Current and former holidays with history in Virginia

RICHMOND, Va. (WRIC) -- Holidays span cultures and time, and sometimes even lie in religious or secular commemorations. As they allow families to gather and celebrate shared values, Virginia's rich history shows how and why these holidays are observed in the 21st century.

8News compiled a list of five holidays with roots in Virginia's past and present.

Thanksgiving

A day to give thanks, Thanksgiving dates all the way back to 1621, when Plymouth colonists and Wampanoag Native Americans shared a harvest feast to celebrate their first successful harvest.

According to the Virginia Tourism Corporation (VTC), many colonies had their first Thanksgiving on Dec. 4, 1619, at Berkeley Plantation. The lesser well-known Virginian Thanksgiving was actually held when Englishmen landed at Berkeley Hundred on the James River, which is what they say is "the real first Thanksgiving."

The corporation continued to say that Captain John Woodlief and 37 men sailed from Bristol, England, around September 1619, on the ship called "Margaret," and reached Berkeley Hundred in December of that same year.

The colonies' first Thanksgiving on Dec. 4, 1619, served as their first thanks to God after they arrived in the New World, as per the VTC.

"Graham Woodlief and Barbara Ramos will tell the story of this first Thanksgiving in English-speaking America and of the origins of the Virginia Thanksgiving Festival, which led to President Kennedy's mention of Virginia in his Thanksgiving proclamation of 1963," the VTC said.

Yorktown Day

Another holiday with deep Virginia ties is Yorktown Day, which sees the town of Yorktown celebrate the Siege of Yorktown in 1781 and the Revolutionary War victory.

Celebrated each year on Oct. 19, Yorktown Day, while not a federal holiday, celebrates British forces surrendering at Yorktown in 1781, effectively ending major combat in the American Revolutionary War.

The British Army, led by Lord Cornwallis at Yorktown, surrendered on Oct. 19, 1781, marking a turning point in the war. This effectively ended military operations in the American Colonies and paved the way for the Treaty of Paris in 1783.

According to Yorktown's website, the annual celebration begins with a wreath-laying ceremony followed by a patriotic parade down Main Street.

Attendees can visit the Nelson House, Yorktown Custom House, York County Historical Museum, Watermen's Museum and the American Revolution Museum at Yorktown.

You can explore the Battlefield Tour Roads, siege lines, redoubts and the surrender field, as per the VTC. The foundation added that the Yorktown Trolley runs throughout the event.

Independence Day

While Independence Day is known for celebrating the entire United States' freedom, Independence Day -- or July 4 -- has some history tied to the Commonwealth that dates back to the 1700s.

Virginia was the first colony to instruct its delegates to propose independence at the Continental Congress, according to the National Constitution Center.

The Virginia Convention in Williamsburg proposed a Declaration of Independence in June 1776, asking delegates to declare the colonies free and independent states, according to the governor's office.

Richard Henry Lee, a delegate from Virginia, introduced the resolution for independence, later adopted by the Continental Congress.

Lee-Jackson-King Day

While it has since been eliminated, Lee-Jackson-King Day was celebrated for 16 years in the 20th century from 1984 to 2000.

Robert E. Lee had been honored in Virginia since 1889. In 1904, Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson was added to the observance, creating Lee-Jackson Day.

In 1984, the state controversially combined this day with the federal holiday for Martin Luther King Jr., a civil rights activist during the mid-1950s. The United States Congress had already declared Jan. 15 a national holiday in honor of King.

A year before making this change, in 1983, Virginia celebrated King's birthday along with New Year's Day, according to the Lee-Jackson Memorial Park.

However, in 2000, Gov. Jim Gilmore signed legislation to officially eliminate Lee-Jackson-King Day.

"Virginia adopted the Federal commemoration date and combined it with an existing holiday to create Lee-Jackson-King Day," the park's website states.

The aftermath of the abolition of Lee-Jackson-King Day is marked by ongoing celebrations and protests related to Confederate heritage. Therefore, events like parades and memorial services in Commonwealth areas draw both supporters and critics.

Its removal in 2000 was driven by the controversy of combining the commemoration of Lee and Jackson, who fought to uphold slavery and preserve the Confederacy, with the celebration of King, who championed racial equality and civil rights. Many considered this deeply offensive and disrespectful.

According to the Lee-Jackson Memorial Park, the Lee-Jackson Day dinner is "sponsored annually by the Camp Frank Paxton, Sons of Confederate Veterans, and the Mary Custis Lee chapter, United Daughters of the Confederacy, in honor of the two great Southern [chieftains]."

Christmas

While Christmas was celebrated by colonial Virginians, colonial holiday celebrations were quite different from what we know now, according to Preservation Virginia. As a result, there is some interesting history regarding Virginia's holiday traditions and festivities.

Many towns would designate a colonist as the "Lord of Misrule," a figure appointed to oversee Christmas festivities in England during the late medieval and early Tudor periods.

According to the non-profit organization, this individual would dress in yellow and green and lead Christmas Day celebrations.

The first Christmas in Virginia was celebrated by the Jamestown colonists at sea in 1606, and then again after they established the settlement. Meanwhile, in the next century, Colonial Williamsburg introduced some Christmas traditions to Virginians, including grand illuminations, fireworks and historical reenactments, as per the VTC.

Christmas in colonial Virginia featured feasting and revelry, though often with a more somber tone due to the hardships of winter. 

Virginia was also the fifth state to recognize Christmas as a legal holiday in 1849, as per the Virginia Executive Mansion.

During slavery, Christmas sparked much tension and anxiety for enslaved people in the Commonwealth. For many enslaved people, Christmas gave them a brief respite from labor. Some were allowed rest, shared meals, music and dancing.

"The Virginia observation of Christmas tended toward good fellowship and good eating," the Colonial Williamsburg's website reads. Thomas Jefferson wrote on Christmas Day in 1762 that Christmas was a "day of greatest mirth and jollity," the website continued.