What Our Founding Fathers Had to Say About Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving

Today is Thanksgiving. I hope you and your family have a wonderful day planned together.

When people think about the history of Thanksgiving, they typically picture the Pilgrims at “the first Thanksgiving.” That’s a major part of Thanksgiving’s history, but there’s a lot more to it than that.

Before it was a federal holiday, Thanksgiving was a day appointed by Congress, the President, or the state legislature. Early on in our nation’s history, Congress sometimes appointed more than one “Thanksgiving” in a given year. That’s because these were not meant to be days simply of turkey-feasting. They were, rather, days of prayer. In fact, virtually every early thanksgiving proclamation includes calls to prayer along with fasting, corporate worship, confession of sin, or some similar act.

We have posted several of these proclamations as part of our Words From Our Founders series on our website. Below are excerpts from a few Thanksgiving proclamations issued from 1775 to 1813. I hope they give you an idea of what Thanksgiving was meant to be in this country, and I hope you and your family have a truly happy Thanksgiving!

 

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Thomas Jefferson’s Thanksgiving and Prayer Proclamation

Thanksgiving, Words From Our Founders,

Today we continue our Words From Our Founders series examining America’s Founding Fathers’ words on religion, religious liberty, and morality.

As Thanksgiving approaches, we are featuring various proclamations of prayer and thanksgiving issued by America’s founders. Below is a proclamation issued by Thomas Jefferson on November 11, 1779, when he was governor of Virginia.

Proclamation Appointing a Day of Thanksgiving and Prayer

Whereas the Honourable the General Congress, impressed with a grateful sense of the goodness of Almighty God, in blessing the greater part of this extensive continent with plentiful harvests, crowning our arms with repeated successes, conducting us hitherto safely through the perils with which we have been encompassed and manifesting in multiplied instances his divine care of these infant states, hath thought proper by their act of the 20th day of October last, to recommend to the several states that Thursday the 9th of December next be appointed a day of publick and solemn thanksgiving and prayer, which act is in these words, to wit.

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Is It the End of Thanksgiving as We Know It?

1 CommentThanksgiving,

Some of us are old enough to remember a time when people got off work for Washington’s Birthday—the holiday we now call Presidents’ Day.

Up until the 1980s, many businesses closed for Washington’s Birthday. It was a lot like Labor Day or Memorial Day, in that respect. So what changed?

There were a lot of factors, but one theory is in the 1980s, stores began staying open on Presidents’ Day to offer big sales and attract shoppers. As stores stayed open, other businesses had reason to do so as well. As a result, Presidents’ Day is a lot like Columbus Day: The banks and Post Office close; stores offer big sales; but that’s about the extent of the holiday. So I have to ask: Could the same thing happen to Thanksgiving?

This year stores like Kmart are staying open all day on Thanksgiving. Walmart will unveil its Black Friday sales Thursday, letting shoppers peruse their shelves Thanksgiving night and on into Friday morning. Best Buy, Target, J.C. Penny, Kohl’s, Macy’s, Sears, Toys R Us, and others plan to do the same.

Some people say as the economy rebounds, stores may not make a habit of opening on Thanksgiving in the future. I doubt it.

If more stores open on Thanksgiving, other businesses will likely find reason to follow suit. It happened with George Washington’s Birthday; there’s no reason to think Thanksgiving is too sacred for the same to happen to it.

I imagine people will always pause to eat turkey together the last weekend of November, but it bothers me that what was intended to be a day spent with family, giving thanks to God for the many blessings we enjoy might devolve into nothing more than “Black Friday Eve.”

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!

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