Thanksgiving 2020: More Than Ever It's Time To Be Thankful

 

November 18, 2020

This year, with each approaching Holiday I have taken the approach to better understand the history of the day. In doing so I have shared my findings with our readers so that we may have a better understanding to what the days original meaning was. On Thursday, November 26, we will celebrate Thanksgiving, just as we have since 1870, on the last Thursday of November.

Most of us know, or are at least aware of the first Thanksgiving. The first 'Thanksgiving' was celebrated over three days in the 'New World' back in October, 1621. As recounted later by one of the attendees, Edward Winslow, the feast included 90 Native Americans, the Wampanoag People and 53 Pilgrims. Traditional dinners now include turkey, bread stuffing, cranberries, pumpkin pie and potatoes it is widely regarded that the original feast had a very different menu.

Celebration of 'Thanksgiving' were long a part of both cultures and often celebrated more than the recent harvest. Meals of 'Thanksgiving' occurred following military victory's, end of bad weather and as a celebration of achievement.


For years, a day of 'Thanksgiving' was celebrated off and on following a proclamation made by President George Washington on behest of the United states Congress in 1789. Not all Presidents, including Thomas Jefferson, asked the country to celebrate the day.

The United States Congress was responsible for this irregularity after it left the celebration up to the each State to declare. Suggestions were made regarding government involvement in religious observance by some while others objected to it being used as a day to promote partisan speeches. Southern states were generally slower to accept the tradition. In the early years the day of Thanksgiving proved to be more controversial than unifying.


It wasn't until 1863 when President Abraham Lincoln proclaimed that a national day of "Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens", to be celebrated on the last Thursday in November on June 28, 1870.

Lincoln's successor, President Ulysses S. Grant, took it a step further making it a Federal Holiday in Washington D.C. Years later on January 6, 1885, Congress made Thanksgiving and all other federal holidays a paid holiday for all federal employees throughout the United States.

The only time the date was deviated from was between 1939 and 1941 after President Franklin Delano Roosevelt made the controversial decision. Congress then took the power to decide the date of celebration away from the President in 1942 making the date officially the fourth Thursday in November of each year.


Sometimes it can be very difficult to find a reason to be thankful. The loss of a loved one, the loss of a job, personal belongings or the end of a relationship can make it very difficult to find gratefulness. When the entire country as a whole seems to be in that spot, in this year, 2020, the need to find that something is paramount.

My hope for everyone is that despite all the bickering, the anxiety, disrespect, misunderstanding and not being heard, that each of us can find that something. People are people, we come from different walks of life, we have different background, different wealth and family stability. Some like big cities, some like the country, but we all like something.

Our backgrounds shape each and everyone of us. We are shaped differently, we are unique, even within our own family, be grateful for that. Be thankful that we aren't the same, that we have different experiences to share. Be thankful that we live in a place on earth that we can do that because there are a lot of places that can't. To everyone, near and far, a wish for a very happy Thanksgiving!

 
 

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