A Certain Slant of Light

Maybe! Or maybe they were calling it Thanksgiving at that point, who knows! I believe there was a weird Victorian thing (...as with so many other customs of the period!!) where they took what was traditionally largely a big party and tried to turn it into a sober church-focussed event where people did not drink large amounts of alcohol, set bonfires, engage in sexy behaviour etc etc etc, so that our modern harvest festivals are mostly just church services with a big loaf of bread and some vegetables in front of the altar or whatever, so there was a transition in how people celebrated going on not too much earlier than Howells' visit.