This time of year when many of us, both in Goochland and far afield, hear “Thanksgiving,” we think of grocery lists, travel plans and the quick tick-down of the clock toward Christmas.

This rushing of thoughts can leave little room for what the day is meant to celebrate: A true giving of thanks for all that we have.

And sometimes, secretly, I wonder if doing so might be easier if there weren’t so many obligations involved!  And I realize that beyond the handprint turkeys and the pilgrim motifs, I don’t really know much about the holiday itself.

When, and why, did Thanksgiving begin to be celebrated in such an organized fashion?

In nineteenth century American, a women’s magazine called Godey’s Lady’s Book was called a “Victorian Bible of the Parlor” and its editor, Sarah Josepha Hale, often preached the gospel of feminine domesticity.

I studied Hale’s work extensively as a history major in college, and I was struck by how this woman’s conventional view (for the time) that women were responsible for the morality of society led to an unconventional stance: She became a vehement supporter of female education, and frequently appealed to politicians, patrons and universities to provide the kind of liberal arts education to women that men could already receive. 

As an editor Hale also transformed a simple woman’s magazine into one where writers such as Irving, Longfellow, Lowell, Holmes, Emerson, Bryant, Whittier and Richmond’s own Edgar Allen Poe became frequent contributors.

And Hale successfully advocated for a national celebration of Thanksgiving, hoping that the holiday would serve to ease the divisions between the North and the South that could lead to a civil war. 

In 1858, Sarah Josepha Hale wrote in her Thanksgiving editorial:

“Let us consecrate the day to benevolence of action, by sending good gifts to the poor, and doing those deeds of charity that will, for one day, make every American home the place of plenty and of rejoicing. These seasons of refreshing are of inestimable advantage to the popular heart; and if rightly managed, will greatly aid and strengthen public harmony of feeling. Let the people of all the States and Territories sit down together to the “feast of fat things,” and drink, in the sweet draught of joy and gratitude to the Divine giver of all our blessings, the pledge of renewed love to the Union, and to each other; and of peace and good-will to all men.”

From Hale, I am inspired by her belief in the potential of people, in her advocacy for education and for writers, and by her understanding that it is when people are the most divided that they most need to gather together, to celebrate all that they have, before it is lost to them forever.

So this week The Gazette hopes that all in Goochland take this opportunity to truly savor a day designed to bring us together, in good will and in good spirits!

- Amy Condra