By Dean Bowen – America Out Loud
Americans enjoy their Thanksgiving Day traditions, often in this order: Football, food, and napping. While football and food take center stage, Thanksgiving Day is an American holiday that is centered not only around a historical event but also an attitude.
Gratitude and thanksgiving are the foundation of this state of mind.
In 1789, the House and Senate made a request to George Washington that he “recommend to the people of the United States a day of public thanksgiving and prayer to be observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many signal favors of Almighty God.”
This is the true tradition of Thanksgiving Day, offering prayers of thanksgiving to God, with a grateful heart, for all of His many blessings to us.
Washington assigned Thursday, November 26th, “to be devoted by the people of these States to the service of that great and glorious Being, who is the beneficent Author of all the good that was, that is, or that will be.”
Thanksgiving Day was not made an official holiday until Lincoln’s proclamation in 1863, which was passed by an act of Congress initiating the first annual National Day of Thanksgiving.
In that proclamation, Lincoln stated, “No human counsel hath devised nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy. It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently, and gratefully acknowledged as with one heart and one voice by the whole American People.”
It is clear the Thanksgiving Day holiday not only celebrates the idea of thanksgiving and gratitude, but thanksgiving and gratitude are to be directed towards God Almighty.
Lincoln acknowledged how easy it is to forget the blessings of God during our daily lives, but he believed even the person who never looks to God for thanks would have his heart penetrated with gratitude on this day: “To these bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the source from which they come, others have been added, which are of so extraordinary a nature, that they cannot fail to penetrate and soften even the heart which is habitually insensible to the ever-watchful providence of Almighty God”
While we enjoy our Thanksgiving Day traditions of food, family, football, and fun, the true tradition and history of Thanksgiving Day is centered around a heart of gratitude towards God for all of his many blessings to America and its citizens.
