It’s the season of Thanksgiving! The time of the year when families and friends gather to indulge in all sorts of food…. yes the ole’ favorite Turkey, ham, yams, green bean casserole, stuffing, cranberry sauce and sweet tea! Let’s not forget the sweet potato or pecan pie! There are so many foods that families like that there is no way we could name them all. Then of course we gather to fellowship afterwards in recliners, on the couch watching football games, parades and even those Hallmark movies that all the men hate! Yes, this holiday has so many different facets and activities that involve the family unit!
The fact is there is so much that goes on during Thanksgiving that requires one’s attention that without fail the true intention of this longstanding holiday is lost……lost is the true inspiration!
In 1789, George Washington declared Thursday, Nov. 26, a Thanksgiving holiday, but only for that year, and it wasn’t connected to the Pilgrim feast but rather intended as a “public thanksgiving and prayer” devoted 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.”
Enter a 19th century author, poet and magazine editor named Sarah Josepha Hale. She was editor of the influential Godey’s Lady’s Book for 40 years, from 1837 to 1877, when she was nearly 90 years old. She and her husband David Hale had five children, and when he died in 1822, she wore black for the rest of her life. Hale was an education advocate and, through the magazine she edited, became a famous figure in the country who set fashion, reading and cooking trends. Washington Irving Jr., Nathaniel Hawthorne and Oliver Wendell Holmes were among the authors who published work in her magazine. She was also a prolific author, writing dozens of novels and books of poetry, and penned (or co-penned, according to one account) the famous “Mary Had a Little Lamb,” which was published in 1830.
Hale, who was highly patriotic, read about the 1621 feast of the Pilgrims and became captivated with the idea of turning it into a national holiday. She published in the Godey’s Lady’s Book recipes for turkey and stuffing and pumpkin pie and started traditions that had nothing to do with the colonists. She began a lobbying campaign to persuade President Abraham Lincoln to make Thanksgiving an official annual holiday, using her magazine to build public support by writing an editorial every year starting in 1846. She also sent letters to all governors in the United States and territories. In 1863, Lincoln did set Thanksgiving as an official holiday to be celebrated on the fourth Thursday of November every year.
In 1939, President Franklin D. Roosevelt agreed to move the annual Thanksgiving holiday to the third Thursday of November. Why? To help the economy by making the Christmas shopping season a little bit longer. There was so much opposition to the move that two years later he changed it to the fourth Thursday in November.
Then there’s the myth of how the presidential pardon of a turkey started with Abraham Lincoln when his son begged his dad to save the animal. Actually, it didn’t. The tradition goes all the way back in history to … 1989, when President George H.W. Bush officially pardoned the first one. According to a perhaps apocryphal story, in 1863, Lincoln’s 10-year-old son, Tad, supposedly became fond of a turkey given to the family for a holiday feast. Tad named the turkey Jack and begged his father to save the animal. Lincoln did.
All of the history behind the holiday fails to truly capture the true intent of the holiday.
In the truest sense of the word it is meant as a time to be thankful for those things we are blessed with as an individual, family, nation and world! It’s a time to count our blessings from our father above whom promised to meet our every need when we put our faith and trust in him!
As the Thanksgiving holiday approaches remember these things and dwell upon how truly blessed, we are! Kindred Spirit has been blessed in so many ways and we are truly thankful for Gods continued hand upon our mission!
To each and every person who reads this, we pray God’s blessing be upon you and your families during this holiday season! In Christ, David, Mike, Walt and Chris…KSM