In celebrating Thanksgiving today, at a time when it is all too easy to focus upon the nation’s division and strife, it is instructive to recall the optimistic tone that accompanied a significant recognition of the holiday many years ago.
When Abraham Lincoln called for a national day of Thanksgiving in 1863, he did so amid a Civil War that had split the nation and rained down unfathomable death and suffering. Yet, in his proclamation of the holiday, Lincoln wrote, “The year that is drawing toward its close has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies.” Lincoln, according to Melanie Kirkpatrick of the Wall Street Journal, wrote of a reason for celebration even “in the midst of a civil war of unequaled magnitude and severity,” and he focused upon “the whole American people” celebrating “with one heart and one voice.”
Those sentiments are echoed today, in the wake of the most contentious presidential election in memory. And while differences among the American people remain evident, so do our shared blessings.
The United States had celebrated Thanksgiving long before Lincoln became president. The tradition famously dates back to the earliest European settlers upon the land, and George Washington had chosen the last Thursday in November as a day of national thanksgiving in 1789. But the holiday had not been formalized, and by the middle of the 19th century, most states held their own celebrations on dates ranging from September to December.
Sarah Josepha Hale, editor of Godey’s Lady’s Book, the most widely circulated magazine of the time, had undertaken a decades-long campaign to establish a uniform acknowledgement of the holiday throughout the country. Hale’s publication focused upon facets of life that were uniquely American, and she saw powerful potential in a uniform nationwide celebration of Thanksgiving. In September 1863, Hale wrote to Lincoln, and months later the president issued a proclamation that not only dedicated the holiday but reminded Americans that the Civil War eventually would end and that the nation “is permitted to expect continuance of years with large increase of freedom.”
Since 1863, Thanksgiving has been an annual observance in the United States. In 1939, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt declared the holiday to be on the fourth Thursday of November rather than the last (there were five Thursdays during the month that year). With the nation still in throes of The Great Depression, Roosevelt saw value in extending the Christmas shopping season by starting it one week early, and that soon become established tradition.
Of course, the Christmas season has increasingly crept forward, blurring the lines between the Thanksgiving and shopping seasons, but that has failed to obscure the meaning of giving thanks for our individual blessings and the bounty of this nation. This might mean praise for one’s chosen deity or appreciation for spending time with family or simply a thankfulness for another year of life — and the greatest blessing of the United States is that we all are welcome to celebrate in any fashion that reflects our beliefs. For most Americans, that celebration includes the eating of turkey, and Founding Father Alexander Hamilton once said that no “Citizen of the United States should refrain from turkey on Thanksgiving Day.”
We won’t go that far, as there are many worthy alternatives to turkey for a Thanksgiving meal, but we will give thanks for the bounty on our table and the time with friends and family. And we will, indeed, wish a happy Thanksgiving to all.
