Month: November 2008

We want to wish everyone a very Happy Thanksgiving! Here is a short history of our holiday that Linda shared with everyone right before we ate that I thought would be good to repost here.

The first Thanksgiving was celebrated in 1621. Initially it was meant to be a fast day. The settlers at Plymouth Rock mostly recognized the way to give thanks in the form of prayer and abstinence from food. But the Wampanoag Indians, who were invited to join the Pilgrims for the 3-day celebration, contributed their own harvest traditions of dance, games and feasting. (Note the difference one little letter can make in your life!)

In 1777, all 13 colonies celebrated the day at once, after their victory over the British at Saratoga.

In 1789, President George Washington hailed the holiday and asked all Americans to celebrate and be grateful. After that year, it was celebrated sporadically until 1863 when President Abe Lincoln recognized Thanksgiving as an official Union feast day and
national holiday. He declared the day as a time to express thanks for the many blessings, despite the tragedies of our Civil War.

In 1941, Congress made the fourth Thursday a national legal holiday to celebrate Thanskgiving.

I hope your Thanksgiving was a good as ours. God bless!