In less than a week the Thanksgiving holiday will be upon us. From childhood we have been taught the story behind this wonderful holiday. In 1621, the Plymouth colonists and Wampanoag Indians shared an autumn harvest feast that is acknowledged today as one of the first Thanksgiving celebrations in the colonies.
For more than two centuries, days of thanksgiving were celebrated by individual colonies and states. But it wasn’t until 1863, in the midst of a devastating Civil War, that President Abraham Lincoln proclaimed a national Thanksgiving Day to be held each November. In the past, with the abundance of commercialization and secularism that overshadows so many of our nation’s holidays, including Thanksgiving, the words of Lincoln’s actual proclamation establishing our national day of gratitude seem to have been largely been forgotten, but this year, with all of the fear, suffering, and anguish caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, like only a handful of previous Thanksgiving holidays our families and nation will gather to give thanks amid such a shared common plight. I can think of no better proclamation that we as a united people could offer on this coming Thursday than repeating the words spoken by our 16th President 157 Thanksgivings ago:
“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 cannot 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. It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently and gratefully acknowledged as with one heart and one voice by the whole American people. I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those that are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday in November next, as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens. 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 this 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, tranquility and Union.”
Amid the significant discord and mayhem of his time, Abraham Lincoln was compelled to look not on the upon the myriad of challenges and tragedies that surrounded him and our nation, rather he entreated himself and the entire country to embrace a profound sense of gratitude for the goodness and bounty that we have been blessed with despite our sufferings. That is a sentiment that we should all ponder not only this coming Thursday, but every day.
Gratitude is something of which none of us can give too much. For on the smiles, the thanks we give, our little gestures of appreciation, our neighbors build their philosophy of life. – A. J. Cronin
Have An AWE-full weekend and Thanksgiving holiday filled with love and gratitude!
William “Bill” Bacque