Thanksgiving Day, A Little Reminder

Grace by Eric Enstrom

                It is not “Turkey Day.”  It was not established based on the colonists giving thanks to their Native American friends who helped them learn how to survive in the New World, and technically, the colonists were not “Puritans.”  Yes, I love to dash to pieces bits of historical misinformation people have gathered through careless teaching or too eager acceptance of fond traditions.  That’s a major character flaw to some, but what I think makes me so loveable.

                The Puritans were a group of religious people disgruntled with the Church of England.  Being disgruntled with anything in England was legal, but expressing those thoughts and feelings was not.  The Puritans, therefore, worked very carefully to change, or purify, the official church from within.  They eventually gave up.  But they were not part of the group who landed at Plymouth in November of 1620.     Those folks, who shared the boat ride with a number of nominally religious people, were technically called Separatists.  A decade or so later, Governor Bradford called them Pilgrims.  They had long ago given up on changing the Church of England, and fled to Holland where they could escape the persecution being meted out by the authorities.  However, fearful of their children growing up in a foreign country, learning a foreign language and customs, and never knowing their English heritage, and choosing not to try to change the language and customs of their Dutch hosts, they sought to continue their journey to the colony of Virginia, which they believed extended to the Hudson River.  After giving up on reaching their original destination, due to bad weather, they decided to disembark on the west side of Cape Cod.  They lived on the ship until housing was built, then the ship left.

                Their hastily made shelters were not sufficient for such bad conditions.  About half of their number died of malnutrition and exposure during what turned out to be a very harsh winter.  The following spring, a former captive/slave of Captain John Smith’s, Squanto, showed them how to plant crops, particularly corn.  In the fall of 1621, they harvested their first crops in their new land.  They gathered to give thanks to God for supplying all their needs.  I am sure they were thankful for the help Squanto and others from his father’s tribe had given them, but that was not why they gathered.  They felt a need to praise God!

                We don’t actually know what they had for dinner that day.  It is likely the meal included seafood, vegetables, and some wild meat such as venison and maybe turkey.  Today, because so many people have no clue regarding the basis for Thanksgiving, the food and/or the company have become the centers of attention.  Many do not roast a turkey for their main course, choosing to substitute enchiladas, spaghetti, ham, salmon or something else for the center platter.  In many homes, a prayer learned by rote from somebody may be recited.  In many other homes, no prayer is even considered, unless the host home is within the Detroit Lions broadcast area.  Then a prayer may be uttered in an attempt to avoid national embarrassment.

                  National observance of Thanksgiving Day was sporadic and generally confined to the New England region until Abraham Lincoln called for the entire nation to pause to give thanks on the last Thursday of November.  Following is his declaration, written in 1863, in the midst of the Civil War:
                “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…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…[The war effort] has not arrested the plough,…the axe has enlarged the borders,…and the mines…have yielded even more abundantly than heretofore…Population has steadily increased,…and the country…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 [these gifts of God] 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… 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…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[sic] and Union…” ~Abraham Lincoln~ [Source: U.S. National Archives]

                The president, and his Secretary of State, who is said to have written the first draft, believed we ought to look to the blessings of God, which are taken for granted by most of us, in the midst of unimaginable strife, hardship and pessimism.  Hardly a family in the country went untouched by the hundreds of thousands of deaths during the war.  However, they could be thankful for so much.  It is also interesting to note that the pilgrims praised God and thanked him while still not fully recovered from the loss of half their group.  Mothers, fathers, children were buried within eyesight of their feast.  But they were thankful, and expressed that gratitude to a loving God.

                As you gather with loved ones this Thanksgiving Day, feast upon bounty the like of which is only dreamed of in most of the world, and maybe watch a little football, don’t forget to consider the author of all those blessings and countless others.  Pause in the midst of celebration of family and food, and remember the one who has made it all possible.  Make it a day of giving thanks to Almighty God.