Tradition! Tradition! - The Origins of Thanksgiving Feasts, Football & Floats
- Ren Gudino
- Nov 19
- 5 min read
After discussing Thanksgiving's traffic as some of the worst of the year, you might wonder if it's all worth it. Many have heard the story of "the Pilgrims and Native Americans joining together for a feast," but few know where that story comes from. Even fewer know that days of thanks and celebration were already familiar traditions—or that our national holiday was born thanks to the efforts of the same woman who wrote "Mary Had a Little Lamb"! Read on to learn about the origins of the holiday and the fascinating origins of our three main Thanksgiving traditions: the food, the football, and the parade.
The First Thanksgiving
Canadians trace their Thanksgiving as far back as 1578, when English navigator Sir Martin Frobisher gave thanks for his expedition's safe passage. In the United States, our Thanksgiving tradition dates back to 1621, based on a harvest feast shared between the Wampanoag people and early Pilgrims. This wasn't the only feast of its kind—New England and Canadian colonists regularly observed Thanksgiving as days of prayer, giving thanks for safe journeys, military victories, or abundant harvests.
What historians know about the "first Thanksgiving" comes from an account by a Pilgrim named Edward Winslow. The feast lasted three days and featured fowl and venison. Two years later, the event was repeated in gratitude for the end of a persistent drought. For the Pilgrims, this combined English harvest festival traditions: religious fasting, prayer, and feasting. Indigenous Americans had their own traditions for giving thanks, making the celebration an ideal meeting ground for both cultures.
The Mother of An Annual Holiday
Thanksgiving wasn't celebrated annually until a woman named Sarah Josepha Hale made it happen. Hale wrote the children's poem "Mary Had a Little Lamb" in 1830 and founded the prominent American Ladies Magazine, a platform for women's issues. In 1837, she became editor of Godey's Lady's Book, transforming it into one of the most "influential periodicals in the country" over the next forty years.
Inspired by the Thanksgiving tradition from her hometown, Sarah Josepha Hale wrote about her experiences from New Hampshire. In her book, Northwood: A Tale of New England, she dedicated a chapter to the holiday, spreading the idea of a Thanksgiving feast shared with family and gratitude across the country. She even included recipes for pies and turkey in both the book and in Godey's Lady's Book. Believing the holiday would unite the nation and ease tensions between North and South, Hale lobbied state and federal officials for a fixed, annual Thanksgiving. By 1854, over thirty states had designated an annual holiday—but she hadn't yet achieved her ultimate goal.
When the Civil War broke out in 1861, Hale's efforts intensified. She insisted Americans needed to rally together, to unite despite growing divisions, for a national day of thanks. Two years later, she wrote to President Abraham Lincoln himself, asking him to declare Thanksgiving a national holiday. After only five days of reading Hale's letter, Lincoln issued a proclamation to designate Thanksgiving a national holiday on October 3, 1863. Though there was a brief period when Thanksgiving had been moved up a week, the announcement declared the holiday the last Thursday of November, and there it has stayed for over a century.
Thanksgiving Traditions
Feasts
Now that we know where our annual holiday comes from, what about the food? The earliest North American cookbooks contain the origins of some of our most familiar Thanksgiving dishes. American Cookery, published in 1796, featured recipes for quintessential dishes: roast turkey, bread stuffing, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce, and various pies. From there, each region developed its own traditions.
The South brings decadence with mac and cheese, sweet potato casserole topped with marshmallows, corn pudding, and pecan pie. The Midwest claims the green bean casserole and cheesy hash brown casserole. Louisiana's Cajun holiday features deep-fried turkey, gumbo, jambalaya, and Cajun rice. Before Thanksgiving became a national holiday, these foods were becoming part of our American foodways. They continue to define our annual tradition—and some would argue they're the primary feature of the day.
Football
The first holiday football game took place in 1876, when Yale defeated Princeton in Hoboken. Only a decade after Thanksgiving became a national holiday, the Intercollegiate Football Association hosted its championship game. By 1880, the association cemented football as a holiday tradition when it named New York as the permanent home of the season. After three years, the New York Herald said the sport was ruining the holiday.
The country didn't embrace football as a national institution until 1934, when the Detroit Lions hosted the Chicago Bears in the first nationally radio-broadcasted game. The National Football League added a second game in 1966, with the Dallas Cowboys facing the Cleveland Browns at the Cotton Bowl. This sparked what would become the Cowboys' permanent role as Thanksgiving game hosts.
Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade
With a dedicated date for Thanksgiving, growing food and football traditions set, Macy's Manhattan flagship store decided it was time to add a Christmas parade on Thanksgiving morning. Wanting to showcase the famed "World's Largest Store," Macy's hoped a parade that led to the store entrance would be the perfect way to prime the public for holiday shopping.
The parade started at 9 a.m., which overlapped with morning church services but allowed people to make it to the football game at the polo grounds. To match the Mother Goose–themed window display, employees dressed as clowns, cowboys, and knights. The Central Park Zoo lent a menagerie of animals, creating a circus-like atmosphere as live bands provided the musical backdrop. Finishing off the parade was Santa Claus, sitting in a reindeer-driven sleigh atop a mountain of ice.
The parade ended at noon, where it arrived at Macy's Herald Square Store. Santa descended from the sleigh to the cheers of over 10,000 attendees. There, he was crowned "King of the Kiddies" and sat on a gold throne on the marquee above the 34th Street entrance.
Thanksgiving & Giving Thanks
The annual football game, turkey, casseroles, and pie can be counted on for a perfect "Turkey Day." The parade, however, has had to undergo changes to ensure safety, as strong winds and larger and more impressive balloons became a part of the festivities—but it is still going strong after new safety measures were put into place.
Whether your annual tradition has been to remember the 1621 feast or the hard work of Sarah Josepha Hale, to scarf down gumbo, mac and cheese, or a green bean casserole, and whether you look forward to watching the game or the parade, these traditions are shared with people we love, and that alone is something worth giving thanks.
If you are traveling next week, check out last week's blog, where we talked about the most dangerous highways during Thanksgiving week, what to be prepared for, and how to make sure you can have a safe trip. Interstate Signways will be doing what we do best: making sure you're safe by providing the signage that guides the way.
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