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Happy Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving-1861Today is Thanksgiving Day in the United States.  It is a day set apart to be thankful for the blessings we have, and to remember from whence these blessings come.  No matter how difficult one’s situation may seem to be, there is always something to be grateful for.

In that spirit, read the Thanksgiving Proclamation issued by Abraham Lincoln in the middle of the American Civil War.  Even in a time of national crisis, Lincoln could still count our national blessings and find reason to give thanks:

By the President of the United States of America.

A Proclamation.

The year that is drawing towards its close, has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies. To these bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the source from which they come, others have been added, which are of so extraordinary a nature, that they cannot fail to penetrate and soften even the heart which is habitually insensible to the ever watchful providence of Almighty God. In the midst of a civil war of unequaled magnitude and severity, which has sometimes seemed to foreign States to invite and to provoke their aggression, peace has been preserved with all nations, order has been maintained, the laws have been respected and obeyed, and harmony has prevailed everywhere except in the theatre of military conflict; while that theatre has been greatly contracted by the advancing armies and navies of the Union. Needful diversions of wealth and of strength from the fields of peaceful industry to the national defence, have not arrested the plough, the shuttle or the ship; the axe has enlarged the borders of our settlements, and the mines, as well of iron and coal as of the precious metals, have yielded even more abundantly than heretofore. Population has steadily increased, notwithstanding the waste that has been made in the camp, the siege and the battle-field; and the country, rejoicing in the consiousness of augmented strength and vigor, is permitted to expect continuance of years with large increase of freedom. No human counsel hath devised nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy. It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently and gratefully acknowledged as with one heart and one voice by the whole American People. I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next, as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens. And I recommend to them that while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliverances and blessings, they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to His tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty Hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to restore it as soon as may be consistent with the Divine purposes to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquillity and Union.

In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the Seal of the United States to be affixed.

Done at the City of Washington, this Third day of October, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, and of the Independence of the Unites States the Eighty-eighth.

By the President: Abraham Lincoln

William H. Seward,
Secretary of State

Have a happy Thanksgiving, and remember to give thanks to the One who gave you the blessings in your life!

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Culture Focus: Thanksgiving

The First Thanksgiving

“The First Thanksgiving at Plymouth” (1914)
by Jennie A. Brownscombe

This Thursday is Thanksgiving Day in the United States.  Although it was observed at various times and by various presidents during the early part of American history, it wasn’t until 1863 that the last Thursday in November was proclaimed a national “day of Thanksgiving and Praise” by President Abraham Lincoln.  Since then, it has been an annual holiday, which in 1941 was amended slightly to be celebrated the fourth Thursday in November rather than the last Thursday of the month.

The origins of this American celebration date back to the Pilgrims at Plymouth Colony, who played a crucial role in the early history of this nation.  In the late fall of 1621 the Pilgrims held a feast of thanksgiving for a good harvest.  Of the 102 colonists that had left on the ship Mayflower to start a new life in the New World, only 53 had survived.  The Pilgrims had arrived the previous year, landing at Plymouth Rock in December 1620.  But since it was in winter, conditions were very hard, and nearly half the original passengers died from the disease and harsh conditions of that first winter.  The Indians in the area were a tremendous help to the Pilgrims during their early struggles, teaching them how to catch eel and grow corn, and even giving them food.  As a result, the surviving Pilgrims were grateful for a good harvest and the help they had received from the natives, so they held a harvest feast with the Indians.  The following are a couple of first-hand accounts of that celebration of thanksgiving:

They began now to gather in the small harvest they had, and to fit up their houses and dwellings against winter, being all well recovered in health and strength and had all things in good plenty. For as some were thus employed in affairs abroad, others were exercised in fishing, about cod and bass and other fish, of which they took good store, of which every family had their portion. All the summer there was no want; and now began to come in store of fowl, as winter approached, of which this place did abound when they came first (but afterward decreased by degrees). And besides waterfowl there was great store of wild turkeys, of which they took many, besides venison, etc. Besides, they had about a peck a meal a week to a person, or now since harvest, Indian corn to the proportion. Which made many afterwards write so largely of their plenty here to their friends in England, which were not feigned but true reports.  (William Bradford, Of Plymouth Plantation)

Our harvest being gotten in, our governor sent four men on fowling, that so we might after a special manner rejoice together after we had gathered the fruits of our labor. They four in one day killed as much fowl as, with a little help beside, served the company almost a week. At which time, amongst other recreations, we exercised our arms, many of the Indians coming amongst us, and among the rest their greatest king Massasoit, with some ninety men, whom for three days we entertained and feasted, and they went out and killed five deer, which we brought to the plantation and bestowed on our governor, and upon the captain and others. And although it be not always so plentiful as it was at this time with us, yet by the goodness of God, we are so far from want that we often wish you partakers of our plenty. (Edward Winslow, Mourt’s Relation)

So, every year Americans continue this nearly four-hundred-year-old tradition of setting aside a day in the autumn to give thanks for all their blessings.  May we all take a moment and be truly thankful for all the good things in life that we enjoy.

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