Of Holiday Fun and Facts

November 1st:
All Saints' Day.
A Christian holiday, this day honors all known and unknown saints,
and is usually observed with a feast.
Also observed in Mexico as, Day of the Dead (El Dia de los Muertos).

November 4th
All Souls Day.
A Christian holiday set aside for paying respect to the dead.

November 4th:
Will Rogers birthday.
Day to remember, the famed humorist and actor.
He was born in 1879 and died on August 15th, 1935.

November 5th:
Guy Fawkes Day.
Anniversary of the Gunpowder Plot of 1605 to blow up the
English king and parliament.

November 7th
General Election Day

Day to vote for elected officials in the U.S.. Presidential elections are on years
evenly divisible by four. House of Representatives elections and elections for
a rotating third of Senators are on even numbered years.

November 11th:
Veteran's Day.

In 1918, on the eleventh hour of the eleventh day in the eleventh month,
the world rejoiced and celebrated. After four years of bitter war, an
armistice was signed. The "war to end all wars" was over.

November 11 was set aside as Armistice Day in the United States, to remember the sacrifices that men and women made during the war in order to ensure a lasting peace. On Armistice Day, soldiers who survived
the war marched in a parade through their home towns. Politicians
and veteran officers gave speeches and held ceremonies of thanks
for the peace they had won.

Congress voted Armistice Day a legal holiday in 1938, twenty years after the war ended. But Americans realized that the previous war would not be the last one. World War II began the following year, and nations great and small again participated in a bloody struggle. After the Second World War, Armistice Day continued to be observed on November 11.

In 1953 townspeople in Emporia, Kansas called the holiday Veterans' Day in gratitude to the veterans in their town. Soon after, Congress passed a bill introduced by a Kansas congressman renaming the national holiday
to Veterans' Day.

Americans still give thanks for peace on Veterans' Day. There are ceremonies and speeches, and at 11:00 in the morning, most Americans observe a moment of silence, remembering those who fought for peace.

After the United States' involvement in the Vietnam War, the emphasis on holiday activities has shifted. There are fewer military parades and ceremonies. Veterans gather at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C. to place gifts and stand quiet vigil at the names of their friends and relatives who fell in the Vietnam War. Families who have lost sons and daughters in wars turn their thoughts more toward peace and the avoidance of future wars.

Veterans of military service have organized support groups such as the American Legion and Veterans of Foreign Wars. On Veterans' Day and Memorial Day, these groups raise funds for their charitable activities by selling paper poppies made by disabled veterans. This bright red wildflower became a symbol of World War I after a bloody battle in a field of poppies called Flanders Field in Belgium.

Also on this Day

Canada's Remembrance Day

November 22nd:

Start of Sagittarius astrological sign.
Sagittarius, the archer.

Also on This Day

A day no one will forget

November 23th
Thanksgiving Day.

Thanksgiving and the Pilgrims seem to go together,
just like Christmas and Santa Claus--but the truth is,
the Pilgrims never held an autumnal Thanksgiving feast.
Before you cancel the turkey, take a look at the origin of that particular myth.
In some ways, the truth is even more intriguing.

The Pilgrims did have a feast in 1621, after their first harvest,
and it is this feast which people often refer to as "The First Thanksgiving".
This feast was never repeated, though, so it can't be called the beginning of a tradition, nor was it termed by the colonists or "Pilgrims" a Thanksgiving Feast. In fact, to these devoutly religious people, a day of thanksgiving
was a day of prayer and fasting, and would have been held any time that they felt an extra day of thanks was called for. Nevertheless, the 1621 feast
has become a model that we think of for our own Thanksgiving celebration
and we do know something of the truth about it.

We can assume, for example, that the harvest feast was eaten outside based on the fact that the Colonists didn't have a building large enough to accommodate all the people who came. Native People were definitely among the invited guests, and it's possible, even probable, that turkey (roasted but not stuffed) and pumpkin in some form, found their way to the table. And it gets better. This is the way the feast was described in a first-hand account presumably by a leader of the colony,

Edward Winslow, as it appears in Mourt's Relation:
"Our harvest being gotten in, our governor sent four men on fowling, that so we might after a special manner rejoice together after we had gathered the fruit of our labors. They four in one day killed as much fowl as, with a little help beside, served the company almost a week. At which time, amongst other recreations, we exercised our arms. Many of the Indians coming amongst us, and among the rest their greatest King Massasoit, with some ninety men, whom for three days we entertained and feasted, and they went out and killed five deer, which they brought to the plantation and bestowed on our governor, and upon the captain and others. And although it be not always so plentiful as it was this time with us, yet by the goodness of God, we are so far from want that we often wish you partakers of our plenty."

From this we know that the feast went on for three days , included ninety "Indians", and food was plentiful. In addition, to the venison provided by the Indians, there was enough wild fowl to supply the village for a week. The fowl would have included ducks, geese, turkeys and even swans.

Much of the information we have about the feast, and this period in the lives of these people, is the result of research conducted by the staff at Plymouth Plantation, the living museum in Plymouth, Massachusetts, that re-creates the lives of the Pilgrims with Mayflower II, the 1627 Pilgrim Village, and a native homesite. From this research we know about the foods and recipes that would have been available to them, and from two first hand accounts(the second was written by William Bradford, Governor of the colony for 33 years, and can be read in Of Plymouth Plantation 1620-1647), we have a good idea of how the village looked, what the colonists wore, how they spoke, what animals they owned and how they lived. We even know what games they played, what their views may have been on everything from their new home, to religion and politics. And with all this knowledge, we piece together what foods would have been served at the feast, how the table looked, how the setting looked, even perhaps what the conversation was like.

During the winter of 1621, half of the 102 Mayflower passengers who settled in Plymouth, Massachusetts, died. The following spring a Pawtuxet Indian named Squanto helped those who survived plant corn and barley. Their fall harvest was a success, and the colony held a thanksgiving celebration inviting Massasoit, the chief of the Wampanoag tribe, to join their feast of turkey, venison, duck, goose, lobsters, clam, corn, vegetables, and dried berries. In 1863, Abraham Lincoln proclaimed Thanksgiving an annual national holiday.

I hope you all have a very Happy Thanksgiving