On December 4, 1619, the first
Thanksgiving celebration was held in America at the Berkeley Plantation in
Virginia. Thirty-eight English settlers attended the event. It was part of
their original charter to set aside one day every year to observe a day of thanksgiving
for their annual harvest.
Due to hardships and other factors, the
annual festivities lasted only one year.
On December 11, 1620, 102 Pilgrims
landed at Plymouth Rock. The first winter was brutal. Nearly half died from
starvation and illness.
The following summer, assisted by
friendly Indians, the survivors reaped a bountiful harvest. To show their
appreciation, Governor William Bradford invited nearly 100 Indians to join the
Pilgrims in a feast of thanksgiving, starting on December 13, 1621, and lasting
for three days.
Two years later, the Pilgrims were hit
with a draught. One day they gathered to pray for rain. The next morning it
started to rain and didn’t stop for several days.
With the crops saved, Governor
Bradford, being the party animal he was, declared another day of thanksgiving. Once
again the Indians were invited.
As other settlers arrived to the
colonies, they too held their own thanksgiving celebrations, each independent
of the other.
In 1668, the prevailing government decided
to get involved, as governments tend to do, declaring November 25 to be the
official Thanksgiving Day. This proclamation lasted only five years.
The first national celebration of
Thanksgiving occurred in 1777. It was a one-time event to celebrate the American
victory over the British at Saratoga.
Americans love to celebrate wars, which
may be why they participate in so many of them.
In 1789, President George Washington
created a proclamation declaring Thanksgiving a national event, to be held on
the first Thursday of November. Apparently, the first President of the USA was
a party animal too.
John Adams, the second President, moved
Thanksgiving from Thursday to the previous Wednesday.
Politicians are often meddlesome
blockheads who believe that making changes, whether they make sense or not, are
a sign of leadership. Later in his tenure, Adams moved it back to Thursday.
Not being much of a party animal, the
Third President, Thomas Jefferson, was opposed to Thanksgiving and cancelled
the national festivities.
Finally, in July of 1863, shortly after
the Battle of Gettysburg during the Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln
declared the last Thursday in November as a national day of Thanksgiving.
Over the next 75 years, every President
followed Lincoln’s precedent, annually declaring a national Thanksgiving Day.
Then in 1941, when Congress had a
majority of party animals in attendance, they permanently established the
fourth Thursday of November as a national holiday called Thanksgiving Day.
Thanksgiving is a tradition in my
family. Some of last year’s activities included:
- Built a pyramid of empty beer cans at halftime of football game.
- Performed the Heimlich maneuver on my nephew to remove a walnut.
- Moved a couch over the spot where the cat threw up to avoid a messy cleanup.
- Debated Uncle Earl about the impact of global warming on Japanese baseball.
- Wrestled with my brother to see who got the wishbone.
- After dinner we set up the Christmas tree in anticipation of the next holiday in line.
- Most of us took a short nap, except for Uncle Earl who kept debating by himself.
- Wrestled with my brother to see who got stuck driving crazy Aunt Edna to the airport.
- Scanned the Internet, looking for a list of symptoms of salmonella.
Thanksgiving is an occasion to thank
Mother Earth for blessing us with a bountiful harvest and to thank Father Time
for allowing us to enjoy life for another year. And to remind ourselves to
start our annual diet, right after the New Year rolls in.
Life is a precious experience.
Be thankful for all the joy and sorrow
it brings -- for without sorrow, there would be no joy.
___________
Quote for the Day – "Thanks for the memories." Bob
Hope
___________
Bret Burquest is the author of 12 books. He lives in the Ozark
Mountains with a few dogs and is thankful for life, liberty and the pursuit of
happiness.
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