So Much To Be Thankful For
My Thanksgiving 2024 Post
Happy Thanksgiving, one and all. Yesterday I saw a video from a British guy who emigrated to the States and now does commentary on the cultural differences that he has observed over the years. He originally was confused about Thanksgiving, thinking it was an American word for Christmas, and the first time he ate at a Thanksgiving feast, he got a vague answer from his American hosts as to why we celebrate.
I know I’ve done videos on this before, so I’ll be succinct for the few newcomers that are here. The practice of a Thanksgiving feast goes back at least as far as Biblical times, where the early Hebrews would perform rites with sacrifices and such as thanks to their God for their protection and sustenance. From there the tradition carried down among the Judeo-Christian branches through the centuries, all the way to what we as Americans consider the First Thanksgiving in 1621.
Europeans had been regularly visiting North America for close to 130 years by then. The Spanish, French, Dutch, and English had a revolving presence in modern-day New England. The Native Americans were just as fragmented and distinct as any cluster of European countries, though they also had alliances and confederacies.
The Pilgrims that arrived in 1620 were there for both commerce and religious freedom. Their journey was plagued with problems and false starts. One passenger died at sea and another was born during the voyage. They arrived at the worst, coldest time of year. They were malnourished and grossly undersupplied. Against their conscience, they robbed the corn stores of the deceased Patuxet nation, and even that meager supply was barely enough to fend off death.
Half of them died during their first year, most of them during that winter. All the while they had sporadic contact with the local Wampanoags, who were wary of interacting with Europeans, as many of the Natives had been carried off as slaves in recent years. They had reasons not to trust this new group. One thing that persuaded them was the realization that they had brought women and children—whole families were here, building homes, looking to stay. This wasn’t a raid, this was new neighbors.
The Massasoits met with the Pilgrims and they entered into a mutual alliance of friendship and protection. The Massasoits gained commerce and military aid from the English, and the English now had guides to show them around, and—most important—to show them how to grow local crops.
Their situation in 1621 was so vastly improved that they, a mightily God-fearing people, offered up thanks to God with a feast that hosted around 50 Pilgrims and 90 Indians.
This was the first instance of what we call the traditional American Thanksgiving. 170 years later, George Washington looked on that early event with reverence. Having finally secured America’s independence and statehood, he acknowledged God’s hand in protecting America throughout the Revolution, and he made an address to the nation that goes as follows:
By the President of the United States of America, a Proclamation.
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-- and whereas both Houses of Congress have by their joint Committee requested me to recommend to the People of the United States a day of public thanksgiving and prayer to be observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many signal favors of Almighty God especially by affording them an opportunity peaceably to establish a form of government for their safety and happiness.
Now therefore I do recommend and assign Thursday the 26th day of November next to be devoted by the People of these States to the service of that great and glorious Being, who is the beneficent Author of all the good that was, that is, or that will be-- That we may then all unite in rendering unto him our sincere and humble thanks--for his kind care and protection of the People of this Country previous to their becoming a Nation--for the signal and manifold mercies, and the favorable interpositions of his Providence which we experienced in the course and conclusion of the late war--for the great degree of tranquility, union, and plenty, which we have since enjoyed--for the peaceable and rational manner, in which we have been enabled to establish constitutions of government for our safety and happiness, and particularly the national One now lately instituted--for the civil and religious liberty with which we are blessed; and the means we have of acquiring and diffusing useful knowledge; and in general for all the great and various favors which he hath been pleased to confer upon us.
and also that we may then unite in most humbly offering our prayers and supplications to the great Lord and Ruler of Nations and beseech him to pardon our national and other transgressions-- to enable us all, whether in public or private stations, to perform our several and relative duties properly and punctually--to render our national government a blessing to all the people, by constantly being a Government of wise, just, and constitutional laws, discreetly and faithfully executed and obeyed--to protect and guide all Sovereigns and Nations (especially such as have shewn kindness unto us) and to bless them with good government, peace, and concord--To promote the knowledge and practice of true religion and virtue, and the encrease of science among them and us--and generally to grant unto all Mankind such a degree of temporal prosperity as he alone knows to be best.
Given under my hand at the City of New York the third day of October in the year of our Lord 1789.
This new tradition would carry on until around 1820 or so, where it then fell out of popular favor. For decades, a woman named Sarah Josepha Hale would champion the revival of Thanksgiving by publishing recipes in a magazine for housewives called Godey’s Lady’s Book. She regularly wrote to whoever was in the White House, asking the President to use the biggest pulpit on the continent to give this holiday another shot in the arm.
Confederate President Jefferson Davis issued a Thanksgiving Proclamation to the South in 1861. It’s brief compared to Washington’s before him, and Lincoln’s which would come after.
WHEREAS, it hath pleased Almighty God, the Sovereign Disposer of events, to protect and defend us hitherto in our conflicts with our enemies as to be unto them a shield.
And whereas, with grateful thanks we recognize His hand and acknowledge that not unto us, but unto Him, belongeth the victory, and in humble dependence upon His almighty strength, and trusting in the justness of our purpose, we appeal to Him that He may set at naught the efforts of our enemies, and humble them to confusion and shame.
