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Uncovering Thanksgiving: History, Traditions, and Global Impact

• Michele McAloon

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Thanksgiving holds a special place in the heart of America, and Melanie Kirkpatrick, author of "Thanksgiving: The Holiday at the Heart of the American Experience," joins us to uncover the layers of history and meaning behind this cherished holiday. What if Thanksgiving is more than just a day for turkey and football? We promise you'll gain a deeper understanding of its origins, stretching back to 1621, and how it has come to symbolize unity and gratitude across the nation. From presidential proclamations to modern-day cultural shifts, this episode offers a comprehensive look at Thanksgiving's role in shaping American identity.

Our conversation with Melanie navigates the rich cultural tapestry of Thanksgiving. We explore how it stands as a testament to America's values of generosity and renewal, and how these themes resonate with the histories of immigrants and Native Americans alike. We shed light on the fascinating evolution of traditions, like the role of presidential proclamations from George Washington's era to Abraham Lincoln's impactful declaration, as well as the intriguing story of how turkey became the iconic centerpiece of the Thanksgiving feast. With insights into the interplay between federal and state influences, we also delve into contemporary critiques and the enduring spirit of gratitude that defines this holiday.

As we gather around the table to reflect on Thanksgiving, we also consider its influence beyond American borders, linking it to the global phenomenon of Giving Tuesday. Melanie shares captivating insights from her book, rich with historical reflections and recipes that capture the essence of Thanksgiving. Join us as we celebrate this uniquely American holiday, embracing its themes of community and charity, and learn why Thanksgiving continues to bring us together, transcending time and political divides. Don’t forget to check out more episodes on archangelradio.com and keep the conversation going with us on Twitter!

Speaker 1:

Hello Michelle here with Crossword and it is two days before Thanksgiving. Two years ago I was able to interview Melanie Kirkpatrick on her wonderful book about Thanksgiving, and so I decided to republish this because I really have not found any book better. I hope you enjoy this episode. If you want to find out more about me, you can find me at bookcluescom or michellemacaloon1 at Twitter or MicheleMcAloone1 at Twitter to social MichelleMcAloone1. And if you like my episodes, please like and subscribe. It makes me popular and it helps my ratings. But at the end of the day, after a brutal election season, I want to wish everybody, every American, a very happy Thanksgiving and remember that we are truly Americans and part of a great, great experiment. Thank you, god bless. Happy Thanksgiving. Welcome to Crossword, where cultural clues lead to the truth of the word. My name is Michelle McElhoun. I'm your host. Truth of the word. My name is Michelle McElhune, I'm your host. You can find my podcast and other great Catholic radio programming on archangelradiocom and you can also follow me on Twitter at Michelle McElhune.

Speaker 1:

Today we have a fabulous book, just in time for the big holiday it is Thanksgiving, the holiday at the heart of the American experience by Melanie Kirkpatrick, and it is published by the fabulous Encounter Books. Ms Kirkpatrick is a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute and a former deputy editor of the Wall Street Journal's editorial page. She is the author of Lady Editor Sarah Josepha Hale and the Making of the Modern American Woman and Escape from North Korea the Untold Story of Asia's Underground Railroad. She has lived in Tokyo, toronto, hong Kong and Manhattan and now resides in rural Connecticut. Welcome, melanie Kirkpatrick.

Speaker 2:

Thank you, it's such a pleasure to be with you today.

Speaker 1:

It is such a pleasure to have you and you have written a wonderful book about a wonderful, wonderful American tradition. And this is Thanksgiving and I love how you present the information in this book. It is, thanksgiving is sort of our holiday. It is uniquely ours in a way that is so different from every other country. It has a lot of mythic origins. It's not perfect. There's some sadness around Thanksgiving, but there's also a lot of great celebration and coming together as a country. Why did you decide to write a book on Thanksgiving?

Speaker 2:

It dates back to September 11th and the attacks on the Twin Towers in Manhattan. I was there that day and watched the towers fall and afterwards, like so many Americans, I began thinking more about what it means to be an American and I started to read Of Plymouth Plantation, which is a magnificent work by William Bradford, the governor of Plymouth Plantation. And as we got closer to Thanksgiving Day in 2001, I read ahead to what Bradford had to say about the holiday. It was only 100 words or so, but I was struck by the significance of, about the shared significance, how what he was describing as a time of fellowship and gratitude really applies today, 400 years. By the way, this is the 400th anniversary of that first Thanksgiving. It is applied through the centuries as the holiday is developed and Americans have celebrated in different kinds of ways.

