Thanksgiving-day
Thanksgiving Day
A civil holiday observed annually in the United States of America on the last Thursday in November. The president issues a proclamation, calling on the citizens, all Federal officials, and others subject to Federal authority to observe the day as one of national thanksgiving and prayer. The governors of states concur in the president’s proclamation and also recommend the citizens to observe the holiday, and all public business is suspended.
The custom originated in 1621, when Governor Bradford of the Plymouth colony appointed a day for public praise and prayer after the first harvest, and the practice spread throughout the other New England colonies. The first national observance was when President Washington, at the request of Congress, recommended Thursday, 26 November, 1789, to the people of the United States “as a day of public thanksgiving and prayer to be observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many and signal favours of Almighty God”. This proclamation exhorted the people to “beseech Him to pardon our national and other transgressions, to promote the knowledge and practice of true religion and virtue, and to grant unto all mankind such a degree of temporal prosperity as He alone knows to be best”. It was the first observation of the day on the date that present custom holds it.
In 1817 Thanksgiving Day was first officially noticed in New York State, and by 1859 its observance had spread to twenty-eight states and two territories. In 1863 President Lincoln made his first proclamation, naming the last Thursday of November as a day of national observance, which President Johnson also selected in 1867 and President Grant in 1870. Since then there has been no change, the last Thursday in November being named in each year’s proclamation.
Catholic recognition of the day by special religious features has only been of comparatively recent date and not as yet (1911) of official general custom. Historians of the day attempt to trace the origin of Governor Bradford’s idea (1621) back to the old Hebrew Feast of the Tabernacles and through the ages to the ancient Greek Harvest Feast, Thesmophoria, the Roman Cerealia, and the English Harvest Home. In the Dominion of Canada the governor-general by proclamation sets aside the last Monday in October as a legal holiday for the purpose of acknowledging God’s providence and expressing the nation’s dependence on His bounty.
———————————–
SCHAUFFER, Thanksgiving (New York, 1907); HOUGH, Proclamations for Thanksgiving (Albany, 1858); LOVE, The Fasts and Thanksgiving Days of New England (Boston, 1895); America (New York, 19 Nov., 1910), files.
THOMAS F. MEEHAN Transcribed by Barbara Jane Barrett
The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume XIVCopyright © 1912 by Robert Appleton CompanyOnline Edition Copyright © 2003 by K. KnightNihil Obstat, July 1, 1912. Remy Lafort, S.T.D., CensorImprimatur. +John Cardinal Farley, Archbishop of New York
Fuente: Catholic Encyclopedia
Thanksgiving-day
an annual religious festival observed in the United States. It owes its origin to the desire of the Puritans for greater simplicity in the forms of worship of the Established Church, and a purpose not to celebrate any of the numerous festival-days observed by that Church. An occasional day of thanksgiving has been recommended by the civil authorities of Europe, and such a day was observed in Leyden, Holland, Oct. 3, 1575, the first anniversary of the deliverance of that city from siege. Before the adoption of an annual thanksgiving-day, we find mention of several appointed for special reasons. After the first harvest at Plymouth, in 1621,’Gov. Bradford sent four men out fowling, that they might after a more special manner rejoice together. In July, 1623, the governor appointed a day of thanksgiving for rain, after a long drought, and the records show a similar appointment in 1632 because of the arrival of supplies from Ireland. There is also record of the appointment of days of thanksgiving in Massachusetts in 1632, 1633, 1634, 1637, 1638, and 1639, and in Plymouth in 1651,1668, 1680 (when the form of the recommendation indicates that it had become an annual custom), 1689, and 1690. The Dutch governors of New Netherland in 1644, 1645, 1655, and 1664, and the English governors of New York in 1755 and 1760, appointed days of thanksgiving. During the Revolution, Thanksgiving-day was observed by the nation, being annually recommended by Congress; but there was no national appointment between the general thanksgiving for peace in 1784 and 1789, when president Washington recommended a day of thanksgiving for the adoption of the constitution. Since that time special days have been set apart both by presidents and governors until 1864, when the present practice was adopted of a national annual thanksgiving. The president issues an annual proclamation, followed by the governors of the several states and mayors of the principal cities. Custom has fixed the time for the last Thursday in November.