IS THANKSGIVING IN YOUR HEART OR STOMACH?

 Freedom From Want painting by Norman Rockwell

 

Although the holiday we call Thanksgiving is based upon a three-day feast that was first celebrated in New England by the English Pilgrims and the local Wampanoag Indian tribe including their chief, Massasoit, in 1621, it did not immediately become an annual celebration or holiday. It wasn't until October 1777 that all 13 colonies individually celebrated a day of Thanksgiving. The very first national day of Thanksgiving was held in 1789, when President George Washington proclaimed Thursday, November 26 to be "a day of public thanksgiving and prayer," to especially give thanks for the opportunity to form a new nation and the establishment of a new constitution.

We owe the modern concept of Thanksgiving to a woman named Sarah Josepha Hale (1788-1879). Hale, editor of Godey's Lady's Book and author of the famous "Mary Had a Little Lamb" nursery rhyme. She spent 40 years advocating for a national, annual Thanksgiving holiday. In the years leading up to the Civil War, she saw the holiday as a way to infuse hope and belief in the nation and the constitution. So, when the United States was torn in half during the Civil War and Lincoln was searching for a way to bring the nation together, he discussed the matter with Hale.

On October 3, 1863, Lincoln issued a Thanksgiving Proclamation that declared the last Thursday in November (based on Washington's date) to be a day of "thanksgiving and praise." For the first time, Thanksgiving became a national, annual holiday with a specific date.

 

Neither Lincoln nor his successors, however, made the holiday a fixed annual event. A President still had to proclaim Thanksgiving each year, and the last Thursday in November became the customary date. In a controversial move, Franklin Delano Roosevelt lengthened the Christmas shopping season by declaring Thanksgiving for the next-to-the-last Thursday in November. Two years later, in 1941, Congress responded by permanently establishing the holiday as the fourth Thursday in the month.

So do we personally celebrate Thanksgiving in our hearts or in our stomachs? While having second helpings of turkey, mashed potatoes, and pumpkin pie may address our temporal need (or desire) for food, offering sincere prayers of thanks will feed the soul. Many of us have a tendency to overeat on Thanksgiving day (perhaps on some other days as well), but I have yet to meet anyone who has expressed too much gratitude for the blessings so abundantly provided by Our Father in Heaven to us each and every day.

Thomas S. Monson, President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints tells us, ". . . to express gratitude is gracious and honorable, to enact gratitude is generous and noble, but to live with gratitude ever in our hearts is to touch heaven. It is my prayer that in addition to all else for which we are grateful, we may ever reflect our gratitude for our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. His glorious gospel provides answers to life’s greatest questions: Where did we come from? Why are we here? Where do our spirits go when we die? That gospel brings to those who live in darkness the light of divine truth."

God has two dwellings; one in heaven, and the other in a meek and thankful heart.

                                                                                                                -Izaac Walton