"We can only be said to be alive in those moments when our hearts are conscious of our treasures." -Thorton Wilder
http://youtu.be/7NSQLMPUK-8 Thanksgiving Song~Mary Chapin Carpenter
http://youtu.be/LA05aiIvl20 Thanksgiving-George Winston
http://youtu.be/xBtKRKM3a9o We Gather Together~Thanksgiving Blessings
"As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them." ~John Fitzgerald Kennedy
Thanksgiving. It comes every year on the fourth Thursday in the month of November. It is our national holiday, when we give thanks for the bounty of the yearly harvest and the many blessings bestowed upon us. In the United States, our Thanksgiving holiday is rooted in English tradition as well as with prayers and ceremonies that we recognize dating back to 1621, and that first feast of Thanksgiving which took place at Plymouth Rock. Pilgrims feasted for three days, celebrated and offered thanks for the abundance of harvest. Edward Winslow an attendee at the first gathering in 1621 recorded that 90 Native American Indians were in attendance at that first Thanksgiving with the Pilgrims.
Did you know that Thanksgiving has been an annual celebration by Presidential proclamation since 1863, when President Abraham Lincoln proclaimed: a national day of "Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens", and by state legislation since the times of our Founding Fathers? It was set to be observed as the fourth Thursday in November by federal legislation in 1941. As stated, the holiday began as a traditional celebration of the yearly harvest.
Here is an excerpt of Edward Winslow's personal account of that first Thanksgiving:
"Our harvest being gotten in, our governor sent four men on fowling, that so we might after a special manner rejoice together after we had gathered the fruits of our labor. They four in one day killed as much fowl as, with a little help beside, served the company almost a week. At which time, amongst other recreations, we exercised our arms, many of the Indians coming amongst us, and among the rest their greatest kingMassasoit, with some ninety men, whom for three days we entertained and feasted, and they went out and killed five deer, which we brought to the plantation and bestowed on our governor, and upon the captain and others. And although it be not always so plentiful as it was at this time with us, yet by the goodness of God, we are so far from want that we often wish you partakers of our plenty."
So once in every year we throng
Upon a day apart,
To praise the Lord with feast and song
In thankfulness of heart.
~Arthur Guiterman, The First Thanksgiving
As stated above, Presient Lincoln proclaimed there be a national day of Thanksgiving to be celebrated the last Thursday in November. Here is his proclamation, dated October 3, 1863:
The year that is drawing towards its close, has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies. 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. In the midst of a civil war of unequalled magnitude and severity, which has sometimes seemed to foreign States to invite and to provoke their aggression, peace has been preserved with all nations, order has been maintained, the laws have been respected and obeyed, and harmony has prevailed everywhere except in the theatre of military conflict; while that theatre has been greatly contracted by the advancing armies and navies of the Union. Needful diversions of wealth and of strength from the fields of peaceful industry to the national defence, have not arrested the plough, the shuttle, or the ship; the axe had enlarged the borders of our settlements, and the mines, as well of iron and coal as of the precious metals, have yielded even more abundantly than heretofore. Population has steadily increased, notwithstanding the waste that has been made in the camp, the siege and the battle-field; and the country, rejoicing in the consciousness of augmented strength and vigor, is permitted to expect continuance of years, with large increase of freedom.
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 voice by the whole American people. I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe 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.
In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand, and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed.
Done at the city of Washington, this third day of October, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, and of the independence of the United States the eighty-eighth."
"All that we behold is full of blessings." ~William Wordsworth
~Since 1924, the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade is held in upper Manhattan.
~Since 1947, the National Turkey Federation has presented the President with a live turkey. President John F. Kennedy was the first President to spare the turkey. Ronald Reagan is the first President to have granted the turkey a presidential pardon in 1987, and sent the turkey to a petting zoo. In 1989, President Bush made the turkey pardon an annual tradition.
"Remember God's bounty in the year. String the pearls of His favor. Hide the dark parts, except so far as they are breaking out in light! Give this one day to thanks, to joy, to gratitude!" ~Henry Ward Beecher
"If the only prayer you ever say in your entire life is, 'thank you,' that will be enough." ~Meister Eckhart
Thanksgiving
Now gracious plenty rules the board,
And in the purse is gold; By multitudes in glad accord Thy giving is extolled. Ah, suffer me to thank Thee, Lord, For what thou dost withhold! I thank Thee that howe'er we climb There yet is something higher; That though through all our reach of time We to the stars aspire, Still, still beyond us burns sublime The pure sidereal fire! I thank Thee for the unexplained, The hope that lies before, The victory that is not gained,— O Father, more and more I thank Thee for the unattained, The good we hunger for! I thank Thee for the voice that sings To inner depths of being; For all the spread and sweep of wings, From earthly bondage freeing; For mystery—the dream of things Beyond our power of seeing!
by Florence Earle Coates/Nov. 1905
http://youtu.be/SSKIVf0hSn0 Thankful~Josh Groban
Now, go and tell those who have touched your life what a blessing they are to you!
Happy Thanksgiving, Friends! May your day be abundantly blessed today~
And, know that in my heart especially today, that I thank God upon every remembrance of you....Blessings my friends, With love & gratitude, Jhill
|
No comments:
Post a Comment