Speaker 1:

I find it very interesting. This is a 400-year celebration and there's really been no hoopla about it. I mean, there's very few things in the United States that we have to celebrate that is 400 years old. I'm not talking about the Native Americans, but I am talking about European, settled United States and 400 years old and I mean it has just been silence, absolute silence. Do you think this is probably because of the political climate at the moment? And I'm not talking about the administration, but I'm talking about maybe kind of what we've been through in the past two or three years with social justice and race and all of that kind of stuff?

Speaker 2:

Maybe I think what it goes back to is that progressives are uncomfortable with Thanksgiving, and last year, in fact, on Thanksgiving Day, there were instances in several American cities of rioters and toppling statues having to do with Native Americans or people who they thought oppressed Native Americans, and the progressive view of the holiday is that it marks the beginning of the genocide of the Native Americans. If they knew their history they would know that's not true. Thanksgiving Day itself in 1621 was a time of amity and fellowship between Native Americans and the pilgrims. In my view, it points the way to the in a positive way, to the multicultural people we have become Now. The peace between the two peoples didn't last and 50 years later war erupted and it was the bloodiest war in American history.

Speaker 2:

Some say progressives are unhappy with it and therefore that unhappiness has trickled down into other parts of society. But the problem for them and the positive news for us, is that Americans love Thanksgiving. We do. They're not about to, we're not about to let anybody cancel it. I think those on the extreme left understand that and therefore it's the better part of wisdom to remain silent. That said, it will be interesting to see how President Biden handles the situation when he issues his Thanksgiving proclamation.

Speaker 1:

That's funny. I was thinking the same thing, and we'll talk a little bit about the presidential proclamations, because that's very much a part of the history of Thanksgiving. What is the story, the actual story behind Thanksgiving? I mean, we're talking 1621. What is the story there?

Speaker 2:

Thanksgiving holiday has many threads that have all come together on the holiday that we celebrate today. But let me mention one thing about that first so-called first Thanksgiving is that the pilgrims didn't call it a Thanksgiving. For them, the first Thanksgiving didn't take place until 1623, in July, a rainfall ended a drought and saved their harvest, which would have saved their lives, because they depended upon it for sustenance. And at that stage the Thanksgivings were called for specific blessings, such as a rainfall, and some, as the years went by, were also called for military victories, and that would include victories over skirmishes with Native Americans. And that tradition carried into the 19th century. Well, into the 18th century, first when the Continental Congress called Thanksgiving for victories over the British several times, and then in the 19th century when Lincoln and Jefferson Davis, head of the Confederacy, both called Thanksgivings for military victories.

Speaker 2:

At the same time as all this was going on, thanksgiving sometime in the 17th century became an annual date of celebration and prayer for general blessings. It was a time to step back and give thanks to God for all of our everyday blessings. Some theologians objected to that. They thought that it would make people take God's goodness for granted. They lost out, and by the end of the 17th century, the New England colonies, at least, were celebrating general Thanksgivings, and that really is the largest influence on the holiday we have today really is the largest influence on the holiday we have today.

Speaker 1:

It's interesting because it is a secular holiday but evolved out of a genuine gratitude toward God. A gratitude for abundance Is that?

Speaker 2:

correct. You know, Michelle, I disagree with you that it's a secular holiday. It's secular in that it's established by government, but it's maybe unique in the world. It's a holiday with religious origins that is open to people of any faith and of those who have none. So it certainly has become secularized over the 400 years that we've been marking it. The pattern is not to go to church on Thanksgiving Day, as used to be the case. It is a time that Americans reflect on all of the blessings in their lives, I think, even if they're not particularly religious.

Speaker 1:

And you said that it's probably the one day that Americans pray, that there is Americans gather around the table and actually say a prayer, and it's more at this event than probably any other event throughout the year.

Speaker 2:

I think that's probably right. There was a survey of that a number of years ago that showed that that was the case, that if Americans were going to say grace they did it on Thanksgiving Day. I don't know how that stands up today. There's been such a cultural shift in a very few years that it would be interesting to see the results if that survey were retaken today.

