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Alhough Thanksgiving isn’t a traditional feast day in ireland, Irish all over America celebrate thanksgiving every year. 6 Irish tunes you can play at Thanksgiving, for tin whistle, with audio recordings, sheet music & whistle tabs (fingering charts). Scroll to the bottom of the page to download the free pdf sheet music booklet.
Contents
It is a New England Autumn in 1621. The beautiful gold and crimson leaves contribute to the festive atmosphere that blankets Plimoth village. The smell of roasting Turkeys adds to the ambience. The little village’s fifty English settlers are preparing a harvest festival in celebration of having survived the previous year’s great hardships and brought in their first crops in the New World.
Historically, the Irish have looked to America as a beacon of hope, a refuge from the troubles back home. During the mid-19th century, the Great Hunger—better known as the Irish Potato Famine—drove more than a million Irish to seek new horizons. The emigrants brought not only their hopes and dreams but also their cultural traditions. They gradually integrated into American society, an integration symbolically represented in their participation in Thanksgiving, a ritual meal that marked their transformation from foreigners to American citizens. As the Irish climbed the social ladder, their involvement in American rituals like Thanksgiving played a crucial role in this transition.
Irish immigrants and their descendants have made significant contributions to various aspects of American life, including politics, industry, organized labor, religion, literature, music, and art. These contributions reflect the rich cultural heritage they brought with them and how they influenced the society they adopted. Remembering and sharing the history of the Irish in America is essential, particularly during Thanksgiving, as it reinforces the values of endurance, community, and gratitude. The holiday table serves as a meeting place for the past and the present, a place where stories of old are passed down and new memories are made.
