Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body; and be thankful. Colossians 3.15
It is officially the “holidays.” We, here in America, are about to celebrate the Thanksgiving holiday. But what are we actually celebrating? Curious what history tells us about the holiday and with an ever expanding internet knowledge base, I went a searchin’…..
Wikipedia writes:
Thanksgiving or Thanksgiving Day, currently celebrated on the fourth Thursday in November, has been an annual tradition in the United States since 1863. Thanksgiving was historically a religious observation to give thanks to God.
The event that Americans commonly call the first Thanksgiving was celebrated to give thanks to God for helping the Pilgrims of Plymouth Colony survive their first brutal winter in New England. The first Thanksgiving feast lasted three days, providing enough food for 53 pilgrims and 90 Native Americans. The feast consisted of fish (cod, eels, and bass) and shellfish (clams, lobster, and mussels), wild fowl (ducks, geese, swans, and turkey), venison, berries and fruit, vegetables (peas, pumpkin, beetroot and possibly, wild or cultivated onion), harvest grains (barley and wheat), and the Three Sisters: beans, dried Indian maize or corn, and squash.
History.com writes:
“Pilgrims held their second Thanksgiving celebration in 1623 to mark the end of a long drought that had threatened the year’s harvest and prompted Governor Bradford to call for a religious fast. Days of fasting and thanksgiving on an annual or occasional basis became common practice in other New England settlements as well. During the American Revolution, the Continental Congress designated one or more days of thanksgiving a year, and in 1789 George Washington issued the first Thanksgiving proclamation by the national government of the United States; in it, he called upon Americans to express their gratitude for the happy conclusion to the country’s war of independence and the successful ratification of the U.S. Constitution. His successors John Adams and James Madison also designated days of thanks during their presidencies.
In 1817, New York became the first of several states to officially adopt an annual Thanksgiving holiday; each celebrated it on a different day, however, and the American South remained largely unfamiliar with the tradition. In 1827, the noted magazine editor and prolific writer Sarah Josepha Hale—author, among countless other things, of the nursery rhyme “Mary Had a Little Lamb”—launched a campaign to establish Thanksgiving as a national holiday. For 36 years, she published numerous editorials and sent scores of letters to governors, senators, presidents and other politicians. Abraham Lincoln finally heeded her request in 1863, at the height of the Civil War, in a proclamation entreating all Americans to ask God to “commend to his tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife” and to “heal the wounds of the nation.” He scheduled Thanksgiving for the final Thursday in November, and it was celebrated on that day every year until 1939, when Franklin D. Roosevelt moved the holiday up a week in an attempt to spur retail sales during the Great Depression. Roosevelt’s plan, known derisively as Franksgiving, was met with passionate opposition, and in 1941 the president reluctantly signed a bill making Thanksgiving the fourth Thursday in November”
It doesn’t surprise me that this holiday started out as a way to express our thanks to God. Isn’t that what God wants from us…a thankful heart?
In my house, we have started a Thanksgiving tradition. We have a book that gets pulled out each year and everyone who attends our dinner is asked to write down what they are thankful for. It’s fun to look back over the years to see what people have written and see how things have changed. I was particularly happy to know I started this before my mother-in-law passed away; we have her hand writing in that book and it always makes us smile to look at it.
I’m looking forward to Thanksgiving this year. I’m thankful that both of my sisters will be there (one for the first time), and especially thankful to have my husband’s brother & his wife at our home for the very first time. This is a time for healing and togetherness. And I am forever grateful to God for His healing in our family and His grace, love and forgiveness.
I would love to hear about your family traditions and what you are thankful for this year. Leave me a note down below.
May your day be blessed.