Speaker 1:

I'm a Roman Catholic. Thanksgiving is always just a little bit confusing to me because it feels like a saint's day, it feels like I should be in mass that day and a lot of parishes do offer mass for thanksgiving but it not feel like a secular day to me, it feels like a high holy day. It really does. And because there is just such a sense of bounty and a sense of gratitude and and you put it, put it the three F's the feast, family and fun, and no feast, family and football. Maybe it's four F's the feast, family, fun and football. But I mean it really is a very special day and I, our American identity, who we see ourselves as you went to the Newcomer High School in I believe it was in Queens- Queens.

Speaker 1:

New York City. Tell us a little bit about that experience. That's really interesting.

Speaker 2:

It was one of the most moving experiences, I would say, of my life to go to this high school in Queens, new York part of New York City that is, for new immigrants to America and I interviewed kids in three classes, all of whom all these kids were about to celebrate their first Thanksgiving in America, or maybe their second in a few cases, and their understanding of what the holiday meant was very personal.

Speaker 2:

Let me give you a couple of examples. So this boy spoke up and said he was from Tibet, a country that hadn't existed since 1950 when China took it over, and he told me that his family had left China because they weren't allowed to practice their religion there, which was the religion of the Dalai Lama, tibetan Buddhism. Then other kids started talking about why they came, and it was clear that there was kind of a split between religious freedom, like the pilgrims, and economic freedom, the idea that their families wanted to come and create better lives for their children and grandchildren which of course, were like part of the pilgrim group, who were divided between people who were Puritans and seeking religious freedom and people who were seeking better lives had a personal grasp of what Thanksgiving was about and for them it was a passage to becoming Americans.

Speaker 1:

I think in very many ways encapsulates the American story. We always continue anew, we're continually starting anew, and I think that's what brings a lot of our freshness and our energy into our country, because you have stories that like that and people identify with Thanksgiving in so many ways, and so I really I think that's kind of the miracle of America.

Speaker 2:

I agree with you. There's something else that started out during the research hadn't occurred to me. Thanksgiving exemplifies America's generous spirit. Americans are the most the world's most generous people in terms of the amount of money that we give to nonprofits and to help poor people, to religious organizations, whatever, and worldwide. Of connecting American generosity with Thanksgiving goes back 400 years or more. The first example I could find of the two was in 1636, when a church in Scituate, massachusetts, called a Thanksgiving day and asked that the richer sort take care of the poor afterward and invite them to a big meal after the religious Thanksgiving service. And as I researched it, it was astonishing how much Thanksgiving is associated with generosity in giving, especially to the less fortunate among us. I think maybe the saddest image in American culture writ large, is that of somebody who has no place to go on Thanksgiving Day. Absolutely yes, yes.

Speaker 2:

Think about how we invite relatives and friends and co-workers to join us on Thanksgiving Day even if they may not be our favorite people you know, the growing grandpa always gets to come and the surly coworker might even receive an invitation but the idea is about a disparate people gathering and giving thanks and having a good meal. Breaking bread together is a powerful shared experience. It may be it's silly to say so, but the fact that one survey says 88% of Americans eat turkey on Thanksgiving Day, the fact that we're all kind of at the same table, I think, helps to unify us.

Speaker 1:

Oh, absolutely it's, because there is really no other day like Thanksgiving, and you mentioned a article that was written when you were living in Hong Kong about a man who wrote about Independence Day and kind of compared it to Thanksgiving Day or thought it was the same thing. And it's really not. It's a completely different event in tone and spirit, absolutely.

Speaker 2:

Completely different. At the same time, I think there's a patriotic aspect to Thanksgiving. Oh, absolutely, proposal went into effect in 1863 under President Lincoln. Before then, americans celebrated state by state or community by community. It wasn't a shared national event.

Speaker 1:

And George Washington, which I thought was very interesting you bring out. George Washington actually did a proclamation for Thanksgiving and it was not secular, it was very religious in tone. It was about all to the gratitude to the almighty God. But even at that early date you had pushback from the States. It was kind of a beginning of who we are as Americans and how our politics in a lot of ways has developed, because I think Thomas Jefferson had a problem with it and basically it was again. It was this constant tension that we live with in the United States of the federal government versus states' rights and state governments. So I thought that was a really interesting. I mean, that's very much part of the history of Thanksgiving too.

