Vanessa Giraldo

The origin of the Thanksgiving we all know and celebrate today dates back to the American Civil War. In 1863, after the Battle of Gettysburg, Lincoln issued a proclamation urging Americans to celebrate Thanksgiving during the war. In the proclamation, the author insists that the American readers celebrate the holiday in order to “...heal the wounds of the nation and to restore it as soon as may be consistent with Divine purposes to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquility and Union.” (1) This proclamation marked the beginning of Thanksgiving as a national holiday celebrated on the fourth Thursday of November. In 1939, Thanksgiving was moved to the last Thursday of November in order to stimulate the economy in the times between Thanksgiving and Christmas. 

The history of the creation of Thanksgiving is something that is known by practically every person living in the United States, either native or foreign born. The pilgrims had their big feast with the help of and alongside the natives and everyone lived happily ever after (fully ignoring the abuse and massacres of the native populations as a result). But the formal establishment of the holiday is one that goes greatly ignored. Immigrants played a vital role in that establishment, as they became a very large part in the war effort for the Union and its army. Immigrants mainly from Germany and other European countries made up one fourth of soldiers in the union during the civil war, and 43% of the US armed forces were either foreign born or sons of immigrants(2). Their immense effort in the Civil War proved their patriotism to their new country, and without their involvement, the Union may not have won the Battle of Gettysburg, and the federal recognition of the Thanksgiving holiday may not have occurred. Thanksgiving is a holiday that gave immigrants the opportunity to assimilate to US traditions and customs, and became the ultimate form of Americanization.

19th Century 

During the nineteenth century, the newly independent United States experienced its first boom in immigration. The years during the Civil War were especially defining of the importance of immigrants in the country and the crisis occurring to Europe, creating this new country as the world’s newest safe haven. In the middle of the nineteenth century “there were 849,790 immigrant arrivals, during the Civil War years of 1861-1865 a total of 801,723 immigrants entered the country (U.S. Bureau of the Census 34)"(3). This shows that despite the bloody war in the US, European migrants continue to make the journey to migrate away from the disasters of their own countries. This influx of migrants can be mainly attributed to the Crisis of the English Cotton Industry, few Irish harvests, and the German-Danish war draft, as well as low wages throughout Europe. 

During the beginning of the 19th century, there was a lot of anti-immigrant sentiment and xenophobia in the United States. But, as I mentioned before, the Civil War unified all Americans (new or native) in the Union through the same feeling of nationalism to preserve the country and its values. "The once hated foreign-born turned into comrades-in-arms, what is more, into fellow compatriots sharing the very same destinies. The fights and efforts established more and more personal ties between the immigrants and the struggling nation, and this experience [sped] up their Americanization” (4). This occurrence and new sense of unity allowed an easier transition and assimilation of immigrants and fomented more acceptance and respect among native born Americans. 

Figure 1: Harper, W. St. John, Artist. Castle Garden -- Their First Thanksgiving Dinner / Harper. New York, 1884. Photograph

In figure 1, a family of four is pictured in Castle Garden, which was the immigration processing center prior to Ellis Island. They appear to have just arrived in the United States on Thanksgiving day, while sitting on a bench in front of the water they most likely sailed on, eating a very humble and menial dinner. This is the story of many newcomers on the day of Thanksgiving, having everything to celebrate for, but nothing to celebrate with. Resources are few in this time for working class migrants, but just being part of this tradition is enough to become a part of the assimilation process for many foreigners in the United States. Of course, this isn't the case for all immigrants in the US in the nineteenth century; in fact, many actually resisted assimilation. Boston and New York (two cities that were hubs for industries and unskilled labor) had populations that were made up of 40% immigrant households. Within these households, there would sometimes be friction between the older generations, which would be slower and more cautious about assimilating, and their children, which would be more insistent on the Americanization of their families to fit into their new surroundings (5). This would create a rift, which in practice would cause the younger members of a family to desire to celebrate Thanksgiving, while older members would want to hold onto their own cultures and traditions and keep them alive instead of blindly doing what Americans do. In order to remedy this rift and worry, in later years we see a merging of foreign food into Thanksgiving for immigrant families to preserve and celebrate cultures while also using the holiday to assimilate to a classic tradition as new Americans. 

20th Century 

In the twentieth century, the Thanksgiving tradition among immigrants began to take a more synchronous shape with the cultures of foreign migrants living in the United States. Thanksgiving becomes not only a holiday where you celebrate your assimilation and acculturation into the United States, but also a symbol of the merging cultures and the melting pot that is their new country. 

Figure 2: McCafferty Cobbett, Rosaleen, "First Thanksgiving in America" , 1951

             Figure two depicts an Irish family during their first Thanksgiving in the United States, with only 4 placemats set on the table, and a seemingly small selection of food. This Thanksgiving varies slightly from the traditional celebration of a bigger than life dinner and large number of guests. The dinner in the figure two is a celebration with a much more intimate group, most likely the only people that this group of immigrants have, and the smaller selection of food reflects the economic hardships many migrants face. They choose to take part in this foreign celebration to feel a part of the country they joined. In the description of the photo it reads, “Also most importantly she explained about how we could vote for the person we wanted to be our President when we became citizens" (6).  This quote, stated by the grandmother of the family, shows the idolization of Americanization and citizenship, especially by the Irish in the US. Irish immigrants were victims of the ‘us vs them’ ideology raging through America during this time, so for this family and many others, this was their chance to become part of that ‘us’ group. 

