Press Release

November 10, 2006
Contact:
            Pablo J. Davis
pablo@virginia.edu
(434) 924-9946
www.virginiafoundation.org

PREPARING FOR A FEAST – OF STORIES!

                                                                 
“This Common Feast: The Thanksgiving Project,” a venture of VFH’s South Atlantic Humanities Center (SAHC), will be setting a table on the Downtown Mall, Saturday, November 18, from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.  This “Thanksgiving table” will feature not water goblets, plates, and napkins, but rather an exhibit on the curious origins and development of the holiday.

Visitors to the table (near the fountain and Zocalo) can view the exhibit and speak with organizers about the oral history and folklife project, which aims to document how people in our community and region experience this most American of holidays.  Visitors can also learn how to take part in “This Common Feast” by sharing their Thanksgiving stories through the project’s Web site or signing up for an interview. 

While the main cultural icons of Thanksgiving involve a family gathered for a meal, with turkey at the center, the holiday has been observed in many different ways.  Certainly a shared meal has long been central to the day; but the celebration has also involved hunting, playing or watching football, parades, acts of charity or community service, public merry-making, and religious services.  For military personnel overseas, Thanksgiving has for more than a century meant a crucial ritual link to family—a meaning it also holds for many college students, for Americans abroad, and for others far from home.  The holiday also makes a statement about this country’s origins, providing an occasion for celebration, reflection, and at times critique regarding American history—particularly in connection with Native Americans.

This project will deepen our understanding of the culture of communities across a broad region stretching as far south as the Caribbean and as far north as the Potomac.  Indeed, by documenting the actual variety of ways people from a wide range of places and origins experience a major holiday, “This Common Feast” will make an innovative contribution to the public humanities field.

SAHC is based in Charlottesville at the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities (VFH) in partnership with the University of Virginia and Virginia Tech.  VFH is a statewide non-profit organization dedicated to promoting the humanities, and to using the humanities to address issues of broad public concern. In all its programs, the Foundation works to make scholarship accessible; to promote understanding and discussion of enduring and contemporary issues; and to broaden the range of educational opportunities available to all Virginians.  

For more information on this or other VFH programs, please visit
www.southatlanticcenter.org or www.virginiafoundation.org