 Have you ever noticed how there isn't any Thanksgiving music? I mean, we got Christmas carols, we have Irish jigs for St. Patrick's Day, we have plenty of Toby Keith on the 4th of July, even New Year's has that one song. How about Mary Had a Little Lamb? I mean, after all, it is responsible for Thanksgiving being a national holiday. Well first, for anyone who hasn't seen the Peanut Special, what is generally referred to as the first Thanksgiving, took place in New England in 1621, where the Pilgrims and the Native Americans shared a feast to give thanks for a bountiful harvest. Now there's some discourse on the accuracy of this story, but if it's good enough for Charlie Brown, it's good enough for me. Nowadays Thanksgiving is celebrated on the 4th Thursday of November, and it's a time when Americans can get together with friends and family, share a meal, share what their thankful for, and of course, plan the best route to Macy's the next morning. But Thanksgiving wasn't always so widely celebrated, it used to only be celebrated in certain parts of the country and at different times of the year. It wasn't until 1863 that President Abraham Lincoln declared that the last Thursday of November would be a national day of Thanksgiving. Now you're probably going, hey, didn't you just say that Thanksgiving is always celebrated on the 4th Thursday of November? Well this is where it gets interesting. Every president after Lincoln followed in his steps of naming the last Thursday of November Thanksgiving. That is until 1939, when FDR ran into a problem. See 1939 had five Thursdays in November, so he declared the 4th Thursday of November to be Thanksgiving. Well this didn't sit very well with Republicans at the time who thought the move dishonored the memory of Abraham Lincoln. So they declared that November 23rd would be Democratic Thanksgiving, and that November 30th would be Republican Thanksgiving. See, don't let cable news get you down. We never got along. In 1940 and 1941, FDR declared that the 3rd Thursday of November would be Thanksgiving. This prompted Congress to act and reach a compromise that all Thanksgiving after 1942 would be celebrated on the 4th Thursday of November. Never let it be said that Congress has never gotten anything done. Now you're probably thinking, hey that's pretty cool. But what does it have to do with Mary Had a Little Lamb? Mary Had a Little Lamb was written by Sarah Hale. Strangely it's believed that it's based on the true story of Mary Sawyer, who actually brought her lamb to school one day and caused quite a stir. This one time in 3rd grade this kid brought his pet turtle to school, whole day was shot. Hale had grown up in New England where Thanksgiving was widely celebrated, and she thought it was a very important celebration. She spent nearly 17 years advocating for it to reach national holiday status. Now at the time the only two national holidays were Independence Day and George Washington's birthday, which we now celebrate as President's Day by buying cars. In her efforts, Hale wrote letters to five U.S. Presidents. Moved by her plea that a day of Thanksgiving could help unify a nation at war, President Abraham Lincoln declared the first national Thanksgiving. It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solely reverently and gratefully acknowledged, as with one heart and voice by the whole American people. I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States and also those at sea and those who sojourn in foreign lands to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next as a day of Thanksgiving. It's hard to imagine that Hale's attempts would have garnered much attention, if not for her poetry fame. So this year, after the trip the fans were worn off and you're done watching the lines lose, why not go a wasslin with that old Thanksgiving classic. I don't know the rest of the words to the song, but I don't think this is the right music way to do it.