Now therefore, I, Jefferson Davis, President of the Confederate States, in view of impending conflict, do hereby set apart Friday, the 15th day of November, as a day of national humiliation and prayer, and do hereby invite the reverend clergy and the people of these Confederate States to repair on that day to their homes and usual places of public worship, and to implore blessing of Almighty God upon our people, that he may give us victory over our enemies, preserve our homes and altars from pollution, and secure to us the restoration of peace and prosperity.
Given under hand and seal of the Confederate States at Richmond, this the 31st day of October, year of our Lord, one thousand eight hundred and sixty one.
By the President, JEFFERSON DAVIS
Two years later his counterpart in the north, Abraham Lincoln, had the following to say:
Washington DC, October 3, 1863
By the President of the United States of America.
A Proclamation.
The year that is drawing towards 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.
In the midst of a civil war of unequalled magnitude and severity, which has sometimes seemed to foreign States to invite and to provoke their aggression, peace has been preserved with all nations, order has been maintained, the laws have been respected and obeyed, and harmony has prevailed everywhere except in the theatre of military conflict; while that theatre has been greatly contracted by the advancing armies and navies of the Union.
Needful diversions of wealth and of strength from the fields of peaceful industry to the national defence, have not arrested the plough, the shuttle or the ship; the axe has enlarged the borders of our settlements, and the mines, as well of iron and coal as of the precious metals, have yielded even more abundantly than heretofore. Population has steadily increased, notwithstanding the waste that has been made in the camp, the siege and the battle-field; and the country, rejoicing in the consciousness of augmented strength and vigor, is permitted to expect continuance of years with large increase of freedom.
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 who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of 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 the 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, tranquillity and Union.
In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the Seal of the United States to be affixed.
Done at the City of Washington, this Third day of October, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, and of the Independence of the United States the Eighty-eighth.
By the President: Abraham Lincoln
This must have been satisfying for Sarah Josepha Hale, to see the work of so many years come to fruition, though I imagine she regretted that the Civil War was the straw on the camel’s back.
But war has a way of shuffling your priorities, and that was especially true for America 80 years later, under President Franklin D. Roosevelt. However, as much as I abhor cynicism when it comes to tradition, it should be noted as a matter of record that FDR’s main motivation for tweaking the Thanksgiving holiday was economic, not religious; he moved the date back on the calendar in 1939 in order to stretch the Christmas shopping season. He corrected this in 1941, and for the last 83 years, Thanksgiving has always been on the fourth Thursday in November. The earliest it can come is the 22nd, provided November starts on a Thursday, and this won’t happen again until 2029.
That right there is the brunt of the history around American Thanksgiving. I’ve personally made it my mission to keep this tradition alive and vibrant throughout my life. The more I study the figures behind it, the more I’m grateful for the work they did and the example they set. I adamantly resist attempts to recast Thanksgiving as a negative thing because the history of the holiday doesn’t support that. It marks significant events where people of different backgrounds, faith, ethnicity, and ambition all worked together to make something beautiful.
I have one final example to cite here, and I regret that I have to be vague about it, but I want to protect someone’s privacy here, so I’m not saying who posted this. There’s an account I follow on Instagram from a Native American man in the southwest desert. He’s very active in the protection and preservation of his people’s traditions; like many tribes, his came very close to annihilation in the 19th Century, and he’s understandably motivated to keep longrunning practices alive.
A few years ago he posted on Thanksgiving and mentioned that he gets asked about the holiday from time to time. He celebrates it, and naturally there are people who think that all American Indians have a beef with anything related to European colonialism. He gave an answer that has hung with me ever since I read it. In effect, he said that his feelings about the history of Europeans in North America is complicated, and while his particular tribe had no contact with the Pilgrims of 1620, he hopes that if he had a warm fire and plenty of food, and he knew of families who were cold and starving, that he would do the right thing and help.
We can all be as cynical as we want about the history of the world, but personally I think that deep down very few of us would have such a hard heart as to ignore someone in that situation. This wasn’t 21st century homelessness (which, don’t get me wrong, is no walk in the park.) The circumstances that the Pilgrims faced were a death sentence if they didn’t get enough food together and enough homes built. That’s why the mortality rate was so high that December and January.
There are a dozen reasons why the Wampanoags hesitated to help the Pilgrims at first. Like any human interaction, it’s complicated. But for a while, they were able to set all that aside and figure out what worked for their mutual benefit, and that led to a peace that lasted for fifty years. (It got ugly after that, as history always does.)
And so, in not just a spirit of gratitude, but a spirit of optimism, I continue to celebrate Thanksgiving as more than just a feast with a football game. The world is as turbulent as it has ever been, and it’s possible that we could all benefit from some calm, some reflection, some compassion, and credit to God for preserving us thus far.
Thank you, to everyone who has read this or watched the video. Remember: we are not the end of the road. We are links in a chain to the future. William Bradford, Massasoit, Squanto, George Washington, Sarah Josepha Hale, Jefferson Davis, Abraham Lincoln, even FDR, they all played a role in establishing this season and expounding on it and keeping it going. I add my name to that list, and with that, I wish you all a happy Thanksgiving.