Volume 7, Issue 47
Thanksgiving in America began in 1619 before we were a nation. The first recognized day of celebration was conducted between Pilgrims and Puritans. It included a day of prayer and fasting. This pre-colonial festival was a religious ceremony giving thanksgiving to Almighty God. In 1621, in thanks for a bountiful harvest, the Pilgrims celebrated with Native Americans who had shared food with them the previous winter.
The United States has led the world by establishing Thanksgiving as an annual national holiday for Americans to reflect on their blessings.
The Thanksgiving holiday is unifying to Americans in that, whether religious or secular in ceremony, Americans celebrate in their own way, for their own purposes, without stigma. Thanksgiving is the opening gate to a season of goodwill among people, now commonly referred to as “the holidays.”
This season personifies freedom in America in that we are all allowed to worship pursuant to our own ways and creeds.
George Washington, as President of the United States, on November 26, 1789, proclaimed the first nationwide Thanksgiving “as a day of public thanksgiving and prayer, to be observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many and signal favors of Almighty God.”
Throughout America’s history, Thanksgiving has been a critical national holiday in the tradition of our Judeo-Christian heritage. President Abraham Lincoln, by Presidential Proclamation, set the modern-day Thanksgiving as an official national holiday. President John F. Kennedy, in a proclamation on November 5, 1963, further emphasizing the importance of the day, stated, “Over three centuries ago, our forefathers in Virginia and in Massachusetts, far from home in the lonely wilderness, set aside a time of thanksgiving. On the appointed day, they gave reverent thanks for their safety, for the health of their children, for the fertility of their fields, for the love which bound them together, and for the faith which united them with their God.”
The United States of America is the only country in the world established on the principle that God is sovereign over man, and man is sovereign over government. Freedom of religion and freedom of speech, protected by the Constitution, is unique to America. Freedom of religion and freedom of speech combined, is the right to communicate spiritual thought. The protection to realize God’s purpose in one’s life is the essence of protection for the “pursuit of happiness.”
This Thanksgiving, in the tradition of the Founding Fathers and leaders of our great country, I am grateful for my family, the good health of my children, the faith which unites us with God, and the umbrella of freedom that my country provides.
In giving thanksgiving to Almighty God, I am grateful for The Greater Blessing: God Himself, just God Himself.
May you have a Blessed Thanksgiving season.
My name is Marc Nuttle, this is what I believe, and that for which I am thankful.
For what are you thankful?