Miss Mom: Thanksgiving History

The big day has arrived. Someone has been slaving over a stove since early morning, and has likely made desserts the day before. Guests are arriving dressed in comfortable clothes, while several discuss which football team will be the winner of the Sugar bowl this year, with a few casual bets suggested on the outcome. The kids are all playing and generally getting underfoot, and the women in the gathering are planning their midnight foray into the biggest insanity of the year, The Day After Thanksgiving Sales events. These events, which now begin at the stroke of midnight last long into Friday. People rush to find bargains for Christmas presents and stand in line at mall concessions at 4 a.m. to pick up a caffeine and sugar fix to keep them going until at least after breakfast.

With all the food, football and “fun” at the shopping arena one can forget this time honored tradition. We all know about the Pilgrims who had the first Thanksgiving day, but what about after that? How did this Federal holiday come to be? What are some of the things that occurred in our nations history that played a part in a day of Thanksgiving?

A quick look at the history of Thanksgiving Day as a national day of recognition, goes all the way back to the Revolutionary War. The Continental Congress, which was essentially the interim government during the Revolutionary war, declared a national day of Thanksgiving in 1777. Once the war was over and the new nation was ratified by all states, it was the new nation’s president, George Washington, who repeated this proclamation of a day of Thanksgiving in 1789. The celebration continued on a state level until Lincoln’s presidency. There, upon the urging of Mrs. Sarah Joseph Hale (editor of Godey’s Lady’s Book, the premier women’s magazine of the day), a national declaration of Thanksgiving was giving beginning in 1863. However, it wasn’t until 1941 that Congress declared it a federal holiday.

The timing of these dates is quite interesting. 1789 marked the end of the Revolutionary war and the fruition of a new nation under a new constitution. 1863 finds our nation in the midst of the heart wrenching Civil War, with the pivotal battles of Gettysburg and Vicksburg having already taken place and thousands of our citizens dead, wounded or displaced. Every president following Lincoln gave the same until 1941, when Congress turning Thanksgiving into a federal holiday comes as we already find ourselves giving limited assistance to Britain in their fight with Germany, and not yet knowing that we will be fighting a World War on two fronts.

President Washington recognized that we had gained something vital and looked back to one of the major foundations of what eventually became the United States in the form of a small group of people fleeing religious persecution. Highlighting their first-year struggles and the celebration of thanks and gratitude for having survived and prospered after insurmountable odds made for a fitting comparison to what this young nation had just endured. His proclamation had strong religious overtones. The opening lines of the proclamation read, “Whereas it is the duty of all Nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey his will, to be grateful for his benefits, and humbly to implore his protection and favor, and whereas both Houses of Congress have by their joint Committee requested me to recommend to the People of the United States a day of public thanksgiving and prayer to be observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many signal favors of Almighty God especially by affording them an opportunity peaceably to establish a form of government for their safety and happiness.”

Lincoln, heartbroken by what he had seen at Gettysburg, may have used Thanksgiving as a time to give the people to reflect and hope. He was not a publicly religious man, but he used his Thanksgiving proclamation to find humility and gratitude, and to remember how richly blessed we as a nation really were despite everything. His proclamation was one of the first times he used strong religious overtones in his public speech, and he says in the closing lines of his declaration, “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, tranquility and Union.”

Interestingly, it is Lincoln that first brings in the idea of charity into the holiday.

Congress saw fit to declare Thanksgiving Day, a celebration that, that up until then, had largely religious connotations, into a federal holiday. Thanksgiving was by then becoming less of a religious holiday and more of family-themed event. It was already a popular holiday and it seemed appropriate to add it to the list of recognized national holidays such as Christmas and the remembrance of the signing of the Declaration of Independence on July 4. As our nation found itself entering a war that would cost the lives of thousands of Americans, a reminder of being thankful was likely found to be quite poignant.

One interesting tidbit of information on the making Thanksgiving a Federal holiday: There was some debate as to the Thursday in November that would be chosen. Some wanted the third Thursday, and some wanted the fourth. The reasoning behind the desire for the third Thursday is something that is completely ignored today. It was considered inappropriate at the time to advertise for Christmas before Thanksgiving, so the extra week added a little extra time for businesses to promote their holiday wares.

Today, Thanksgiving for many is more a time to eat great food, watch way too much football and prepare to make every retail clerk in the nation cringe in anticipation. How often do we stop and reflect on how fortunate we really are? Sure things are tough. Some of us our out of work, some of us have health problems, some of us have disintegrating marriages, some of us are struggling with a laundry list of problems. Not a one of us is immune to the struggles of life, yet every single one of us have things we can list that we can be thankful for.

We have families and friends. We have a roof over our heads, and food on the table, we have means of transportation, we have abundant clean water and electricity, we have technology that our nation’s founders never imagined and that many in the world will never see. We live in a country that, although it is flawed still provides an environment where we can live in peace and with many freedoms and privileges not found outside our borders. That nation has had a rich history with people throughout who have sacrificed greatly to get us where we are today. We all have opportunities to get to do things like learn to read, see a movie, walk to our cabinet and get out a bag of potato chips. The list of things we can be grateful for is as diverse as we are, but we all have more then one or two things where we can stop and sat “Yeah, I am thankful for that.”.

May I suggest that we take some time before the turkey and that first bowl game to reflect on how rich we are as individuals, as families and as a nation, and be grateful for all that we have? So many in our world are not as fortunate as we are There are also people in our own community who struggle in ways we cannot imagine and who would love to have a fraction of our individual riches. Be grateful. Be thankful. Be generous in the weeks ahead as we realize that others have needs far greater then ours. Then celebrate exuberantly in the knowledge of what we have been so richly blessed with.