{"id":807,"date":"2013-11-28T09:28:11","date_gmt":"2013-11-28T14:28:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.gettysburgflag.com\/blog\/?p=807"},"modified":"2025-04-18T09:49:59","modified_gmt":"2025-04-18T13:49:59","slug":"thanksgiving-stuffed-with-flags","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.gettysburgflag.com\/blog\/thanksgiving-stuffed-with-flags\/","title":{"rendered":"Thanksgiving stuffed with flags"},"content":{"rendered":"

In 1863, 150 years ago, the midpoint of the Civil War brought the Battle of Gettysburg, the Gettysburg Address \u2013 and a Thanksgiving proclamation by President Abraham Lincoln.<\/p>\n

Although written by his Secretary of State, the document went out as \u201cby the President of the United States of America,\u201d who invited \u201cmy fellow citizens in every part of the United States\u2026to set apart and observe\u2026a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"A
1910 postcard<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

While modern Americans tend to think of the holiday as being about turkey, football and relatives, Thanksgiving was formerly known as a time of prayer and patriotism. Around a century ago, the holiday was often associated with flags:<\/p>\n

*In 1895, citizens of Trenton, N.J., dedicated a 100-foot flagpole and flags in a town park. One of the banners was 20 by 36 feet and featured 13 stars for the original colonies.<\/p>\n

*In 1897 in Alabama, a newspaper noted that \u201cone of the most interesting features\u2026Thanksgiving\u2026was the presentation of a large flag to the city schools.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Schoolchildren,
Schoolchildren, two holding flags, dress up for a Thanksgiving pageant in 1911.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

*In 1913, children from two to 12 were treated to a late-autumn Fourth of July in a New Orleans park. The Thanksgiving Day event included ice cream and cake \u2013 and a flag-raising ceremony during which the kids sang \u201cAmerica.\u201d<\/p>\n

*In 1915, as World War I raged in Europe, students in a Catholic school in Miami, Florida, took part in a flag-raising ceremony that included the singing of \u201cThe Star-Spangled Banner,\u201d an address titled \u201cOur Flag\u201d and an early version of the Pledge of Allegiance.<\/p>\n

Like this year, the holiday fell in 1913 on Nov. 28, when the ultimate connection between Thanksgiving and flags might have occurred in Washington, D.C. The occasion was the annual Pan-American Thanksgiving Celebration to mark \u201cunity between the United States and 21 Latin republics.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Pan-American
Pan-American Union flag, left, in its D.C. headquarters a century ago.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

President Woodrow Wilson took part, joined by Supreme Court justices and other dignitaries. The church where the ceremony was held was decorated \u201cwith American and Latin flags,\u201d a newspaper noted. \u201cThe dove of peace holding together in its beak the flag of the United States and that of the Pan-American Union symbolized the peace of the western hemisphere.\u201d<\/p>\n

