Music played a central role in early Thanksgiving celebrations?
Long before the holiday became associated with parades and pumpkin pie, music was an integral part of sacred and secular functions that bookended New England celebrations. Diary entries from the early 18th and 19th centuries describe Thanksgiving Day beginning with church services and concluding with social balls. Services typically featured hymns, although instrumental music increased in popularity, too. Some congregations installed organs, while others relied on chamber instruments, such as bass viols.
With church in the morning and a feast in the afternoon, the day often concluded with dancing, as described by John Carver:
“…The young folks hastily arrange the dance, and while partners are procured, and places selected, old Peter Peterson, who has played for fifty years to sires and children, tunes up the violin. Contra dances, cotillions and jigs, come each in turn…”
Source: Baker, James W. Thanksgiving: The Biography of an American Holiday. University of New Hampshire, 2009.
Image credit: Tommeau, Family Party Playing at Fox and Geese, 28 Nov. 1857, Wood engraving on newsprint. The Clark Art Institute, 1955.4399.1.