East Saginaw courier. (East Saginaw, Mich.) 1859-18??, 1865-11-29
{ he g 0 urier.
THANKSGIVING.


programme or those who now direct
tho affairs of both State and Nation,
the customary observance a ''dHy of
public Thanksgiving" so long and SO
properly, asswe regard it, II State in
stitution, governed as to time by the
diversity o., harvest time, locality and
season, las been made purely ma
tional affair, and the 9TH of December
''set apart" 10y Executive authority
inpcriah and colonial we might say
without any great improperly, as they
do over the lake-for that observance.
Secretary SEWARD in his late Auburn
speech, abiding to the distinct and
imperishalle characteristics of the
States, in language us truthful as APP
propriate, remarked:
g In practical sense at least, the
States We're before the American Uuion
was. Even whilo they were colonies
of the british crown, they still were
embryo States, several, free, self-exist-
ing and indestructible. Our Federal
Republic exists, and hencefoIth for
ever must exist, through, not the Gre
alton, but the combination of these
several lroe self-existing, stubborn
States. These States are not stakes
driven into the ground by an imperial
hand, nor are they posts hauled to-
gethor, squared and hewed, and so
erected loosely upon it; but they are
living, growing, majestic trees, whose
roots are widely spread and interlaced
within the soil, and whose shade covers
tho earth"
The obscrvances peculiar to these
several states;, whethor of religious
or secular character, were essentially
of State or Colonial origin, the New
England Thanksgiving had its coun-
terpars Invested perhaps of some of
it's sanctimonious characteristics, in
the harvest jubilees of other localities
and the people of each State, for rea-
sons therein apparent, Toasted, TASTED
or gavo thanks in their own good time,
and if governmental direction were
deemed necessary, in such manner as
to their State executive seemed most
appropriate. If these states are not
stakes driven into the ground by an
imperial hand, nor posts hauled to-
"gether, squared and hewed," as in
deed they arc not, what propriety can
there be in scoring them so arbitrarily
into line by Executive proclamation
ia matters wherein there is naturally
so great diversity.
Leaving the question as to the pro-
priety of modern innovations; without
amy pretensions to sanctmony, we may
he permitted to reassert the declaration
of the psalmist-" 1t is a good thing
to give thanks unto the Lord" Tho
occasion has however, thrown us back
uIUn sevuraI singular and historical
"reminiscences, and suggested train
of reflections which may benefit our
readers as well as ourself.
1t is easy to trace a sort Of identity
between the festivals Of the ancients
and moderns, but it is only sort Of
identity which consists more in the
name Of festival, than in the manner
Of keeping it; for the contrast is too
great between the ignorant barbarism
OF ancient communities and the pres
ent improving enlightment of modern
nations, to admit of any other. The
Jews had their thirty-fve holidays
yearly, besides their weekly sabbaths.
One occasion of high festivity amongst
them, was the feast Of Purim, when
they heaped every ridiculous indignity
upon an effigy of Hannah, who had
determined the massacre of their race.
This lasted eight days, which added to
the former number and sabbaths,
makes over one-fourth part of the
year devoted to religion and amuse-
ment AT the Feast of Tabernaclos,
they INDUCED in every species Of recre-
alton and enjoyment. Specially order
ed to "serve the Lord with gladness,
and come into his presence with a
song" they solemnized the intermedi-
ate days of the high festivals, by offer
ings, feasts and dances, singing hymns
to the bounty of the Deity. The
Greeks had over eighty days in the
year regularly devoted to public spec
tacles, some Of which were celebrated
with such magni6ccnce, that three
hundred oxen were led to the affairs
at once, amid every circumstance OF
sacrificial pomp. The earliest festivals
of the Greeks, as in fact of all nations,
were kept after the fruits of the earth
had been gathered in, when gratitude
prompted them to offer up sacrifices to
Heaven, and social festivities were the
natural consequences of plenty. Sc
with the Romans, the Persians, the
Babylonians, the Druids, &C., &c, and
when Christianity made its advent