Story Archives of 'Thanksgiving'

Massachusetts gets a lot of credit around the founding of Thanksgiving, but what many don’t know is the role New Hampshire played. Our state’s first permanent resident, David Thompson, helped Miles Standish and many of the Pilgrims survive a few years after their historic feast. Then there’s Sarah Josepha Hale, who lobbied for over twenty years to make Thanksgiving a national holiday. We’ll learn more about New Hampshire’s role in this cherished holiday as well as how we’ve celebrated it over the years.

Guests

• J. Dennis Robinson, editor of SeascoastNH.com and author of several books on New Hampshire history, including Strawberry Banke: A Seaport Museum 400 Years in the Making
• Stuart Wallace, New Hampshire historian and Associate Professor of History at New Hampshire Technical Institute

Lisa Peakes speaks with Tricia Barry with The Farm Sanctuary about what kind of pets turkeys make.

She's known for appealing to President Lincoln to establish Thanksgiving as a national holiday and for writing Mary Had a Little Lamb, but New Hampshire's own Sarah Josepha Hale was also a writer and editor, strongly believed in the "New England Way of Life" and thought that women should not vote and should stay out of politics. As we approach the Thanksgiving holiday, we'll learn more about who Sarah Josepha Hale was, what her impact was on New England and the other lesser known things she did in her lifetime. Laura's guests are Stu Wallace, Associate Professor of History at the New Hampshire Institute of Technology and Liz Wright, Associate Professor in the Department of English and Communications at Rivier College.

It would be hard to imagine a holiday that says New England more than Thanksgiving. So as the final preparations for the holiday feast are made, New Hampshire Public Radio’s Rebecca Kaufman checked in with a few Granite Staters who immigrated to the U.S. She asked if they celebrate the very American holiday and found that Thanksgiving seems to have universal appeal. The visit starts at English class at the International Institute, a refugee re-settlement agency in Manchester.

If you're traveling between Concord and Salem on Friday, you may want to check your watch before you leave. For the first time ever, a NASCAR race at the Speedway in Loudon is scheduled for Thanksgiving weekend. Assistant Commissioner of Transportation Gil Rogers told NHPR's Trish Anderton that will bring heavy traffic to the southern end of Interstate 93.