Giving thanks

In church on Thanksgiving Day, Father Don pointed out that Thanksgiving is not a holy day. It actually has nothing to do with any religion. I believe he said the first Thanksgiving took place during George Washington's time but Abraham Lincoln was the president that declared that a day be set aside each year to give thanks.

Actually, in 1621 in Plymouth, Mass. the celebration of thanks was held by the Pilgrims who had sailed to our shores and survived. They were well acquainted with annual thanksgiving day celebrations. It is an ancient and universal custom. The Greeks had honored Demeter, goddess of agriculture; the Romans had paid tribute to Ceres, the goddess of corn; the Hebrews had offered thanks for abundant harvests with the Feast of Tabernacles. The Western World accepted these customs.

The Pilgrims had survived a very hard year, illnesses, severe weather, and other hardships had plagued them but they had a bountiful harvest and an abundance of food. Hence, thanksgiving celebration.

On October 1777 for the first time, all thirteen colonies joined in a common thanksgiving celebration. They were celebrating the victory over the British at Saratoga. It was a one time thing.

Finally the first national Thanksgiving proclamation was issued by President George Washington in 1789. However, not unlike some citizens today, there was a group of Americans that felt there was no need for a national celebration because a handful of early settlers had chosen to honor their survival. They looked on the day as honoring the settlers not as a day to give thanks. President Thomas Jefferson went so far as to actively condemn a national recognition of Thanksgiving during his two terms.

In 1827, a magazine editor Sarah Josepha Hale, started a one woman crusade for a Thanksgiving celebration. She not only published editorials in her magazine but wrote letters to governors, ministers, newspaper editors and each incumbent President requesting that the last Thursday in November be designated as a tribute of joy and gratitude for the blessings of the year.

Finally in 1863, the Civil War had bitterly divided the nation and Mrs. Hale revved up her editorials with unflinchinglly patriotic fervor, and in September of that year just after the Battle of Gettysburg when the North had an important victory, Mrs. Hale prompted President Abraham Lincoln to issue a proclamation. He did so on October 3, 1863. He proclaimed the last Thursday in November as Thanksgiving Day.

In 1939 President Franklin D. Roosevelt shifted Thanksgiving back one week, to the third Thursday in November to increase the number of shopping days between Thanksgiving and Christmas. Hence, Black Friday!Ciao