A LITTLE HISTORY LESSON

Here we are--it is Thanksgiving week once again.  It rolls around once a year---never the same date---since it is on a Thursday--it changes from year to year.  It can come as early as November 22 and as late as November 28.   This year we are celebrating on the 23 which is on the early side of that range.

 

  The first Thanksgiving  was observed by the Pilgrims in the New World in October, 1621.  (have I told you I have a Pilgrim ancestor?--another story for another day).  Dr. Google told me the feast lasted three days and was attended by 90 Native American Wampanoag people and 53 survivors of the Mayflower (Pilgrims)  For more than two centuries after this first Thanksgiving feast the days of the celebration was different for individual colonies and states.  I suspect it followed the tradition of the first Thanksgiving and followed the fall harvest.    During the Civil War, Abraham Lincoln moved the holiday to the final Thursday in November.   The prolific writer, Sarah Josepha Hale (think "Mary Had A Little Lamb") urged, for years, the change and finally Lincoln made it official. That goes to show you the power of a nagging woman!    It stayed that way until 1939 when Franklin Roosevelt moved the holiday up a week in an attempt to spur retail sales during the Great Depression.  The holiday then became known as Franksgiving and was passionately opposed until Congress passed the bill and he reluctantly signed it officially making it the fourth Thursday in November.  At this point it became a National Holiday and we have gorged ourselves ever since on the fourth Thursday in November.  

One of the reasons I love church liturgy is the knowledge these same words have been repeated over and over for centuries---especially knowing my ancestors proclaimed those very words I am repeating today.  It is a tie between the generations of that which is dear, true, and important.  So it goes with Thanksgiving,  we are observing a day of Thankfulness which those who came before us also celebrated.  It is a link of not only Thankfulness but of love for God throughout our history.  

So Thursday--before you sit down to gorge yourself---pause and remember all those who have gone before us and be grateful for the common link of Thankfulness.

"Oh give thanks to the Lord,

for He is good,

for His steadfast love endures forever."

Psalm 107:1-3