Sample Reading - Dressed for Feast
Sample Reading - Dressed for Feast
THANKSGIVING PROCLAMATIONS
There is no evidence that the celebration of the Pilgrims was intended to become an annual event. But other similar Thanksgivings followed at various times in all of the New England colonies. True to their religious traditions and emphases, however, most of these observances called for days of thanksgiving and fasting rather than for celebrating with Thanksgiving feasting.
The tradition of occasional Thanksgivings continued through the time of the American Revolution. On September 25, 1789, the first Congress, meeting in New York City, asked that President Washington proclaim a day of thanksgiving for “the many signal favors of Almighty God, especially his affording them opportunity to adopt a constitution of government for their safety and happiness.” Some, however, dissented to this political call for religious activity.
In his proclamation, President Washington addressed “all religious Societies and Denominations, and all persons, whomsoever, within the United States,” carefully avoiding reference to Christianity or to any specific religious belief. Of the early presidents only Washington, Adams, and Madison declared national days of prayer. Thomas Jefferson maintained that “only civil powers have been given to the President of the United States, and no authority to direct the religious exercises of his constituents.”
There followed many decades during which declaring days of thanksgiving and prayer was seen as the prerogative of the states through their governors. Then a woman named Sarah Hale, who edited the periodical, Lady’s Book, began to promote adoption of an annual Day of Thanksgiving on the last Thursday of November. Each year Mrs. Hale rhapsodized in an editorial on the desirability of a national Thanksgiving Day. November issues of her magazine featured Thanksgiving poetry and stories of families reunited on Thanksgiving Day. Household advice columns told how to stuff a turkey and bake a mince pie. Mrs. Hale helped people across the land to become familiar with a New England Thanksgiving.
In 1863, under Hale’s insistent influence, President Abraham Lincoln issued a presidential proclamation that read: “I invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday in November next as a day of thanksgiving and praise to our beneficent Father who dwells in the heavens.”
All Presidents who have followed Lincoln have issued similar Thanksgiving Day proclamations, and its celebration on the last Sunday of November became accepted tradition. In 1939, to provide a longer period for shopping before Christmas, President Franklin Roosevelt moved it to the third Thursday – and caused a furor. In 1941 the Congress produced a compromise by officially ruling that the fourth Thursday of November, which is the last Thursday in five out of seven years, was to be the National Thanksgiving Day, declaring it to be a legal federal holiday – and so it is today.
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