Next Thanksgiving might be a good time to revive the association of the holiday and flags.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In 1863, 150 years ago, the midpoint of the Civil War brought the Battle of Gettysburg, the Gettysburg Address \u2013 and a Thanksgiving proclamation by President Abraham Lincoln. Although written by his Secretary of State, the document went out as \u201cby the President of the United States of America,\u201d who invited \u201cmy fellow citizens in… continue<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[10,3,19,162],"class_list":["post-807","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-history-lessons","tag-american-flag","tag-history","tag-patriotism","tag-thanksgiving"],"yoast_head":"\nThanksgiving stuffed with flags - Gettysburg Flag Works Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.gettysburgflag.com\/blog\/thanksgiving-stuffed-with-flags\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Thanksgiving stuffed with flags - Gettysburg Flag Works Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"In 1863, 150 years ago, the midpoint of the Civil War brought the Battle of Gettysburg, the Gettysburg Address \u2013 and a Thanksgiving proclamation by President Abraham Lincoln. Although written by his Secretary of State, the document went out as \u201cby the President of the United States of America,\u201d who invited \u201cmy fellow citizens in... continue\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.gettysburgflag.com\/blog\/thanksgiving-stuffed-with-flags\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Gettysburg Flag Works Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2013-11-28T14:28:11+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-04-18T13:49:59+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.gettysburgflag.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/11\/A-1910-postcard..jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"928\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1440\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"James Breig\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"James Breig\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.gettysburgflag.com\/blog\/thanksgiving-stuffed-with-flags\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.gettysburgflag.com\/blog\/thanksgiving-stuffed-with-flags\/\",\"name\":\"Thanksgiving stuffed with flags - Gettysburg Flag Works Blog\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.gettysburgflag.com\/blog\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.gettysburgflag.com\/blog\/thanksgiving-stuffed-with-flags\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.gettysburgflag.com\/blog\/thanksgiving-stuffed-with-flags\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.gettysburgflag.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/11\/A-1910-postcard.-193x300.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2013-11-28T14:28:11+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-04-18T13:49:59+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.gettysburgflag.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/048662cff3dee1c17360c4683b5fe03a\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.gettysburgflag.com\/blog\/thanksgiving-stuffed-with-flags\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.gettysburgflag.com\/blog\/thanksgiving-stuffed-with-flags\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.gettysburgflag.com\/blog\/thanksgiving-stuffed-with-flags\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.gettysburgflag.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/11\/A-1910-postcard..jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.gettysburgflag.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/11\/A-1910-postcard..jpg\",\"width\":\"928\",\"height\":\"1440\",\"caption\":\"1910 postcard\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.gettysburgflag.com\/blog\/thanksgiving-stuffed-with-flags\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.gettysburgflag.com\/blog\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Thanksgiving stuffed with flags\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.gettysburgflag.com\/blog\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.gettysburgflag.com\/blog\/\",\"name\":\"Gettysburg Flag Works Blog\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.gettysburgflag.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.gettysburgflag.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/048662cff3dee1c17360c4683b5fe03a\",\"name\":\"James Breig\",\"description\":\"James Breig is a veteran author who specializes in history. His most recent book is \u201cStar-Spangled Baseball: True Tales of Flags and Fields\u201d about the links between the sport and flags. He is also the author of a nonfiction book about WWII, \\\"Searching for Sgt. Bailey: Saluting an Ordinary Soldier of World War II\\\" and co-author of \\\"The Mystery of the Multiple Mothers,\\\" a novel. All three are available at www.amazon.com. His articles have appeared in newspapers and national magazines, including the Colonial Williamsburg Journal (search for them at www.history.org\/journal) and History Magazine. He has won many national awards for his opinion writing, media columns and feature articles.\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.gettysburgflag.com\/blog\/author\/james\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Thanksgiving stuffed with flags - Gettysburg Flag Works Blog","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.gettysburgflag.com\/blog\/thanksgiving-stuffed-with-flags\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Thanksgiving stuffed with flags - Gettysburg Flag Works Blog","og_description":"In 1863, 150 years ago, the midpoint of the Civil War brought the Battle of Gettysburg, the Gettysburg Address \u2013 and a Thanksgiving proclamation by President Abraham Lincoln. Although written by his Secretary of State, the document went out as \u201cby the President of the United States of America,\u201d who invited \u201cmy fellow citizens in... continue","og_url":"https:\/\/www.gettysburgflag.com\/blog\/thanksgiving-stuffed-with-flags\/","og_site_name":"Gettysburg Flag Works Blog","article_published_time":"2013-11-28T14:28:11+00:00","article_modified_time":"2025-04-18T13:49:59+00:00","og_image":[{"width":928,"height":1440,"url":"https:\/\/www.gettysburgflag.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/11\/A-1910-postcard..jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"James Breig","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"James Breig","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.gettysburgflag.com\/blog\/thanksgiving-stuffed-with-flags\/","url":"https:\/\/www.gettysburgflag.com\/blog\/thanksgiving-stuffed-with-flags\/","name":"Thanksgiving stuffed with flags - Gettysburg Flag Works Blog","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.gettysburgflag.com\/blog\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.gettysburgflag.com\/blog\/thanksgiving-stuffed-with-flags\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.gettysburgflag.com\/blog\/thanksgiving-stuffed-with-flags\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.gettysburgflag.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/11\/A-1910-postcard.-193x300.jpg","datePublished":"2013-11-28T14:28:11+00:00","dateModified":"2025-04-18T13:49:59+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.gettysburgflag.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/048662cff3dee1c17360c4683b5fe03a"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.gettysburgflag.com\/blog\/thanksgiving-stuffed-with-flags\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.gettysburgflag.com\/blog\/thanksgiving-stuffed-with-flags\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.gettysburgflag.com\/blog\/thanksgiving-stuffed-with-flags\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.gettysburgflag.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/11\/A-1910-postcard..jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.gettysburgflag.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/11\/A-1910-postcard..jpg","width":"928","height":"1440","caption":"1910 postcard"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.gettysburgflag.com\/blog\/thanksgiving-stuffed-with-flags\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.gettysburgflag.com\/blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Thanksgiving stuffed with flags"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.gettysburgflag.com\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.gettysburgflag.com\/blog\/","name":"Gettysburg Flag Works Blog","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.gettysburgflag.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.gettysburgflag.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/048662cff3dee1c17360c4683b5fe03a","name":"James Breig","description":"James Breig is a veteran author who specializes in history. His most recent book is \u201cStar-Spangled Baseball: True Tales of Flags and Fields\u201d about the links between the sport and flags. He is also the author of a nonfiction book about WWII, \"Searching for Sgt. Bailey: Saluting an Ordinary Soldier of World War II\" and co-author of \"The Mystery of the Multiple Mothers,\" a novel. All three are available at www.amazon.com. His articles have appeared in newspapers and national magazines, including the Colonial Williamsburg Journal (search for them at www.history.org\/journal) and History Magazine. He has won many national awards for his opinion writing, media columns and feature articles.","url":"https:\/\/www.gettysburgflag.com\/blog\/author\/james\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gettysburgflag.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/807","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gettysburgflag.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gettysburgflag.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gettysburgflag.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gettysburgflag.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=807"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.gettysburgflag.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/807\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5990,"href":"https:\/\/www.gettysburgflag.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/807\/revisions\/5990"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gettysburgflag.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=807"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gettysburgflag.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=807"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gettysburgflag.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=807"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}