Thanksgiving-The Religious Freedom Holiday
     As we think of the pilgrims who established the first Thanksgiving day, we need to recall the reason they left the land of their birth and came to the New World. The Puritan Separatists were not allowed to worship freely in England according to the dictates of their hearts and minds. In August 1620, they boarded two small ships, the Speedwell and the Mayflower, in search of religious freedom in undeveloped America. The Speedwell soon sprung leaks and most of the crew and passengers transferred to the Mayflower before the Speedwell turned back. There were 102 pilgrims who suffered the 67 days of rough sailing before they finally landed in Plymouth Bay in 1620. their problems were just beginning. No housing awaited them. No reception group. no physicians or medical facilities. There were no stores. A cold winter lay ahead with sickness for most of them. At one point, only 6 people were well enough to help the sick and the dying. By March 1621, not even a year after arriving, only 51 of the original 102 remained alive. It would be another two years before a ship arrived carrying supplies to help them. They were compelled to live off the land in whatever way they could. Fortunately, some Native Americans taught the pilgrims how to plant corn, how to fish the water, how to find game, how to live without the comforts of England and Holland. The newcomers built houses. They farmed. They fished. They filled a storehouse with corn and other foods. At the end of the first harvest, they decided to hold a feast of celebration and have a time of Thanksgiving to God for their freedom to worship as their hearts desired. They invited their Native American friends to enjoy the occasion with them. 90 came and stayed for three days. They must have enjoyed the worship, feasting and merry making. The main point to remember is that the puritans were willing to pay an enormous price for the privilege of freedom to worship. They were profoundly grateful to God! Here, in America, no established church harassed them, no government agency restricted them, and no one ridiculed them. They were free to worship in the manner they chose. And they did just that! On Thanksgiving day, we will be grateful for our abundance, thankful for our manifold blessings. Let us also be profoundly appreciative of our freedom to worship according to our hearts and minds.
     In 1777, the Continental Congress declared the first national American Thanksgiving following the providential victory at Saratoga. The day was still officially a religious observance in recognition of God’s Providence, and, as on the Sabbath, both work and amusements were forbidden. It does not resemble our idea of a Thanksgiving, with its emphasis on family dinners and popular recreation.
National Thanksgivings were proclaimed annually by Congress from 1777 to 1783 which, except for 1782, were all celebrated in December. After a five year hiatis, the practice was revived by President Washington in 1789 and 1795. John Adams declared Thanksgivings in 1798 and 1799, while James Madison declared the holiday twice in 1815; none of these were celebrated in the autumn. After 1815, there were no further national Thanksgivings until the Civil War.
     As sectional differences widened, it was impossible achieve the consensus to have a national Thanksgiving. The southern states were generally unreceptive to a “Yankee” custom being pressed on them by the federal government. If the federal government neglected the tradition, however, the individual states did not. The New England states continued to declare annual Thanksgivings (usually in November, although not always on the same day), and eventually most of the other states also had independent observations of the holiday.
By the 1840s when the Puritan holy day had largely given way to the Yankee holiday, Thanksgiving was usually depicted in a family setting with dinner as the central event. Abraham Lincoln declared the first of our modern series of annual Thanksgiving holidays for the last Thursday in November, 1863. Thanksgiving remained a custom unsanctified by law until 1941! In 1939 Franklin D. Roosevelt departed from tradition by declaring November 23, the next to the last Thursday that year, as Thanksgiving. Considerable controversy arose around this outrage to custom. On November 26, 1941, he signed a bill that established the fourth Thursday in November as the national Thanksgiving holiday, which it has been ever since.