Speaker 2:

It is, and it dates back to the first Congress, which was meeting in the capital then of New York City. A group of congressmen wanted to ask Washington to proclaim a Thanksgiving, and other members of Congress said no, no, no, you can't do that. The Constitution that we just have been debating doesn't allow the president to do that. It's a responsibility that belongs to the governors. And a second objection was that, in their view, thanksgiving was a religious day and therefore the president shouldn't involve himself. In any case, as you said, washington went ahead and did it. But Washington was such a great man, he did something really smart Instead of ordering Americans to celebrate Thanksgiving Day, which he could easily have done, he requested the governors to issue their own proclamations naming a Thanksgiving Day that conformed to the date that he had set. And of course they did, and everybody had a good time.

Speaker 1:

Let's talk a little bit about the presidential proclamations, because that's actually been very interesting. I think you said was it FDR that started the first presidential proclamation?

Speaker 2:

No Lincoln's In the modern day series. Lincoln did the first one and then every president subsequently has issued a proclamation. But FDR issued the first proclamation after the holiday became truly official. Congress passed a congressional resolution in 1941, naming Thanksgiving as the fourth Thursday of November, and this was the first time that it had been enshrined in law. Roosevelt signed that piece of November and this was the first time that it had been enshrined in law. Roosevelt signed that piece of legislation. So ever since then it's been official. We've been celebrating on the fourth Thursday. Before that, presidents would issue proclamations, but the states were under no legal obligation to call them, because presidential proclamations don't have the force of law.

Speaker 1:

Didn't FDR kind of mess things up because he tried to make Thanksgiving what was a week late, a week earlier? I think it was right to try to, so people could spin their way out of the Depression.

Speaker 2:

Yeah yeah, yeah, it's a great story and listeners of a certain age may even remember this. But in 1939, roosevelt decided to move the date of Thanksgiving, making it a week earlier than had been the tradition. And he was a savvy politician, but he really misread public opinion on this issue because people went berserk. They were so upset that the president was trying to flout this tradition. So for three years he did this. For three years he thought that if he extended the Christmas shopping season, that it would benefit the economy, which was a dumb economic idea, as it turns out, because Americans didn't have any money to spend. They would have been happy to spend it if they had it, but they didn't have it, so it had no economic impact.

Speaker 2:

But what happened was that half the states decided to celebrate on the traditional date of Thanksgiving and the other half decided to celebrate a week earlier. So you have the case such as what in my own family. My mother would tell the story about how she's from Buffalo, which is in New York State, roosevelt State and they celebrated on the new date. However, she was in college in Boston, which was in Massachusetts, the home of the original Thanksgiving, and they weren't damned if they were going to go along with a change in the date. So for the years she was in college she was unable to go home for Thanksgiving because it was a school day for her in Boston.

Speaker 1:

Oh, that's interesting, and I think FDR later joked that he did it so he could celebrate two Thanksgivings or something like that.

Speaker 2:

He wanted two turkey dinners, he said. Which was a very clever and amusing response.

Speaker 1:

There's also kind of some shades with Thanksgiving and we have to. We would be remiss if we didn't talk about the Native Americans. And you don't dismiss what we as a nation have probably did not do the best to staying on our background and of how we treated the Native Americans and what Thanksgiving means to the Native Americans today. But, like you said, many are, they're multicultural because they have their American heritage, their Native American heritage, and then they have their United States of America heritage. So they, a lot of them, accommodate both, which I think is very interesting.

Speaker 2:

I interviewed a number of Native American leaders and the message I got was that, as you said, they were both citizens of the United States and citizens or members of their Native American tribe. I think it is wrong to categorize Thanksgiving as the beginning of the genocide of the Native American people, but it is appropriate to reflect on the treatment of Native Americans and that's appropriate for all of us, not just Native Americans, to do that Sure sure, and it's also appropriate for us to pay closer attention to the facts about Thanksgiving.

Speaker 2:

Native Americans I spoke to were really annoyed and insulted by the. Thanksgiving is sometimes presented, and used to be presented all the time, as a patronizing holiday where the pilgrims invited the Native Americans and were the grand hosts and the Native Americans were the recipients. And it wasn't that way. The Native Americans were in fact the pilgrims' lifesavers. The Native Americans were in fact the pilgrims' lifesavers. They are the ones that taught them how to plant corn, how to direct them to good fishing areas, and really without their help it's doubtful that the pilgrims could have survived, thrived.

