The evening times., 1899-11-30
THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 80. 1899.
Thanksgiving Day.

THANKSGIVING Day.
There was a time when the last Thurs
day in November was a holiday only in
New England. 1t was celebrated by
churchgoing in the morning and a sump-
tuous dinner in the early afternoon, with
perhaps frolic of some sort in the even
ing. Nowadays it is national holiday, and
in some large cities more people are TO be
found at the football game than at church.
II has come to be the family festival pure
and simple, a day sacred to the renewal of
family ties: and il is observed practically
all over the country. Fast Day has
waned; Christmas has outlived the preju-
dice against it held by those same Old Pill
grims who instituted the November feast;
Muster Day is a thing of the past, but
Thanksgiving Day is an institution not
likely 10 be soon overthrown, in all the
changes of a mutable nation.
The reason of this is that it appeals 10 d
sentiment which is more strongly implant-
ed than any other in the American nature
The love of home-and it has come to be
the festival of home, as no other in the
calendar is. II is the one day in the year
on which man wants TO stay by his Own
hreside, if he has one. and eat his own
turkey and mince pie, and no attraction
in the world can lure him thence. It is
the day on which reunions take place and
quarrels are patched up. and good cheer
shines from every home worthy the name.
% IL is 10 the American very much what
Christmas is 10 the Englishman, with this
exception, that it has lost most OF its for
mer religious significance. and has become.
so far rs the feelings Of the masses OF the
people are concerned, the great human fes-
,ival the public recognition of all deep and
true emotion. We are not an emotional
people and into cur Thanksgiving Day We
put all the sentiment which in Catholic
countries is distributed among various
rame days and saints days.
There is a reason for the Americans IL
,ersc love OF home, as there is for most
rhnes. if ore looks desp enough. In
new country, where houses have been for
-, least cne generation few and far be-
tween. the individual and his family be
come more important, and society and the
community less so. 1t would be impOs
sibls for IN American village to come to-
e5ther in the free and frank jollity of vii
laGe festivals in scme parts CT Europe.
The population is TOO heterogeneous for
that. and the conditions of things too new
Each home is little world in itself. not
dependent On society in general for its hap
pjIess or continuance. Again, in new
country the conditions which promote ma
ierial comfort become rather important. and
every addition OF simple luxuries is an
event. We have had all these conditions III
America, and with them a prosperity which
has made American homes at their best
perhaps the most thoroughly comfortable
in the civilized world. This has contrib
uted 10 the element of physical comfort and
gayety in the festival Of Thanksgiving Day
But it need not be assumed that the tur-
the gathering OF the family around the
hearthside, or even the football game, |
makes the holiday less religious in the true |
sense of the word. In the last seventy |
five years the people have come to under |
stand that religion is not a solemn or fear |
full thing, nor is it contrary 10 any natural |
and happy human affection. We do not |
ind the ministers of the present day preach |
ing sermons about mortifying the natural |
affections, and intimating that mothers |
would better not love their children too |
much for fear jealous God may kill the |
infants. We find them, instead, putting |
into their Thanksgiving Day sermons all |
the gladness and joyousness of natural
and human creed. The religious part of the !
day has come to be, rot so much the going
10 church as the striving to make others
happy. If every householder takes care that
his family has. so far as possible, happy
and comfortable time on this last Thursday
in November, and. in addition to this, in
vites some outsider without any family or
any turkey to share in the merrymaking,
and furthermore sees that the poor folk out
side his gates get share in the feast, so
that nobody shall go hungry on Thanks
giving Day, he will have done his share in |
Il celebration which will doubtless be as
acceptable TO his Creator as any imitation |
of Puritan customs could possibly be.