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History, Holidays & Observances – November 28: Happy Thanksgiving

November 28, 2019 by Wolf Howling Leave a Comment

A look at some of the history and holidays on November 28, the Thanksgiving Edition

Holidays & Observances on November 28

Thanksgiving Day —  In 1620, the Mayflower set out with 102 people aboard, most of whom were pilgrims had left their home of 12 years in Leiden destined for Virginia to find a home where they could freely worship God as they saw fit. As William Bradford, a leader of the expedition would later write:

So they lefte [that] goodly & pleasante citie, which had been ther resting place, nere 12 years; but they knew they were pilgrimes, & looked not much on these things; but lift up their eyes to ye heavens, their dearest cuntrie, and quieted their spirits

They made it as far as Cape Cod, then, with dwindling provisions and winter fast approaching, put ashore.  In the harsh winter to follow, only half of the Pilgrims survived to see Spring.  Those that did survive, assisted by the the Patuxet Squanto and the Wampanoag tribe, were able to plant crops.  Sometime after the harvest, between the end of Sept., and early November, 1621, the Pilgrims held a harvest feast to thank God for their survival and their bounty, and to thank the Indians for their help.  The fifty surviving Pilgrims and approximately 90 Indians took part in the three day feast.  And yes, they did eat turkey, among many other dishes.

It was quite common, in the 18th century, for governments and church leaders to call for a day of “fasting and prayer” to mark a particular event.  What made the 1621 celebration of the pilgrims different was in combining the harvest feast with prayer — though not coupled with a Sabbath celebration — to celebrate not just the harvest, but their journey to and survival in the New World.  Several colonies had similar local traditions, perhaps Virginia even earlier than the Pilgrims, But it was the Pilgrims who apparently had the superior marketing.

The first national proclamation of a day of Thanksgiving was by Continental Congress in 1775 and calls for the same went out most every year until we became a fledgling nation.  Then, in 1789, it was George Washington who issued a Thanksgiving Proclamation for our nation organized under the newly adopted Constitution.

Between then and 1863, Thanksgiving celebrations were wholly local.  What changed in 1863, when President Lincoln was moved to issue his own proclamation for a national day of Thanksgiving,  was the dogged lobbying of the president by “Sarah Josepha Hale—a novelist, poet, and the editor of “Godey’s Lady’s Book,” a lifestyle magazine with an impressive pre-Civil War circulation of 150,000:”

Hale saw Thanksgiving as an important supplement to the nation’s principal civic holiday: Independence Day. While Independence Day celebrates the birth of our nation, our Founding Fathers, and our founding principles, Thanksgiving celebrates the origins of the American people, family, and faith in God.

As Hale wrote in 1852: “The Fourth of July is the exponent of independence and civil freedom, Thanksgiving Day is the national pledge of Christian faith in God, acknowledging Him as the dispenser of blessings.”

Nondenominational faith in a providential God was a prominent component of Lincoln’s Thanksgiving proclamation—as it had been in Washington’s first proclamation—and it has remained so in nearly every presidential proclamation since.

While Independence Day celebrates our freedom, Thanksgiving celebrates the faith that prevents that liberty from degenerating into licentiousness. While Independence Day celebrates our nation’s sovereignty, Thanksgiving reminds us that God should be the source of our highest devotion.

Hale envisioned that a nationwide celebration of Thanksgiving would also help bind the nation together more tightly. Living under the same Constitution and the same federal government was, in her estimation, not enough to forge one people from America’s diverse inhabitants and distinct regions.

After Lincoln, Presidents annually proclaimed a day to be set aside for Thanksgiving.  The only alteration came about in 1941, when FDR slightly adjusted the timing of the celebration to be held in November.

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Filed Under: History Tagged With: 1620, 1621, 1775, 1789, 1863, 1941, a day of fasting and prayer, Abraham Lincoln, Age of Sail, Cape Cod, Cape of Good Hope, circumnavigation of the globe, Colony of Virginia, community property, Continental Congress, FDR, Ferdinand Magellan, George Washington, harvest feast, House of Commons. John Bunyan, Jeffrey Dahmer, John Stossel, Juan Sebastián Elcano, Lady Astor, Leiden, Leipzig, Ludwig von Beethoven, Mayflower, Member of the Parliament, national pledge of Christian faith in God, Nov. 28, Op. 73, Patuxet Indians, Piano Concerto No. 5 in E-flat major, Pilgrims, Private Property, Sarah Josepha Hale, serial killer, spice islands, Squanto, Starvation, Strait of Magellan, Thanksgiving, Thanksgiving Proclamation, The Pilgrim's Progress, Tragedy of the Commons, Turkey, United Kingdom, Wampanoag tribe, William Blake, William Bradford

History, Holidays & Observances – November 17

November 17, 2019 by Wolf Howling Leave a Comment

A look at some of the history, holidays & observances on November 17

Holidays & Observances on November 17

Feast of St. Elizabeth of Hungary, a 13th century Hungarian Princess who was married at fourteen and widowed at 20, after which she used her own money to build a hospital and spent the next four years of her life caring for the sick until she herself passed away.  A model of Christian charity, she is known today as the Patron Saint of hospitals, nurses, bakers, brides, dying children, exiles, homeless people, lace-makers and widows,

 

Major Events on November 17

1558 – The Start of the Elizabethan Era

On this date in 1558, Queen Elizabeth I ascended to the throne following the death of her sister, Queen Mary I, a woman whose reign was marked by violence as she sought to undo the British Reformation and reestablish Catholicism as the state religion.  When Elizabeth was crowned the Queen, she undid Mary’s policies, embraced the Reformation, and presided over a “golden age” in England, the apogee of the English Renaissance.  It was the time of Shakespeare and Marlowe.  Drama, literature, poetry and the arts all flourished.  And Elizabeth took her nation from the brink of bankruptcy in 1558 to relative prosperity by the end of her reign forty-five years later.  During that time, Britain developed its navy into the finest in the world, bringing peace to its shores with the defeat of the Spanish Armada, and engaging the world with exploration and commerce.

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Filed Under: History Tagged With: Age of Discovery, Burning of Washington, Catherine the Great, Charles I, Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, Elizabeth I, English Civil War, English Renaissance, Glorious Revolution, Great Jewish Revolt, H.H. Holmes, Heidi Game, Invasion of Britain, James I, James II, Lt. William Calley, Luxor Massacre, Mary I, murder castle, My Lai Massacre, patron saint of bakers, Patron Saint of brides, Patron Saint of dying children, patron saint of exiles, patron saint of lace-makers, patron saint of nurses, patron saint of the homeless, patron saint of widows, Patron Sint of hospitals, serial killer, Shakespeare, Sir Walter Raleigh, Snuffy, Spanish Armada, St. Elizabeth of Hungary, Tudor Dynasty, Vespasian, War of 1812, Year of 4 Emperors

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