Speaker 2:

When kids are studying Thanksgiving in elementary school, things have changed. Now More and more schools do present it in a more equitable way, and this may sound like a little thing, but one thing, native American, that really gets their go from the people I spoke to was Indian headdresses. Remember how, at least when I was a kid, you'd make headdresses as the Native American. Well, the New England Indians didn't wear headdresses. They might, there might be a single feather, but not the grand headdresses that you saw in the Plains Indians. So that was just a small, small example, but, as I say. It would annoy a lot of people because it reflects myth. That is wrong about Thanksgiving dinner?

Speaker 1:

Absolutely. You also say the pilgrims didn't wear buckles on their heads. So it's good, when we reflect on history, to stick with the facts, to understand the facts, to understand the facts in the context of history. Reinventing history to accommodate a certain narrative that it's not good for anybody, and I don't care if it's you're teaching first graders. Stick to the facts that are within the context, that are well-researched, that are academic and that can be even taught at the lowest level all the way up through college. And that's what is going to keep us on the straight and narrow. I believe A little editorializing there. Why turkey? Why do we eat turkey for Thanksgiving?

Speaker 2:

Oh heavens, I don't know the answer to that, but I will say that one of the two pilgrim accounts of the first Thanksgiving does mention the turkey, so it's possible that there was turkey at that first Thanksgiving On. Turkey was a special treat, I think, for people. When I looked at resources from the 18th century, you see turkey showing up in descriptions of what Thanksgiving dinner was all about. But it wasn't just turkey. There usually was a side of beef or pork and venison on the table. And another thing that was very popular in New England on Thanksgiving Day was chicken pot pie. I love that. Thanksgiving dinner wasn't complete without an enormous chicken pot pie, so turkey wasn't the only feature of the meal.

Speaker 1:

Well, I want to meet the guy or the girl who ate the first cranberry and decided to eat the second one.

Speaker 2:

They're so sour and pilgrims did not have sugar. The pilgrims did not bring sugar with them, so it's unlikely that they ate cranberries, because without sugar they're pretty unpalatable. The Native Americans did dry cranberries and mix them into other foods. So you know, maybe there were cranberries there at the first Thanksgiving, but kind of doubtful. No pie, because they didn't have flour. They had squashes and pumpkin. They didn't have potatoes. Potatoes were New World foods. There were sweet potatoes and white potatoes, but they weren't native to New England. And what else? They probably had corn and squash. No apples, no apple pie, because they were not introduced to New England until the end of the 17th century.

Speaker 1:

That was interesting. I did not know that. I thought apples were native to the United States. So that's really that was a fun fact to learn about, kind of the small history of apples. I guess Johnny Appleseed right. There's two other days that are associated with Thanksgiving that you brought up that I thought are very interesting, and that is Black Friday and Giving Tuesday. Black Friday I mean, everybody knows what Black Friday is, the shopping day. I see Black Friday advertised here in Germany. Now that's really interesting. Where do you think Black Friday actually came from? Of?

Speaker 2:

course it's unclear, but it probably came from Philadelphia. In the 50s, I believe, there was an Army-Navy game. You should know this. I know an army Navy game. You should know this. I know I was celebrated. The football game was celebrated in Philadelphia and police were on the Friday after Thanksgiving and the police referred to it as black Friday because of all the terrible traffic connected with the football game and also people who came into the city to go shopping on the day after Thanksgiving. That's probably where the name came from.

Speaker 1:

That's so interesting. I have a son and a husband. They both graduated from West Point and spent many a time in the Army-Navy game and in traffic, so I really appreciate that where Black Friday comes from. How about Giving Tuesday? That's a new one, but that's a huge one, and Giving Tuesday is definitely a thing here in Europe.

Speaker 2:

Yes, it's become an international idea. It started in New York City at the 92nd YMCA, which is a Jewish organization, and the idea was that on the Tuesday, the idea was it was connected to Thanksgiving originally that after Black Friday, Cyber Monday, now there's Giving Tuesday, where we can think about the true meaning of Thanksgiving and give expression to it. Thanksgiving in America is the start of what's known as the giving season, which goes till Christmas, when a lot of people make their end of year contributions to places, to nonprofits, and that's how it got its start. But it quickly took off and it's all online. There's very little bureaucracy to it. You can.

