In Virginia, Thanksgiving Comes in December

We all know the familiar story: in 1621 the Pilgrims in Plymouth, Massachusetts, sat down with their Native American friends and had a day of feasting and thanksgiving to God for blessings received: the first Thanksgiving, right?

Well, not quite.  When a group of English settlers arrived at the Berkeley Hundred on 4 December, 1619 they knelt and prayed, thanking God for their safe passage.  Moreover, the Berkeley Company, which organized their settlement, decreed that "the day of our ships arrival at the place assigned... in the land of Virginia shall be yearly and perpetually kept holy as a day of Thanksgiving to Almighty God."  (If, however, you want to be a real stickler, Spanish settlers in Florida beat their English brethren by several decades, with a mass of thanksgiving and dining with local Native Americans in 1565.)

To be honest, most Virginians don't actually celebrate Virginia Thanksgiving, though there is an annual Virginia Thanksgiving Festival (which was moved to the first Sunday of November, in the hope of avoiding bad weather).  So why bring it up at all?

I have no problem celebrating the Massachusetts Thanksgiving, which has been a federal holiday - currently marked on the fourth Thursday of November - since 1863.  As Americans, we are all part of a single body.  We rejoice with those who rejoice, and weep with those who weep.  But we also belong to local communities and cultures.  Apart from a short stint my in-laws spent in Boston when in graduate school, neither I, nor my wife, nor any of our ancestors have any ties to New England.  So why not celebrate something tied to our own state?

Fostering local holidays and culture can be an important part of building local solidarity, a sense of brotherhood with our neighbors, one which ultimately bears fruit in helping one another.  But how do we go about doing that?  For starters, what do you eat for Virginia Thanksgiving?

The Virginia Thanksgiving Festival offers a wide range of foods, from the usual turkey and cranberries to BBQ, baked beans, coleslaw, Brunswick stew, Virginia ham, sweet tea and pecan pie.  If you're historically minded, Colonial Williamsburg and Mount Vernon both offer colonial recipes.  If you'd like more contemporary fare, simply ask your Virginia neighbors what they like to have at the holidays.  (It's a good excuse to actually talk to your neighbors!)  Or make up your own family customs; historical longevity is great, but it's the building of community that matters most.

Tomorrow our family will be eating turkey and mashed potatoes, like most Americans.  But in a couple weeks, we'll take a stab at celebrating Virginia Thanksgiving as well.  If you live in the Commonwealth, maybe you should try it too.