Who do we have to thank for the holiday that’s known for turkey, stuffing, and football? Our kids make little pilgrim hats and learn about the “first Thanksgiving,” but the real story is so much more. Yes, the Puritan settlers held a feast to thank God for His blessings and invited the neighboring Wampanoag tribe to feast with them. That 1621 thanksgiving celebration maybe have been the basis of the holiday, but the meal didn’t become an annual event then. In fact, the settlers held days of thanksgiving and fasting throughout the year.
Throughout the American Revolution, government officials set aside days of prayer to recognize military victories over the British armies. In 1789, Representative Elias Boudinot from New Jersey requested that Congress persuade President Washington to declare a thanksgiving observance in honor of the creation of the new U.S. Constitution. Washington himself celebrated by attending services at St. Paul’s Chapel in New York City and by donating beer and food to imprisoned debtors in the city.
He sent the following, along with the proclamation, to the Governors of the United States:
“I do myself the honor to enclose to your Excellency a Proclamation for a general Thanksgiving which I must request the favor of you to have published and made known in your State in the way and manner that shall be most agreeable to yourself.”
It wasn’t until President Abraham Lincoln’s 1863 Proclamation that Thanksgiving was regularly commemorated each year on the last Thursday of November. Now every year we get together with family to pray, laugh, thank the Lord for what he has provided, and eat delicious food.
Get in the holiday spirit. Print the proclamation and let your kids announce the words of President Washington. Be sure to check out our Thanksgiving Story Cards and our Thanksgiving Scavenger Hunt.