Speaker 2:

The nonprofit or religious organization could just say okay, you know, this is the day where we would welcome your contributions and the mother organization will help people, if they wish, to the extent of organizing how to organize a campaign. Give them support. That way there's no form you have to fill out in, triplicate and send it in. You can just help it. And I have an association with Bulgaria through the America for Bulgaria Foundation and I have been interested to find that Giving Tuesday and Black Friday both take place there as well, not just.

Speaker 1:

Germans. It's really interesting that this has a phenomenon that has spread worldwide, and I really like to see the Giving Tuesday that is really America's gift to the world, because we do contribute so much to our own society in a way that's very different from other societies around the world. After all this research that you've done on Thanksgiving from other societies around the world, after all this research that you've done on Thanksgiving, what do you think Thanksgiving really is to you, both personally and to a nation?

Speaker 2:

The subtitle of my book is the Holiday at the Heart of the American Experience, and I think that is a short way of saying what the holiday means. It has had many iterations and many influences over more than 400 years because there are Thanksgivings that predated the Pilgrims and the Indians, not least the Native American Days of Gratitude. So it's definitely about gratitude. I think it is about the Almighty, however one defines it, and it's also about community, and that means the family community. Your local community and our national community as well have so-called Thanksgiving days, but they're not connected to what it means to be a German or Canadian or Korean, for example all three countries that do have Thanksgiving days. But in America it speaks powerfully to our national character and I think that's one reason that everybody loves it. It's not just the turkey, okay.

Speaker 1:

What's your favorite food on the table? Cranberries oh, I do too. I love the cranberries with a lot of sugar but a little bit of bourbon in them. Little pecans, I love them. I love those cranberries. All right, your book is so adorable. Where can people buy your book? Where would you prefer people to purchase your book?

Speaker 2:

It's available online at the usual spots Amazon, barnes, noble. I would hope your local book seller also has it. But one thing I like to say about the book was not only did I have a wonderful time writing it, I had a wonderful time working with the publisher producing it. It's a very beautiful book with lovely illustrations. And there were two last minute additions that I suggested where I researched short readings from 400 years of history by famous and sometimes not so famous people about the meaning of the holiday, and people have told me that they like taking that section and reading some of them around their Thanksgiving table at home. And the second section was one that my husband kept asking me to write. He said you have to include recipes and I kept saying no, no, no, this is a serious history. And he said but everybody loves recipes. So I did. I have there's a section called Historic Recipes and Bills of Fair and it actually was so much fun to research to find out what some of the classic dishes were and how it took to make them.

Speaker 1:

You know what? I'm going to Thanksgiving dinner and I have a friend that is from Italy and they eat polenta, so I'm going to take. I'm going to make the Indian pudding at the end.

Speaker 2:

Oh, good With cornmeal, Cornmeal, Right.

Speaker 1:

So yeah, I'm looking forward to that To my listening audience. We've been talking to Melanie Kirkpatrick, Her book Praise for Thanksgiving the Holiday at the Heart of the American Experience by Encounter Books and I tell you this would make a great, a great hostess gift. If you're looking for a hostess gift for Thanksgiving dinner, this is great. It's got beautiful little illustrations throughout it. It has wonderful vignettes. We didn't even talk about half of what is in this book. It's got beautiful little illustrations throughout it. It has wonderful vignettes. We didn't even talk about half of what is in this book. It's detailed, yet very readable. The narrative goes so smooth. It's such a cute little book and I cannot encourage enough Americans to understand this holiday. Because this holiday is so important? Because, like you said, Melanie, this is about us and it's a reflection of who we are as Americans. It's a great holiday. Thank you so much for taking time out of your busy schedule to talk with us about this wonderful book you have written.

Speaker 2:

Thank you, michelle, so much. It's a pleasure being with you, and let me be the first to wish you a happy Thanksgiving.

Speaker 1:

Well, thank you and happy Thanksgiving to you. You've been listening to Crossword, where cultural clues lead to the truth of the word. My name is Michelle McAloon, your host. You can find my podcast and other great radio programming on archangelradiocom. You can find me at Twitter at Michelle McAloon 1. Thank you, god bless.