But surely the most consequential act of invention came in the fall of 1863, when the American nation itself seemed to be falling apart, and the persistence of a New England “editress” met its perfect partner in the presidential architect of a new American nationalism.

Football became a vital element. The turkey consolidated its place at the center of the Thanksgiving table

Lincoln could not have known that all future presidents would follow his lead, could not have known that Thanksgiving would become fixed as a single day in the nation’s calendar rather than an irregular response to specific events.

Nobody knew whether it would become a lasting national tradition

divine aid and strengthen the link between God and his chosen people.

Fast days and Thanksgivings were emphatically religious occasions

Although nations are too large for every member to meet physically, a powerful sense of shared identity comes from the knowledge that one’s compatriots are undergoing similar experiences

“Everything that contributes to bind us in one vast empire together, to quicken the sympathy that makes us feel from the icy North to the sunny South that we are one family, each a member of a great and free Nation, not merely the unit of a remote locality, is worthy of being cherished.”

religious occasions, intended to invoke God’s help to cope with hardships, or to offer God thanks for positive developments.

But it was not until the 19th century that it became enshrined as the progenitor of the modern event.