>Why do Americans celebrate Thanksgiving Day? >See this page in: Spanish >Many Americans think of Thanksgiving as a wonderful time to celebrate getting >out of school for a long weekend, and eating a great dinner. Or, maybe they >think it is the start of the Christmas holiday season. What is the real >meaning behind Thanksgiving? Catherine Millard writes: >We can trace this historic American Christian tradition to the year 1623. >After the harvest crops were gathered in November 1623, Governor William >Bradford of the 1620 Pilgrim Colony, “Plymouth Plantation” in Plymouth, >Massachusetts proclaimed: >"All ye Pilgrims with your wives and little ones, do gather at the Meeting >House, on the hill… there to listen to the pastor, and render Thanksgiving to >the Almighty God for all His blessings." > > >This is the origin of our annual Thanksgiving Day celebration. Congress of the >United States has proclaimed National Days of Thanksgiving to Almighty God >many times throughout the following years. On November 1, 1777, by order of >Congress, the first National Thanksgiving Proclamation was proclaimed, and >signed by Henry Laurens, President of Continental Congress. The third Thursday >of December, 1777 was thus officially set aside: >"…for solemn thanksgiving and praise. That with one heart and one voice the >good people may express the grateful feelings of their hearts, and consecrate >themselves to the service of their Divine Benefactor;… and their humble and >earnest supplication that it may please God, through the merits of Jesus >Christ, mercifully to forgive and blot them (their manifold sins) out of >remembrance… That it may please Him… to take schools and seminaries of >education, so necessary for cultivating the principles of true liberty, virtue >and piety under His nurturing hand, and to prosper the means of religion for >the promotion and enlargement of that kingdom which consisteth of >'righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Ghost'…" >Then again, on January 1, 1795, our first United States President, George >Washington, wrote his famed National Thanksgiving Proclamation, in which he >says that it is… >"…our duty as a people, with devout reverence and affectionate gratitude, to >acknowledge our many and great obligations to Almighty God, and to implore Him >to continue is… our duty as a people, with devout reverence and affectionate >gratitude, to acknowledge our many and great obligations to Almighty God, and >to implore Him to continue and confirm the blessings we experienced…" >Thursday, the 19th day of February, 1795 was thus set aside by George >Washington as a National Day of Thanksgiving. >Many years later, on October 3, 1863, Abraham Lincolnproclaimed, by Act of >Congress, an annual National Day of Thanksgiving "on the last Thursday of >November, asa day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who >dwelleth in the heavens." In this Thanksgiving proclamation, our 16th >President says that it is… >"…announced in the Holy Scriptures and proven by all history, that those >nations are blessed whose God is the Lord… Butwe have forgotten God. We have >forgotten the gracious hand which preserved us in peace and multiplied and >enriched and strengthened us, and we have vainly imagined, by the >deceitfulness of our hearts, that all these blessings were produced by some >superior wisdom and virtue of our own… It has seemed to me fit and proper that >God should be solemnly, reverently and gratefully acknowledged, as with one >heart and one voice, by the whole American people…" >So it is that on Thanksgiving Day each year, Americans give thanks to Almighty >God for all His blessings and mercies toward us throughout the year. >________________________________ > >Author: Catherine Millard. Text excerpted from A Children's Companion Guide to >America's History, Horizon House Publishers, Camp Hill Pennsylvania. Used by >permission. Supplied by Films for Christ. Copyright © 1995, 1999, All Rights >Reserved. > > > > > > > > > > > > >
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