I decided to compare three of the most celebrated holidays which were the words halloween, christmas, and thanksgiving. I expected Christmas to be the most popular in the 19th Century and even today but was surprised to find that the word Thanksgiving was found in 19th Century book way more than both Christmas and Halloween which were pretty equal.

 

 

I first did my research on the word halloween because it was the lowest out of the three. I discovered that the word Halloween dates back to 1745 and is of Christian origin. However, it was also referred to as Allhalloween, All Hallows Eve, or All Hallows’ Day. This was not an American tradition until the mid-19th century, large numbers of new immigrants, especially those fleeing Ireland’s potato famine in the 1840s, helped popularize Halloween. Because N-grams is only showing books published in the United States, this could be the main reason as to why Halloween is not as popular as Thanksgiving, which originated the US.

Thanksgiving began with the migration of what we call “Pilgrims” from England to the “New World” for civil and religious liberty. The  Pilgrims were very grateful to receive help from the Indians as they arrived so they declared a three-day feast, starting on December 13, 1621, to thank God and to celebrate with their Indian friends. This became known as the first Thanksgiving festival in America which is now celebrated every fourth Thursday in November. Because of it’s origin in the US, the word “thanksgiving” had the most popularity in books published during the 19th Century.

Christmas, the holiday I thought would be the most popular and most written about, turned out to be nowhere in comparison with Thanksgiving. After having done research I learned that in the first half of the 19th century, Christmas was a very different kind of holiday than it is today. People did not have a set way of celebrating. Christmas was not even an official holiday yet. So, communities around the country honored the dayin different ways. Some observed Christmas as an important Christian religious day, honoring the birth of Jesus. Others celebrated the day with parties, music, drinking and eating. And, some communities did not celebrate the day at all. This explains why Christmas is nowhere near as popular as Thanksgiving.

 

Works Cited

“The History of Christmas in America.” VOA. Web. 8 Oct. 2015.

“Plimoth Plantation.” Who Were the Pilgrims? Web. 8 Oct. 2015.

“What Is the Origin of America’s Annual Thanksgiving Day?” • ChristianAnswers.Net. Web. 8 Oct. 2015.