidays. These were focused on fasting and reflection. Hale wanted a day of reflection and celebration, not fasting, which included a feast like was described in her book. But she was not satisfied with intermittent states commemorating the day, she wanted a national holiday. In fact, she had campaigned in her writings about the importance of having a national day of thanks for 36 years before President Abraham Lincoln took her up on the idea. In 1863, he declared that the fourth Thursday of November would be declared Thanksgiving Day.


But what about pumpkin pie? After Lincoln’s declaration, Hale published recipes for a Thanksgiving Day meal in her magazine. The recipes included stuffed, roasted turkey; mashed potatoes with bowls of gravy; and, you guessed it, pumpkin pie! Her recipes were familiar to her – they were taken from the pages of her fictional novel. In Northwood, Hale had described in detail the table full of food that awaited the family after they attended church to declare their thanks to God. In the midst of other desserts, including puddings, pies, cakes and custards, there was pumpkin pie – the supreme pie of thankfulness.


Before you put a fork in a piece of pumpkin pie this Thanksgiving Day, why not take a moment and savor the things that surround you for which you are grateful. Let the pie be your reminder. Happy Thanksgiving!

_________________

Thanksgiving in Northwood, from the book Northwood: A Tale of New England, by Sarah Hale, 1827, Richards Free Library, http://newport.lib.nh.us

Sarah Josepha Hale Biography, Biography.com

The History Behind Why We Eat 10 Dishes at Thanksgiving
, by Garrett Williams, November 22, 2017, Mentalfloss.com
 

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