New Jersey played a significant role in shaping the nation’s Thanksgiving tradition, from Governor Sir Francis Bernard’s colonial proclamations to Governor William Livingston’s 1783 Day of Thanksgiving, to local congressman Elias Boudinot inspiring President George Washington’s first national Thanksgiving proclamation in 1789.
Thanksgiving in New Jersey has always been more than a meal. It is a feeling that dates back to the 18th century, when Washington called for national days of thanks and Francis Bernard helped shape the early character of colonial New Jersey. Families gathered in small dining rooms, neighbors paused from the harvest, and entire towns came together simply to give thanks for one another. Those early moments created a rhythm that still echoes through every Thanksgiving season we celebrate today.
You can feel that old spirit in our modern traditions. You hear it, remembering the roar of the Ridge and Bernards crowd on a cold Thanksgiving morning, a community ritual that once pulled nearly everyone out of bed before sunrise. You hear it again in the legendary Westfield and Plainfield game, where generations packed the sidelines to cheer, laugh, and reconnect with the people they grew up with. And you see it on Thanksgiving Eve when the Jolly Trolley in Westfield fills with familiar faces returning home, gathering in a glow of conversation that feels almost like the colonial taverns of old, where neighbors once shared stories before winter settled in.
Thanksgiving in New Jersey is a story about people. The people who built our towns. The people who carried the traditions forward. The people who gather every year in big crowds, small circles, and sometimes right under the lights of an old trolley stop just to feel connected again.
These memories are not separate stories. They are one long thread that runs from Washington and Bernard to the football fields and the taverns and the trolley tracks where we meet today. They remind us that Thanksgiving has always been about community. About seeing someone you have not seen in years and feeling like no time has passed at all. About sharing gratitude for the place we call home. So enjoy this journey through the stories and memories that make Thanksgiving in New Jersey what it is. It is a holiday that changes with every generation but still feels exactly the same. A celebration of our past and a reminder that the heart of Thanksgiving has always been the people beside us.
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