Wednesday, November 21, 2007

Time for a little History!

Thanksgiving is tomorrow! I love Thanksgiving! You get to sit around and eat hearty-fatty food until you're about to burst, and then it's time for pie. I am thankful for mashed potatoes.

The first Thanksgiving that we all celebrate was held in 1621 by the Mayflower pilgrims in Massachusetts. Really, there was another Thanksgiving held 2 years earlier in 1619 in Viriginia-- just ask the folks at Historic Williamsburg, they'll tell you. So we've got 2 Thanksgivings to be thankful for. Right after independence from Britain was when the concept of a day set aside for thanks really took off. Something like 6 different presidents made proclamations about Thanksgiving: what it meant, when it should be held, etc, and it was Franklin D. Roosevelt who finally set the date as the 4th Thursday of Novemeber in 1939. Here are some words that our first president, George Washington, had to say about Thanksgiving:

"Now therefore I do recommend and assign Thursday the 26th day of November next to be devoted by the People of these States to the service of that great and glorious Being, who is the beneficent Author of all the good that was, that is, or that will be—That we may then all unite in rendering unto him our sincere and humble thanks—for his kind care and protection of the People of this Country..."

I'm thankful for you! Happy Thanksgiving!

1 comment:

Unknown said...

Alison dear! This is your old elementary school buddy Quyen =D I got the blog link from your facebook. Thanks for the little history lesson. Just wanted to say hi on your blog!!!