The Portland daily press., 1862-11-27
Thanksgiving Festival.

and Puritan fathers. and the decidedly blue
tinge which characterized their modes of tho't
and feeling particularly on all subjects per-
tanning to mans religious duties, 1t may seem
strange that they should have instituted Gus
tom of so festive a character as our Thanks
giving-a custom that, in its observance, like
calm river, should increase in width, depth
and volume. as it rolls down the gentle de-
scent of time.
There is tradition in relation to the origin
of this festival, which may or may not be true;
but, in the absence of any other account, an
swers very well to explain the origin of this
custom. 1t is on this wise:
As would naturally be expected, the pious
founders of the New England settlements, in
many cases driven from the fatherand to en-
Joy that freedom, religious and CIVIL which
could not be found on the other side of the
Atlantic, surrounded as they were by depriva-
tions, dangers, and absolute sufferings, with
hard, grudging soil, cold climate, short sea-
sons. boundless forests, and treacherous foe,
often brought face-to-iace with famine and
starvation, were more prone to fasting than to
thanksgiving; to thinking of their wants and
necessities, and to calling upon God to give
them their daily bread, than to thinking with
grateful hearts of received bounties, and to
thanking God for his abundant merces. Fasts
came naturally, and were frequent. In spring
time, when the seed was to be committed to
the ground in trust, and inautumn, when cold
winters shroud was about being drawn over
everything green, beautiful and promising, the
Fast was appointed, prayers were offered, and
God was importuned to continue the favors
upon which the piety of the colonists trusting
ly relied.
As the tradition goes, on one occasion, when
the Council had met to decide upon the ap-
pointment of the annual autumnal Fast, one
of the members who possessed a big heart,
and was blessed with spirit more than ordi-
narily genial for those days and that people,
arose in his place, and, pointing with fearful
eye and swelling heart to the bountiful harv-
ests just gathered in, the crowded store-houses,
and the tokens of Divine favor which present
ed themselves on every hand, in view of such
q bountiful Providence asked if mourning
and fasting, which is the outward sign of
mourning, were the appropriate returns to
Almighty God for such prodigal bestowal of
his favors; if it would not be more becoming,
in view of such mercies, to pour out the heart
in gratitude to God, and praise him for his
goodness, and for his wonderful works to the
children of men. He proposed, instead of an
annual Fast, that day Of public Thanksgiv
ing and Praise should be set apart. The prop
osition was favoraby received and adopted;
and such, says one of the traditions at least,
was the origin of our annual New England
Home Festival. Whether correct or not, the
story Is pretty one.
1t is to be remembered, whether this story
be true or otherwise, that the fathers who orig
inally instituted Thanksgiving did it as a reli-
gious offering, and that the festive features
which now cling about the day and its observ-
ance, have been the very natural accumula-
tons of later times. The fathers, when tlny
came to these wild and forbidding shores, had
seen SO much frivolity and vanity, SO much IL
cense, and unbridled dissipation, in the name
of religious festivity-mere abuses of wise in
stitutions-that they naturally went to the op-
posite extreme, and ignored everything fest
i've in connection with religion, and cultivated
a degree of austerity now almost wholly un-
known. 1t is to this, perhaps, that we are to
trace their marked disrespect of all observance
of Christmas. They had seen the Christmas
holidays abused in England, and made days of
revelry aud dissipation; and without stopping
TO separate the true from the false, they ig-
nored the whole; and so great was their de-
L IN l.
and all its associations, and to extingush all
that would revive such remembrance, we are
told that they even made statutes against
Christmas pies, and punished with fines those
who provided or INDUCED in them.
But human nature demands festivity, and
man will laugh as well as cry, rejoice as well
as mourn, dance as well as refrain from dan
cling; and the royal poet has told us that there
is time and season for all these things; and
wise Is that man who does not mistake In his
times and seasons, and appropriate TO festivity
what belongs to more sedate matters or stint
his social nature by denying it all qualification
under a mistaken apprehension that innocent
pleasures are sinful.
Probably we shall offend no one by saying
what we think is true-that, to a very large
extent, the religious character of our Annual
Thanksgiving Las declined, and it has come
TO be regarded as social home Jfestiral., when
the scattered members of families come to-
gether and, in the old home-circe, burnish
anew the golden links of love and friendship
which do SO much to bind communities togeth-
er in peace, harmony, and affection. 1t is en-
phatically family gala-day, when union flags
are expected to be hung out upon every house,
top and from every doorway, inviting to re-
union those who, down to the childrens' grand
children, have swarmed from the old parent
hive. As such day, we welcome our Annual
festival of Thanksgiving and Praise.
But, alas, the present is a peculiar year, and
to many household Thanh sgiving will not
be unattended with deep, heart-sickenng sor-
row. As the family group gathers around the
festive board, and as the patriarch of the house
hold lifts his voice in thankfulness and praise
to the Giver of every good and perfect gift,
In how nanv homes will there be a vacant
chair, the former occupant of which now slum-
bers In the sleep that knows no earthly wax
ing! How the bitter anguish occasioned by
separation, will mix with the anthem of praise,
How the tear drop will dim the eye, and hus-
kiness will choke the utteance of many a fond
parent, many loving WIFE, many an affection