No One Asked Me But… (November 24, 2021)

By DR. LARRY MOSES

No one asked me but… Americans celebrate Thanksgiving on the fourth Thursday in November traditionally bringing to mind the Thanksgiving celebrated by the Pilgrims at the Plymouth Colony in 1621. Their first winter was harsh. By the following fall, they had lost 46 of the original 102 who sailed on the Mayflower. However, the harvest of 1621, had been a bountiful one. And therefore, the remaining colonists decided to celebrate with a feast.

This “thanksgiving” feast was not repeated the following year. It wasn’t until June of 1676, that another day of thanksgiving was recorded. On June 20, of that year, the governing council of Charlestown, Massachusetts, held a meeting to determine how best to express thanks for the good fortune that had seen their community securely established. They instructed Edward Rawson, the clerk, to proclaim June 29, as a day of thanksgiving.

A hundred years later, in October of 1777, all 13 colonies joined in a day of thanksgiving to commemorate the victory over the British at Saratoga. When President George Washington proclaimed a National Day of Thanksgiving, in 1789, there was discord among the newly formed states, many feeling the hardships of a few pilgrims did not warrant a national holiday. Thomas Jefferson was among those who opposed the idea of having a day of thanksgiving.

It was Sarah Hale, a magazine editor, whose efforts eventually led to what we recognize as Thanksgiving Day. Hale wrote many editorials championing her cause in her Boston Ladies’ Magazine, and later, in Godey’s Lady’s Book. After a 40-year campaign of writing editorials and letters to governors and presidents, Hale’s obsession became a reality in 1863, when President Lincoln proclaimed the last Thursday in November as a national day of Thanksgiving.

Many southern states refused to celebrate what they considered a Yankee holiday. However, a day of Thanksgiving has been proclaimed by every president since Lincoln. The date was changed a couple of times, most recently by Franklin Roosevelt, who moved it back one week to the next-to-last Thursday in November in order to create a longer Christmas shopping season. Public uproar against this decision caused the president to move Thanksgiving back to its original date two years later. Not that much matters today. Christmas shows and ads have already begun. In 1941, Thanksgiving was finally sanctioned by Congress as a legal holiday, as the fourth Thursday in November.

This outlines where we get the idea for a day of thanksgiving but where did the people of Plymouth get the idea for a Thanksgiving celebration? Secular historians cite several earlier traditions leading to a day of thanksgiving. They suggest the influence of the Old English holiday of Harvest Home, in which the villagers celebrated the gathering of the last load of grain from the fields. However, the pilgrims would most likely have denied their day of Thanksgiving was based on a pagan festival.

These secular issues ignore the more important fact that the Pilgrim thanksgiving was more than a yearning for an autumn celebration. There are nearly ninety references to thanks or thanksgiving in the Old and New Testament. This thanksgiving may well have been a response of the Pilgrims to God’s instruction in 1Thessalonians 5:18: In everything give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you. More specifically, it was the outgrowth of an individual Pilgrim congregation declaring a day of thanksgiving and prayer in their recognition that such a day was called for in the Old Testament as the annual Feast of the Tabernacles. (The Feast of the Ingathering)

Historian John Brown in his turn of the century book, THE PILGRIM FATHERS OF NEW ENGLAND AND THEIR PURITAN SUCCESSORS, described the Pilgrim’s first harvest:

Though some of the smaller crops had failed, the corn had repaid them for their labor; furs were stored and prepared; timber made ready for the next ship to England. Finally, they were at peace with the Indians round about. They resolved, therefore, with the public rejoicings to keep what may be called the Feast of the Tabernacles. In this way, and at the end of the first year in the colony, commenced the New England Festival of Thanksgiving Day.

The Plymouth and Connecticut colonies which most thoughtfully applied biblical truths in shaping their civil governments, adapted the Old Testament tradition, the Feast of the Tabernacle, in shaping the first uniquely American holiday.

Three times a year – in the spring, summer, and autumn – all Hebrew men were obliged to come together in a holy convocation before the Lord – at the Feast of the Passover (which began with a fast, recalling how God had rescued them from bondage). The Feast of Pentecost (to seek God’s blessing on the harvest to come) and the Feast of the Ingathering (when the people thanked God for the harvest of mercies received). Jesus celebrate all three of these.

Feast of the Tabernacles is called for in Leviticus 23: On this feast day all that were born in Israel and all the inhabitants, including the poor and strangers were to share in the feast. Deuteronomy 16:14 states: and thou shalt rejoice in thy feast, thou, and thy son, and thy daughter, and thy manservant, and thy maidservant, and the Levite, the stranger, and the fatherless, and the widow, who are within thy gates.

The Pilgrims’ feast embraced all inhabitants, including women and children, as well as ninety Native Americans. To a remarkable degree, the Pilgrims’ first thanksgiving in 1621, parallels the Israelites’ Feast of the Ingathering, The Pilgrims were not only thanking God for their harvest but for the deliverance from the bondage of religious persecution in England.

It is all well and fitting that all of God’s people stop and take a day of thanksgiving for all that the Lord has done for them. Psalm 100 tells us to Make a joyful shout to the LORD, all you lands! 2 Serve the LORD with gladness; Come before His presence with singing. 3 Know that the LORD, He is God; It is He who has made us, and not we ourselves; We are His people and the sheep of His pasture. 4 Enter into His gates with thanksgiving, And into His courts with praise. Be thankful to Him, and bless His name. 5 For the LORD is good; His mercy is everlasting, And His truth endures to all generations.

Thought of the week… Some people are always grumbling because roses have thorns; I am thankful that thorns have roses.
– Alphose Karr