The tradition introduced by European Americans of Thanksgiving as a time
to focus on God and His blessings dates back well over four centuries in
America. For example, such thanksgivings occurred in 1541 at Palo Duro
Canyon, Texas with Coronado and 1,500 of his men;
1 in 1564 at St. Augustine, Florida with French Huguenot
(Protestant) colonists;
2 in 1598 at El Paso, Texas with Juan de Oñate and his expedition;
3 in 1607 at Cape Henry, Virginia with the landing of the Jamestown
settlers;
4 in 1619 at Berkeley Plantation, Virginia;
5 (and many other such celebrations). But it is primarily from the
Pilgrim's Thanksgiving celebration of 1621 that we derive the current
tradition of Thanksgiving Day.
The Pilgrims set sail for America on September 6, 1620, and for two
months braved the harsh elements of a storm-tossed sea. Upon
disembarking at Plymouth Rock, they held a prayer service and then
hastily began building shelters; however, unprepared for such a harsh
New England winter, nearly half of them died before spring.
6 Emerging from that grueling winter, the Pilgrims were surprised
when an Indian named Samoset approached them and greeted them in their
own language, explaining to them that he had learned English from
fishermen and traders. A week later, Samoset returned with a friend
named Squanto, who lived with the Pilgrims and accepted their Christian
faith. Squanto taught the Pilgrims much about how to live in the New
World, and he and Samoset helped forge a long-lasting peace treaty
between the Pilgrims and the Wampanoag Indians. Pilgrim Governor William
Bradford described Squanto as "a special instrument sent of God for
[our] good . . . and never left [us] till he died."
7
That summer, the Pilgrims, still persevering in prayer and assisted by
helpful Indians,
8 reaped a bountiful harvest.
9 As Pilgrim Edward Winslow (later to become the Governor) affirmed,
"God be praised, we had a good increase of corn"; "by the goodness of
God, we are far from want."
10 The grateful Pilgrims therefore declared a three-day feast in
December 1621 to thank God and to celebrate with their Indian friends
11 - America's first Thanksgiving Festival. Ninety Wampanoag Indians
joined the fifty Pilgrims for three days of feasting (which included
shellfish, lobsters, turkey, corn bread, berries, deer, and other
foods), of play (the young Pilgrim and Wampanoag men engaged in races,
wrestling matches, and athletic events), and of prayer. This celebration
and its accompanying activities were the origin of the holiday that
Americans now celebrate each November.
However, while the Pilgrims enjoyed
times of prosperity for which they thanked God, they also suffered
extreme hardships. In fact, in 1623 they experienced an extended and
prolonged drought. Knowing that without a change in the weather there
would be no harvest and the winter would be filled with death and
starvation, Governor Bradford called the Pilgrims to a time of prayer
and fasting to seek God’s direct intervention. Significantly, shortly
after that time of prayer – and to the great amazement of the Indian who
witnessed the scene – clouds appeared in the sky and a gentle and steady
rain began to fall. As Governor Bradford explained:
It came without either wind or
thunder or any violence, and by degrees in abundance, as that ye
earth was thoroughly wet and soaked therewith, which did so
apparently revive and quicken ye decayed corn and other fruits as
was wonderful to see, and made ye Indians astonished to behold; and
afterwards the Lord sent them such seasonable showers, with
interchange of fair warm weather as, through His blessing, caused a
fruitful and liberal harvest, to their no small comfort and
rejoicing.
12
The drought had been broken; the fall
therefore produced an abundant harvest; there was cause for another
thanksgiving. The Pilgrim practice of designating an official time of
Thanksgiving spread into neighboring colonies and became an annual
tradition.
13 And just as those neighboring colonies followed the
Pilgrims’ example of calling for days of thanksgiving, so, too, did they
adopt their practice of calling for a time of prayer and fasting. The
New England Colonies therefore developed a practice of calling for a day
of prayer and fasting in the spring, and a day of prayer and
thanksgiving in the fall.
The Thanksgiving celebrations so common
throughout New England did not begin to spread southward until the
American Revolution, when Congress issued eight separate national
Thanksgiving Proclamations. (Congress also issued seven separate
proclamations for times of fasting and prayer, for a total of 15
official prayer proclamations during the American Revolution.
14)
America’s first national Thanksgiving
occurred in 1789 with the commencement of the federal government.
According to the Congressional Record for September 25 of that year, the
first act after the Framers completed the framing of the Bill of Rights
was that:
Mr. [Elias] Boudinot said he could
not think of letting the session pass without offering an
opportunity to all the citizens of the United States of joining with
one voice in returning to Almighty God their sincere thanks for the
many blessings He had poured down upon them. With this view,
therefore, he would move the following resolution:
Resolved, That a joint
committee of both Houses be directed to wait upon the President
of the United States to request that he would recommend to the
people of the United States a Day of Public Thanksgiving and
Prayer. . . .
Mr. Roger Sherman justified the
practice of thanksgiving on any single event not only as a laudable
one in itself but also as warranted by a number of precedents in
Holy Writ. . . . This example he thought worthy of a Christian
imitation on the present occasion.
