Thanksgiving…a profoundly patriotic holiday

by Darryl Wilkinson

One thing I’m always thankful for is that Thanksgiving is always on Thursday. This allows our printing schedule for a dozen weekly clients to be manageable (I’m still unable to hammer out the Christmas schedule to everyone’s satisfaction, but a Christmas on a Tuesday almost guarantees that for us). But it wasn’t always this way.

Like so many other traditions, we’re not exactly sure how things started. Thanksgiving on the last November Thursday has only been official since 1925. Some say the first Thanksgiving celebrated in North America occurred in 1578 on the shores of Newfoundland. That, supposedly, was the first Christian sermon preached and the first Holy Communion in North America.

The earliest Thanksgiving Day in the present territory of the United States occurred in Maine in 1607. By all accounts it wasn’t much. The celebration only lasted a few hours.

Did you know that the Pilgrims at Plymouth actually marked the first socialist experiment in America?

Scholars use “Of Plimoth Plantation” written by William Bradford (one of Plymouth’s first settlers and its second governor) to understand the effects of the Mayflower Compact. This agreement actually ordered everything produced to be put in a common storehouse. The idea failed completely. Within three years the settlers discovered that, for their very survival, they had to turn to what we now know as the free-market system. And this country has never looked back — except, again tomorrow, to remember who truly is the Creator from whom all things come.

The first full day of Thanksgiving celebration was proclaimed by Gov. Bradford in 1621 in the Massachusetts Colony. The harvest was good; about 90 Indians joined festivities which lengthened into three days. That’s the Thanksgiving I remember learning about in grade school.

Historians are quick to note that for many years many Thanksgiving Days were observed throughout New England. Many were to observe thanks for victories over Indians. During the Revolutionary War the Continental Congress recommended no less than eight days of Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving is a uniquely American holiday. It is with patriotic pride that I note that the first proclamation ever made by a President of the United States was to declare an official day of Thanksgiving. This is the holiday which celebrates our declaration of faith in God.

Thanksgiving is patriotic in other ways. We are where we are on this Thanksgiving because we chose and continue to choose to defend freedom. In this sense, our situation, our sentiment and our faith are one with those of the Pilgrims. What we have made is a moral choice, not the least part of our gratitude should be for our freedom to choose. In large parts of the world, such a choice is not possible. It is this freedom that makes our enemies hate with such passion.

Thanksgiving is a time when we turn our minds to what is good in our lives, our families and our nation. While we cannot deny that terrorists threaten and many, many other problems exist, we also cannot deny that we are a people that have been truly blessed by God — far more than we realize. And tomorrow we give pause to say, “Thank you, Lord.”