thankful thursday - thanksgiving

Today, the fourth Thursday in November, is the day Americans celebrate Thanksgiving. We are taught in elementary school that the Pilgrims celebrated the first Thanksgiving in 1621 after their first successful corn harvest thanks to a Native American named Squanto. Governor William Bradford organized the celebratory feast to give thanks to God and to thank the Native Americans who had been so instrumental in the Pilgrim's survival that first year. It was a three day celebration that bore little resemblance food-wise to Thanksgiving in 2015 - they feasted on lobster, swan, seal and deer and there was no pumpkin pie.

The next Thanksgiving was celebrated in 1623 after a long drought threatening their crops had ended. This time Governor Bradford called for fasting and thanking God before the feast, a tradition that continued for many years. Thanksgiving celebrations were held somewhat annually from then on.

In 1789 President Washington issued the first proclamation for Thanksgiving by the national government of the United States.  Many presidents issued Thanksgiving proclamations and several states instituted a Thanksgiving holiday but it wasn't until 1863, at the crux of the Civil War, that President Lincoln established a national holiday of Thanksgiving on the last Thursday of November. He called for all Americans "to ask God to commend to his tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife" and to "heal the wounds of the nation."

Somewhere along the way Thanksgiving has morphed into a gluttonous feast followed by hours of football and preparing for the Black Friday sales (some of which begin on Thanksgiving Day) - a holiday which bears little resemblance to the first 200 or so celebrations.

As a country and as individuals we ALL have much to the thankful for... freedom to celebrate and with a heart of thanksgiving, show gratitude to God,  freedom to pray openly, freedom to gather with family regardless of their religious beliefs, freedom to attend a religious service of our choosing, freedom of fear (living in a safe country).

Sure, there are problems and strife in the world we live in. But just for one day, on Thanksgiving, let's focus on all that we have to be thankful for. I will be coming to the family Thanksgiving table with a grateful heart - thankful for being surrounded by family, for being loved, for the laughter in my life, for having enough.

Happy Thanksgiving!