Why is Thanksgiving important? by Sofia Camilo #5 This holiday is particularly important in North American countries like the USA and Canada because it celebrates the harvests and the blessings of the year. Americans generally believe that their Thanksgiving is modeled on a 1621 harvest feast shared by the English colonists (Pilgrims) of Plymouth and the Wampanoag people. The American holiday is particularly rich in legend and symbolism, and the traditional fare of the Thanksgiving meal typically includes turkey, bread stuffing, potatoes, cranberries, and pumpkin pie. Canada has its own Thanksgiving Day, on the second Monday in October, and Liberia celebrates Thanksgiving on the first Thursday of November. A prominent writer and editor, Sarah Josepha Hale is called the mother of Thanksgiving Day. In 1827, Hale — author of the nursery rhyme “Mary Had a Little Lamb” — launched a campaign to establish Thanksgiving as a national holiday. For 36 years, she published numerous editorials and sent scores of letters to governors, senators, presidents and other politicians, urging them to mark Thanksgiving Day holiday. Abraham Lincoln finally heeded her request in 1863. During the Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln declared Thanksgiving: “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.” Since the beginning of the mid-20th century, the president of the United States has “pardoned” one or two Thanksgiving turkeys each year, sparing the birds from slaughter and sending them to a farm for retirement. Although Thanksgiving may originally have had religious significance, the day has become a mostly secular holiday now. Most Americans consider the holiday a day to gather and express their thanks through food, family, and football. During some Thanksgiving celebrations, people write down what they are thankful for and then read aloud from the piece of paper. The day is also celebrated with the annual Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York City, which attracts some 2 to 3 million spectators along its 2.5-mile route and draws an enormous television audience. It typically features marching bands, performers, elaborate floats conveying various celebrities and giant balloons shaped like cartoon characters. A month-long shopping season for the winter holidays begins after Thanksgiving, with Black Friday kicking off the season. This usually consists of a lot of items on stores being put on sale as they are usually cleaning their stores. In the Bible, thanksgiving means devotion, sacrifice, praise, or an offering. Thanksgiving is to glorify God as an act of worship, giving thanks for all things as part of God's providence. As Christians, we can reclaim Thanksgiving — rather than just being a day where we eat too much and strategize our Black Friday sales plan of attack — we can go back to our historical and spiritual roots as we thank God.
