The national celebration of Thanksgiving is a unique American institution that has its origin in a 1621 thanksgiving feast held by the Pilgrims in gratitude for the blessings of the Almighty Creator God. They were grateful in spite of the fact that nearly half of their number had died the first winter in the New World. By the fall of the second year, having among other things learned planting and survival lessons from an English-speaking Indian, the Pilgrims were prospering and wanted to celebrate their first successful crop and their new-found liberty from government tyranny. The annual fall celebration continued as an American tradition. The Continental Congress proclaimed a national thanksgiving in 1777 and urged “that servile labor and such recreations (although at other times innocent) may be unbecoming the purpose of this appointment [and should] be omitted on so solemn an occasion.” President George Washington proclaimed a nationwide thanksgiving celebration for the new nation at the urging of Congress, marking November 26, 1789, as a day to “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.” In 1817, New York became the first state to adopt Thanksgiving as an official holiday. In 1863, President Abraham Lincoln declared a national Thanksgiving day with the blessing of both houses of Congress. In 1941, the U.S. Congress set the date of Thanksgiving for the last Thursday of November. Since 1957, Canada has had a national Thanksgiving day on the second Monday of October. Historically, the Thanksgiving celebration in America was deeply religious, with church services and praise to God through Jesus Christ. Over the past century the celebration has been increasingly secularized and has deteriorated into little more than a worldly party. In recent years, it has become an occasion for unbridled commercialism. Black Friday began in the 1960s as the kickoff to the Christmas holiday season, but it has taken on more of a frenzy in the 21st century. (“Black” refers to retailers moving into the black or profitability in sales.) Stores use discounts and a wide variety of gimmicks to attract customers, and it has become popular to shop in the early hours of Friday morning. People have been injured and even killed in the mad rush. Now many national retailers open on Thanksgiving itself rather than give their employees the day off. (Friday Church News Notes, December 6, 2013, www.wayoflife.org, [email protected], 866-295-4143) Comments are closed.
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