And while the holiday is celebrated by the majority of Americans, few are aware of the strong Christian history and meaning of this special day.
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The idea of setting aside a specific day to give thanks for life and its blessings dates back thousands of years through many civilizations, cultures and religions…but the American celebration started with the Pilgrims.
Not … so … fast, says Florida historian Michael Gannon.
I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, 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. According to a Pew Research Poll in 2014, one in four Native Americans and Alaska Natives are living in poverty. Many Native Americans do not celebrate the arrival of Pilgrims and other European settlers.
The common thread, however, was the response from each person to one final question: “Would you ever assume that another person, regardless of race or ethnicity, supported the genocide of Native Americans based on their decision to celebrate Thanksgiving?”.
About a month after that proclamation, Lincoln spoke at the cemetery at Gettysburg, beginning his address by saying, that we were a new nation, “conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal”. Alas, let’s all be very thankful that we are not turkeys…
As President of the United States, George Washington proclaimed the first nationwide thanksgiving celebration in America marking November 26, 1789, “as a day of public thanksgiving and prayer to be observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many and signal favours of Almighty God”.
Munro said her objection to Thanksgiving is the cultural whitewashing that allows most Americans to ignore what happened to the native population. Also…the Indians helped the pilgrims.
Her mother taught her that Native people did indeed show kindness to the pilgrims arriving. A big thanks goes out to law enforcement, firefighters, medical personal, farmers, our newspaper delivery person and all others that will be working to providing us with a better quality of life and to meet our needs.
Heather:”My husband is [part Native American]”. To be honest I think it’s turned into something that celebrates family.
This is the story of the first Thanksgiving – except it isn’t.
While you are preparing you Thanksgiving meal, you may want to sing Mary Had little Lamb, in honor of Sara Josepha Hale, the woman who really invented Thanksgiving Day. Let us pray for those in this world who do not have these. Along the way, we rehearsed the story of the early settlers again. Giving people economic incentives changed their behavior.
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Our modern Thanksgiving is chock full of enjoyable activities that include family, food and football.
