The Kinsley graphic. [volume] (Kinsley, Kan.) 1890-1940, 1903-11-27
The Origin and Growth of the Amer.
lean Thanksgiving Day.

i lean Thanksgiving Day.
/ The annual observation of Thanks
giving day is distinctly an American
custom. The idea of having day
set apart for prayer and thanksgiv-
ing was not original with our fore
fathers, and it has been common
among all Christian people, but not
since the days of the Feast of Ingath-
ering and Tabernacles by the Jews has
any other nation held an annual
thanksg living celebration. The He
brews kept their day under the divine
directions foreordained by jehovah.
so the American people cannot claim
that the custom was entirely original
among the early settlers of New Eng
land.
| The Greeks held a similar festival
called Tie Feast of Demeter. Or the
Eleusinian Mysteries. Demeter was
the goddess of the cornfield and the
feast, which lasted nine days, consist
ed principally of Offering up sacrifices
of agricultural products with wine,
milk and honey.
| From the time of Romulus the Ro-
mans observed harvest festival
called Cerealia. They also offered
sacrifices in the temples, consisting
of the products of the soil.
When the early English Harvest
| Festival was observed in the time of
| Egbert and Alfred, the Saxons made
merry with boisterous proceedings,
which were still characteristic of the
| Kentish farmer and the Northumber-
land shepherd even down to the time
of Queen Elizabeth. 1t was held at
the time of the ingathering, when the
jewellers danced on the village green
and drank their home brewed ale by
the light of their blazing bonfires.
When the Spanish Armada had
been defeated national thanksgiving
was observed in England. Oliver
| Cromwell also issued thanksgiving
prOclamations. In 1872 when the
Prince of Wales recovered from a
| serious illness, a day of thanksgiving
| was observed.
On similar occasions in Germany,
| France, Sweden and other European
nations a day of thanksgiving was
held with proper ceremonies.
The earliest record we have of such
an observance in the United States
was on the coast of Maine in August,
| 1907, when the Rev. Seymour,
minister of the church of England,
delivered sermon to his people,
| "Gyving God thanks for our happy
meetynge and safe aryvall into the
countrie," as the quaint record ex-
presses it. The Pilgrim fathers land
ed thirteen years later in Massachu-
sets, at Plymouth, name which
John Smith had given it five years
before. A long, dreary winter fol-
lowed and forty-six of their number
died. On November 9, 1921, tie ship
! Fortune arrived, bringing thirty five
persons. The twenty acres of corn
and six acres of peas and barley had
been gathered and there was an album
dance of wild meat in and around the
settlement. Governor Bradford is
sued his proclamation that day of
thanksgiving be held ON December Is,
1921.
The next thanksgiving celebration
was held two years later. in July, on
the arrival of a ship with provisions
for the starving settlers.
In 1892 another day of thanksgiving
was held on account of the favorable
action which the British council had
taken toward the colonies. During
the revolution Washington issued a
Thanksgiving proclamation in 1873.
Only within the last thirty years
has the day become a fixed annual
observance, under the administration
OF President Lincoln, and only within
the last twenty-five years has it been
! given the fixed time of the last Thurs