Tag: Thanksgiving

Some Retailers Choosing to Honor Thanksgiving

Two years ago today we asked whether or not we were witnessing the end of Thanksgiving as we know it. As stores began to announce plans to open on Thanksgiving Day in an effort to ramp up Black Friday sales and Christmas shopping, it seemed Thanksgiving might be shifting from a day for rest and time with family to a day of shopping.

This year several major retailers have announced plans to close on Thanksgiving in honor of the holiday. The Christian Science Monitor writes that Apple, T.J. Maxx, HomeGoods, Marshalls, Pier 1 Imports, REI, and Barnes & Noble all will be closed on Thanksgiving Day.

T.J. Maxx, Marshalls, and HomeGoods–all three of which are owned by the same parent company–have even gone so far as to launch an ad campaign about reclaiming the holidays. You can see one of their ads below.

As we wrote recently, research shows a majority of Americans still see Thanksgiving as a day for giving thanks to God and spending time with family.

Like I said two years ago, I’ve never seen a Norman Rockwell painting of a family spending Thanksgiving in the checkout line of a big-box store. This week, I hope you and your family will take a break from the hustle and bustle to enjoy quality time together.

Whether it’s playing football in the backyard or listing your blessings around the dinner table, take a few hours to celebrate and have a happy Thanksgiving!

READ MORE

Arkansas’ First Thanksgiving Proclamation

As Thanksgiving approaches, we want to take time to highlight a piece of Arkansas history: The very first Thanksgiving proclamation issued after Arkansas became a state.

The proclamation issued by Arkansas’ third governor, Governor Thomas Drew, set aside Thursday, December 8, 1847, as a day of thanksgiving. The proclamation reads as follows:

Whereas, an all wise and merciful Providence has dispensed blessings of the most bountiful and diversified character among the people of this state, in the abundance of the various agricultural crops, the universal prosperity of our people and their unexampled good health, it is deemed worthy of a greatful people to make public manifestation of their sense of the renewed obligations under which we have been placed, by the appointment of a day of general THANKSGIVING throughout the state.

Be it known, therefore, that I, Thomas S. Drew, Governor of the State of Arkansas, have appointed Thursday, the 9th day of December next as a day of THANKSGIVING, which is hereby proclaimed and recommended to the good of people in every county and town in the state as a fit day and proper time to acquit ourselves, each and every one, of a high and praiseworthy duty to the Bountiful and Merciful Providence.

Given under my hand at Little Rock and to which is affixed the Great Seal of the State of Arkansas, this 12th day of October, 1847, and the Independence of the United States the seventy-second year.

By the Governor,
Thomas S. Drew

READ MORE

Research Shows Americans Still Focus on Prayer, Family at Thanksgiving

Despite growing efforts to secularize celebrations this time of year, a majority of Americans still say being thankful to God is a priority at Thanksgiving.

Lifeway Research writes,

“For Americans, Thanksgiving is about faith and family, and not much else.

“More than half (56 percent) tell LifeWay Research the most important part of the annual holiday is ‘being thankful to God for my blessings.’ Almost 4 in 10 (39 percent) say ‘time with family and friends’ tops their Thanksgiving priorities.”

We have written repeatedly about calls to prayer and thanksgiving issued by everyone from the Founding Fathers to Abraham Lincoln and other U.S. Presidents. For example:

• The Continental Congress issued a proclamation in 1778 asking Americans to set aside a day “to be observed as a day of fasting, humiliation, and prayer; that at one time, and with one voice, the inhabitants may acknowledge the righteous dispensations of Divine Providence, and confess their iniquities and transgressions, for which the land mourneth;”
• Thomas Jefferson issued a thanksgiving proclamation in 1779 when he was Governor of Virginia setting aside “a day of publick and solemn THANKSGIVING to Almighty God, for his mercies, and of PRAYER, for the continuance of his favour and protection to these United States;”
• Jefferson’s proclamation was issued in conjunction with one from the Continental Congress calling on Americans “to beseech him [God] that he would be graciously pleased to influence our publick Councils, and bless them with wisdom from on high, with unanimity, firmness and success; that he would go forth with our hosts and crown our arms with victory;”
• In 1780 Congress again issued a thanksgiving proclamation calling on Americans to observe “a day of public thanksgiving and prayer; that all the people may assemble on that day to celebrate the praises of our Divine Benefactor; to confess our unworthiness of the least of his favours, and to offer our fervent supplications to the God of all grace;”
• In 1863, Abraham Lincoln issued his famous Thanksgiving proclamation inviting Americans to set aside “the last Thursday of November next as a Day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the heavens. And I recommend to them that, while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliverances and blessings, they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to His tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners, or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty hand to heal the wounds of the nation, and to restore it, as soon as may be consistent with the Divine purposes, to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquility, and union.”

Pausing to give thanks to God is a powerful tradition that is part of our national heritage.

Click here to read more about LifeWay’s research.

READ MORE