Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1900-11-24
THANKSGIvINGs LONG AGO.
How. the Old Harvest Home Festival
was Transformed.

"oS AiouSAOTIIlcu.
1t has grown upon them so gradual
~ ana, withal, so pleasantly, and with
such seductive Accomplishments, that
the citi.ehs of the United States have
come into way of thinking that
Thanksgiving day is an anniversary
peculiarly their own, and as a result
have made its observance national.
II is now one of our four great holi-
days-impati ently waited for from the
days when the nuts grow brown and
the leaves rusty, and welcomed. when
it has arrived, with heartiness that
is astonishing. when one considers the
diversities of nationalities and re-
liSicus beliefs of the people. There is
nc doubt that we are nationa LIKING a
little OF what has been a wOrshipful
feature of human life since man held
10 the idea of the existence of SUI
l'reme being-yes. ever since the pa
Sans thanked their gods with prayers
and festivals. But while we may APP
point a day we really have no first
lien on religious duty taught by the
prophets of the Old and the apostles
of the New Testaments.
What Americans are doing is the
maintaining of national annual fes-
tival for either feasting or fasting, ac-
cordinG to economic conditions. but
we have been long time about it.
proceeding spasmodically. often forced
to general prayer by disasters: often
but perhaps not frequently enough
speaking thanks for periods of in
divdual or general prosperity. OF
both. II was in the fall of 1921. ten
months after they landed. that the
Pilgrims had in this country the first
, OF their Thanksgiving days. initiating
the harvest home festivals of theiI
| motherand. They thought they had
something for which to be thankful
though it was crust and cheese COM
pared with what is considered pros
pcrity. Nature had been surprising
ly good to them. The earth had sur
| rendered a bountiful harvest. the
stubborn seeds of puritanism showed
firm root in the new continent. Per-
haps they felt like men released from
an unjust prison-a little topheavy
with joy.
After this such days of public OBJ
scryancc for miscellaneous objects be-
came quite frequent in the colonies \
second occasion for such rejoicing
came in 1928. when the fast day ap-
pointed because of . protractct
drought was followed by rcviving
rains that raised at the same time the
spirits and the crops Of the Respondent
coloniSts. The bay colony held a jubi-
lee thanksgiving in Boston in 1880. and
again in 1881.
The Newbcrry Library has. Or did
have 4 short time ago, q copy Of tho
first Thanksgiving proclamation put
forth in this country. Ii was issued
at a meeting. June 20. 1876. of the coun-
ell of the Massachusetts Bay Colony.
This colony had arrived at the con-
cluSion that n day Of Thanksgiving
and praise would bc the proper way in
which to express the colonist's graft
tudc to the Lord for His goodness.
and named June %. 1876. as the Gate.
Ia the same year in which this call
was issued Connecticut had a Thanks
Swing day. Aug. 50.
BIT what vas at first a festival. Il
day OF rejoicing named by public
official, an outlet for the pcnt-up
iollity Gf there could be truthfully
said TO be any humor in the makeup
Of these grimly devout people, soon
became of Z religious character. The
occasion was made weighty with long
sermons in inhospitable meeting
houses" It was Il devotion severely
penitcntial: rs a matter OF mental en-
crcise and bodily subjugation it must
have seriously interfered with their,
appetites, held stoically in reserve
like the benediction that follows after
prayer
lille the colonists' fast and fcsti-
s-commemoratinG the ups and
dOWEs Of their chccTlcss struggle with
nature. the Indians and the obduracy
of their own souls--lverc going on in
The dun. reprcSsive way Of the people.
the mother country. which had con-
strIctcd their religious liberty TO the
point OF exile. had three memorable
occasions for fasting and Thanksgiving
-epiSodcs III existence which the Puri-
tanS happily escaped. though the oc-
cHrrcnces We're of their own time. and
had to do with their own people in
England. and doubtless affected the
destiny Of the Anglo Saxon race. One
W ti'tHc venus was the great plague
~ London. which came into horrible
activity i'll May. 1865. during the reign
OF the merry monarch" Charles II.
1t was after the pestilence had
passed away and after the great fire. a
year later. had consumed great deal
of what had been left. that the house
of lords heard or pretended to lister
TO a sermon by one of the great church
diGnitaries of the time. The title page
OF his discourse, which the lords
deemed good enough to order into
print, is bulletin Of the impotence
of the laity and the confidence of the
clergy as to reaching the Almighty.
The lord bishop was frank at the
outset. with the declaration THAT our
plaSue-sick land may he healed: that
the destroying angel after his slaugh-
ter of many thousands and ten thou
sands may be hidden to return his
commission as sufficiently executed
This is the aim and business of our
solemn convention and posture of
humiliation this day" Then he quotes
and argues in the learned and dog
matte way OF the churchnen of that
lcricd: that it is the wickedncss of the
wicked the unbelicver and the dis
scnter being not the least of them
that brought on the misery of the