Continuously serving Kosciusko County since 1854
Many people think of Thanksgiving as a time of enjoying a long weekend, eating a turkey dinner and watching a little football.
Some think it is the time to kick off the Christmas holiday season. These may be the modern aspects that describe Thanksgiving; however, they are not the real meaning behind it.
The American tradition of Thanksgiving can be traced to the year 1623. Having gathered the harvest in November 1623, the governor of the Plymouth Colony, William Bradford, proclaimed: "All ye pilgrims with your wives and the little ones, do gather at the Meeting House, on the hill...there to listen to the pastor, and render Thanksgiving to the Almighty God for all His blessings." The pilgrims were to demonstrate their gratitude to God for their survival.
They had gone through great hardship in their venture for their new home of religious freedom. They sailed nine weeks on the open seas and arrived in America on Nov. 9, 1620. That first winter was very difficult and it is estimated that up to one half of the 102 Puritans that made the journey may have died that winter. The years that followed were filled with hard work and uncertainty but they kept their eyes on the Lord and were thankful for his blessings.
More than 150 years later, on Nov. 1, 1777, by order of Congress, the first National Thanksgiving was proclaimed and signed by the president of the Continental Congress. The third Thursday of December, 1777, was designated "for solemn thanksgiving and praise. That with one heart and one voice the good people may express the grateful feelings of their hearts, and consecrate themselves to the service of their Divine Benefactor;...and their humble and earnest supplication that it may please God, through the merits of Jesus Christ, mercifully to forgive and blot them (their manifold sins) out of remembrance ... That it may please Him ... to take schools and seminaries of education, so necessary for cultivating the principles of true liberty, virtue and piety under His nurturing hand, and to prosper the means of religion for the promotion and enlargement of that kingdom which consisteth of 'righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Ghost...'"
George Washington wrote a proclamation in which Thursday, the 19th of February, 1795, was set aside as a national day of thanksgiving. He stated that it is "our duty as a people, with devout reverence and affectionate gratitude, to acknowledge our many and great obligations to Almighty God, and to implore Him to continue and confirm the blessings we experience ..."
On Oct. 3, 1863, Abraham Lincoln and the U.S. Congress established the first annual national day of Thanksgiving "on the last Thursday of November, as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the heavens."
It should be noted that this national day of thanksgiving was born out of hardship. The Pilgrims, Revolutionary America and the Civil War directed our leaders of those times to look to Almighty God and thank him for His many blessings. Through the years Americans have celebrated Thanksgiving in Europe, the Pacific, Korea, Vietnam and the Middle East during great times of hardship and looked to God for their strength. Even in time of peace we need to look to him to continue to guide our Nation.
Why do we celebrate Thanksgiving? We celebrate freedom paid for by the bloodshed of men and women in war. We celebrate family, food and shelter and are reminded that there are those who struggle in our nation and the world to have just the necessities. We celebrate God's grace shed on us from sea to shining sea that has seen us through good times and bad. That's why we celebrate Thanksgiving.
