Remembering the True Essence of Thanksgiving

drbonebrake · Newbie Joined: Nov 05, 2005 Posts: 7 Status: **Offline**

Greetings,

According to historians, the holiday we know as Thanksgiving has its roots in a 1621 autumn harvest celebration involving Plymouth colonists and Wampanoag Indians. It was an English custom in those days to give thanks to God for the fruits of harvest. For the Pilgrims who traversed an ocean for freedom of religion and new opportunity, it was a mark of survival for nearly half of the colonists perished the year after their perilous trip. After the Wampanoag befriended the Pilgrims, the colonists, were taught how to survive the challenges of the land.

After their first successful harvest in the new land, the Pilgrims invited their native benefactors to join them in a feast of celebration. Historians doubt the Pilgrims referred to this event as Thanksgiving, but the essence behind the feast is what evolved into the day to which we refer today as Thanksgiving.

While various celebrations occurred since then, on 3 Oct 1863, President Abraham Lincoln issued a proclamation, drafted by Secretary of State William H. Seward, which asked the American people \"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.\"

The proclamation began, \"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.\"

The proclamation recognizes the ravages of the civil war, but also points out the considerable providence to which the nation was blessed. The proclamation states, \"Needful diversions of wealth and of strength from the fields of peaceful industry to the national defense, 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.\"

After such observation, the proclamation continues, \"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.\"

Subsequently, after establishing the day for national celebration, the presidential proclamation continues, \"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.\"

Since that time, during peace and periods of conflict, we celebrate this day as a holiday in which family joins together to celebrate a special holiday of Thanksgiving, but in this modern time, we might ask ourselves, have we remained true to the essence behind the celebration of the Pilgrims and the proclamation of Lincoln in 1863? As we approach this day, we should take every moment we can with family and friends, but as we do, we should reflect on the challenges the Pilgrims overcame and the time in which Thanksgiving was established as a national holiday. Most importantly, we should remember a special prayer of thanks for the many gifts of grace and mercy granted to us by God.

Despite the providence we enjoy, we are also in a time where we see many divisions growing across our land and challenges which we as a nation must face. Perhaps in this time, we should re-examine the words of the Lincoln proclamation. In addition to a prayer of thanks to our Lord and Savior, we should also remember a prayer to ask God once more 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.\"

God bless,