Figure 3: Armstrong, Aurora Mackey, Los Angeles Times. Centerpiece: Assimilating a Tradition, 1990

In a page from the Los Angeles Times in 1990, shown in Figure 3, readers learn about the first-hand account of German Ibarra, which through his answers, gives an insight into what it's like to be an immigrant celebrating Thanksgiving, and why he does it. He shares his excitement for the holiday and for finally being part of such an ‘American’ holiday. He insinuates that celebrating the holiday as a foreigner is a symbol of successful assimilation and claims that "Americans sit down. and thank God for their blessings. We sit down to eat and thank the Americans for ours." Ibarra’s story shows the appreciation that immigrants feel for the people of the country they have inhabited, and their deep desire to join this community through the mutual celebration of Thanksgiving. Migrants new to the United States come from very different and many times difficult environments in their other countries, making the appreciation of the United States and all it has to offer so much stronger for them. In a TV special from Minnesota, the audience learns about a migrant population most Americans don't know much about: Laotians (7). Not only does the news special show why immigrants come to the United States, and the conditions they live in when they arrive here, but it facilitates and normalizes conversation around the subject and encourages education and acknowledgement of the situation. Immigrants come with little knowledge on the specifics of American culture, so their actual reasoning behind celebrating holidays like Thanksgiving can be different than the actual meaning of it. For example, this is what German Ibarra thinks Thanksgiving is about: "from its name, he said he thinks the purpose of the day concerns gratitude "for some things God gives us - for life, for happy family and freedom" (Figure 3). The historic origins of the holiday get lost among these populations, but their eagerness to take part in traditions like these demonstrates their desire to become an integrated part of the community that they have just joined. 

Children played a key role in making Thanksgiving a stepping stone for assimilation into the United States; but this wasn't by accident or coincidental. Schools deliberately taught Thanksgiving as a celebration that should be celebrated in order to acculturate their immigrant population through the children that attended these schools. "Once the newcomers settled in their new homes, the primary instrument of Americanization was the public school. There, the young immigrants were instructed in the story of the first Thanksgiving, took part in school pageants as Pilgrims and Indians and urged their parents to celebrate the holiday in the way Americans already did” (8). This created a strong desire and sense of responsibility for children to push for a Thanksgiving celebration in their foreign-cultured home, headed by reluctant parents that worried of losing their own cultures due to their children’s education. "These ancestors spoke English without an accent, did not have to pass through Ellis Island when they reached the golden land, and had come to these shores to escape from religious persecution " (9). This quote shows that the education that these migrant children are receiving makes insinuated distinctions between the pilgrims and their own experiences. The idolization of the English speaking pilgrims while the immigrant children of other countries are compared makes it much more difficult for these children to feel truly integrated, making the desire for assimilation so much stronger. Schools taught Thanksgiving in class to keep the immigrant children off the street during this holiday, as before they would have no knowledge to celebrate a holiday they were still unaware of (10). 

Current Day

In more recent years we’ve seen a much larger influx of migrants from Latin America, which all seem to celebrate Thanksgiving in very similar ways within this community. The Thanksgiving tradition is still very important to the hispanic community in the US, and very prevalent, but the actual celebration and execution of the holiday is slightly different. For much of the hispanic community, the merging of gastronomic culture is vital to the holiday celebration. In one specific example, we see a Cuban family’s unique implementation of their culture unto their assimilation process. The family has two Thanksgivings: one with the classic American holiday staples, and another with Cuban traditional plates (11). 

Figure 4: Rincon, Sonia; "New immigrants experience first Thanksgiving in New York City" 2022

In figure 4 we see the very first Thanksgiving celebration for an entire community of immigrants in New York, and their eagerness to take part in such an integrating event with other people experiencing the same feelings. The organizer of the event describes the food spread, including culturally hispanic food such as pernil and flan, while also integrating the new name for the holiday that has been widely adopted by the hispanic community everywhere : Sansgiving. This allows these new migrants to feel like there is a sense of home and belonging in this new holiday through all of the feelings of overwhelming and worry of fitting in, and adjusting the holiday to be comforting for their own community. 

Thanksgiving among immigrant communities throughout history has slightly changed with the ever changing demographics of incoming immigrants in the United States. From the English, to the Germans, to the Irish, and now the Latin Americans (with many more in between), they all chose to assimilate in different ways in different environments throughout American history. But one thing has stayed the same: the use of Thanksgiving as a means of assimilating into the United States. In this essay, we have seen numerous examples and accounts of the immigrant experience and the role Thanksgiving has played in the assimilation process throughout history. With the melting pot of cultures we have in the United States, it is only natural that the holiday be celebrated in different ways and for different reasons; but at the end of the day, Thanksgiving is a celebration that brings most Americans together under one overwhelming feeling of gratitude.