15
That congressional resolution was
delivered to President George Washington, who heartily concurred with
the request and issued the first federal Thanksgiving proclamation,
declaring in part:
Whereas it is the duty of all
nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey His
will, to be grateful for His benefits, and humbly to implore His
protection and favor. . . . Now, therefore, I do appoint Thursday,
the 26th day of November 1789 . . . that we may all unite to render
unto Him our sincere and humble thanks for His kind care and
protection.
16
That same year, the Protestant
Episcopal Church (of which President Washington was a member) announced
that the first Thursday in November would become its regular day for
giving thanks, “unless another day be appointed by the civil
authorities.”
17 Following President Washington’s initial proclamation,
national Thanksgiving Proclamations occurred only sporadically (another
by President Washington in 1795, one by John Adams in 1799, one by James
Madison in 1814 and again in 1815, etc.);
18 most official Thanksgiving observances occurred at the
state level. In fact, by 1815, the various state governments had issued
at least 1,400 official prayer proclamations, almost half for times of
thanksgiving and prayer and the other half for times of fasting and
prayer.
19
Much of the credit for the adoption of
Thanksgiving as an annual national holiday may be attributed to Mrs.
Sarah Josepha Hale, the editor of Godey’s Lady’s Book, a
popular lady’s books containing poetry, art work, and articles by
America’s leading authors. For nearly three decades, she promoted the
idea of a national Thanksgiving Day,
20 contacting president after president until Abraham
Lincoln responded in 1863 by setting aside the last Thursday of that
November. The Thanksgiving proclamation issued by Lincoln was remarkable
not only for its strong religious content but also for its timing, for
it was delivered in the midst of the darkest days of the Civil War, with
the Union having lost battle after battle throughout the first three
years of that conflict. Yet, despite those dark circumstances, Lincoln
nevertheless called Americans to prayer with an air of positive optimism
and genuine thankfulness, noting that:
The year that is drawing toward 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 can
not fail to penetrate and soften even the heart which is habitually
insensible to the ever-watchful providence of Almighty God. . . . 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.
21
That remarkable Thanksgiving
Proclamation came at a pivotal point in Lincoln’s spiritual life. Three
months earlier, the Battle of Gettysburg had occurred, resulting in the
loss of some 60,000 American lives. It had been while Lincoln was
walking among the thousands of graves there at Gettysburg that he first
committed his life to Christ. As he later explained to a clergyman:
When I left Springfield [Illinois,
to assume the Presidency], I asked the people to pray for me. I was
not a Christian. When I buried my son, the severest trial of my
life, I was not a Christian. But when I went to Gettysburg and saw
the graves of thousands of our soldiers, I then and there
consecrated myself to Christ.
22
The dramatic spiritual impact resulting
from that experience was not only visible in Lincoln’s Thanksgiving Day
proclamation (and also his 1864 call for a day of prayer and fasting)
but especially in his 1865 Second Inaugural Address.
Over the seventy-five years following
Lincoln’s Thanksgiving Proclamation, presidents faithfully followed
Lincoln’s precedent, annually declaring a national Thanksgiving Day (but
the date of the celebrations varied widely from proclamation to
proclamation). In 1933, President Franklin D. Roosevelt began
celebrating Thanksgiving on the fourth Thursday of each November, and in
1941, Congress permanently established that day as the national
Thanksgiving holiday.
23
As you celebrate Thanksgiving this
year, remember to retain the original gratefulness to God that has
always been the spirit of this – the oldest of all American holidays.
(Below are representative examples of the scores of Thanksgiving
proclamations penned by various Founding Fathers.)
[Congress] recommended [a day of] .
. . thanksgiving and praise [so] that “the good people may express
the grateful feelings of their hearts and join . . . their
supplication that it may please God, through the merits of Jesus
Christ, to forgive [our sins] and . . . to enlarge [His] kingdom
which consisteth in righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Ghost.”
24 Continental Congress, 1777 – written by SIGNERS OF
THE DECLARATION SAMUEL ADAMS
AND RICHARD HENRY LEE
[I] appoint . . . a day of public
Thanksgiving to Almighty God . . . to [ask] Him that He would . . .
pour out His Holy Spirit on all ministers of the Gospel; that He
would . . . spread the light of Christian knowledge through the
remotest corners of the earth; . . . and that He would establish
these United States upon the basis of religion and virtue.
25 GOVERNOR THOMAS
JEFFERSON, 1779
[I] appoint . . . a day of public
thanksgiving and praise . . . to render to God the tribute of praise
for His unmerited goodness towards us . . . [by giving to] us . . .
the Holy Scriptures which are able to enlighten and make us wise to
eternal salvation. And [to] present our supplications…that He would
forgive our manifold sins and . . . cause the benign religion of our
Lord and Savior Jesus Christ to be known, understood, and practiced
among all the inhabitants of the earth.
26 GOVERNOR JOHN HANCOCK,
1790
Thanksgiving Day
Proclamation- 1777
The text of the 1777 Congressional
Thanksgiving Day Proclamation.
Read Proclamations »»
Thanksgiving Day
Proclamation- 1863
The text of Abraham Lincoln’s 1863
Thanksgiving Proclamation.
Read Proclamation »»
Thanksgiving Day
Proclamation- 1887
The text of President Grover Cleveland’s 1887
Thanksgiving Proclamation.
Read Proclamations
