Give Thanks With a Grateful Heart

By: Sherry Myers

As the summer makes its exit and we begin to enjoy some cooler, crisp days, our thoughts begin to turn to the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday.  This month we’ll take a look at a brief history and some little known facts.

Thanksgiving is celebrated in the United States on the 4th Thursday of November. Its historical roots are rooted in religious traditions, giving thanks to the Lord for the blessings of the harvest and of the preceding year. Thanksgiving Day has been an annual tradition by presidential proclamation in the United States since 1863.

Sarah Joespha Hale, author of “Mary Had a Little Lamb” campaigned for almost 20 years to make Thanksgiving a National Holiday. She petitioned through 5 presidents before a letter she sent on September 28, 1963 to Abe Lincoln was read and he decided to proclaim the national holiday. She also wrote many editorials listing recipes to be used for Thanksgiving dinner including many things that wouldn’t have been served at the original dinner but are traditional today, largely due to her. The first dinner would have been deer, fowl, flint corn, cod, bass and other fish.

Everything we know about the first Thanksgiving comes from 2 passages, one from a letter by Edward Winslow written to a friend in December of 1621 describing the harvest festival; the second, from On Plymouth Plantation by William Bradford twenty years after the event.  *

Today most families still celebrate the holiday by gathering together, sharing a traditional Thanksgiving feast and sharing their thankfulness for all of the blessings in their life. Long live the Thanksgiving tradition and may we always remember to count our blessings!

And now for a little Thanksgiving humor:

An optimist is a person who starts a new diet on Thanksgiving Day. ~ Iry Kupcinet

It’s not the minutes spent at the table that put on weight, it’s the seconds. ~ Unknown Author

Vegetables are a must on a diet. I suggest carrot cake, zucchini bread and pumpkin pie. ~ Jim Davis

Coexistence… what the farmer does with the turkey – until Thanksgiving ~ Mike Connolly

Enjoy your Thanksgiving, however you celebrate it, and remember to give thanks for this wonderful county we live in and thanks to the God we serve!