The National tribune., 1907-11-21
THANKSGIVING DAY.

ed itself to our people and extended il
observance all over the country, tn
President has designated next Thurs
day. Nov. %. as day of Thanksgiving
for all the blessings that we enjoy.
We owe this gracious custom to tn
Puritans. The old Puritans were s.
disguised with the excesses and de
baucheries which accompanied the cele
bration of Christmas in ''Merrie Ok
! England" that they set their hard, reso
lutte faces sternly against the festival
They denounced it as "a pagan surviv
al" and a perpetuation of heathenisn
customs. which had existed before the
coming of Christianity
The historical reasons were all or
their side. AS far as could be CLEANED
from the sacred record Christmas was
nowhere near the date of the Nativity
of Christ. Dec. 25 came in the hight
of the rainy season in Judea, and shep-
their fiocks at night under starry skies
The early Christians celebrated the Ma
tivity at various dates in May and April,
some of them as early as January. On
the other hand, the Kelts and Ger
mans had been for centuries celebrat-
ing the Winter solstice as the most i'm
portant period of the year, as the death
of the old year and the beginning of
the new, when the forces of nature re-
sumed their activities. The Kelts and
Germans called it their great Yuletide,
and believed that in the - days from
Dec. % to Jan. they could trace the
personal movements and interferences
of the great gods with the earth. These
ideas passed largely into the observance
of Christmas. when it was finally adopt
ed by the Roman Catholic Church as
the period of the Nativity.
In the British Isles the 12 nights be-
came a season of the widest license
and excess, and met the sternest con-
demnation from the reformers, particu-
larly the Scotch Presbyterians and Eng
lish Non-Conformists.
Those who immigrated to New Eng
land would have nothing of Christmas.
But the necessity Of some form of cele7
bration and thanks to the Almighty at
the close of the year became evident to
their serious minds, and after the first
harvest of the coloniSts in New Eng
land in 1921 day of thanksgiving and
PRAYER was proclaimed by GOV. Brad
ford. In 1923 a day of fasting and
prayer in the midst of a drouth was
changed to thanksgiving by the coming
of rain during the prayers.
Thereafter there We're regular thanks
giving days appointed after every har-
vest, and sufficiently remote from
Christmas not to have any connection
with what had been denounced as u
human invention" pagan survival
and a "Papist institution
The rest of the New England Colo
MES followed the example of Massachu-
sets with annual Thanksgiving days
by the Governors, and dur
in the Revolution a day of National
was annually recommend |
ed by Congress.
In 1864, after our decisive victories at
and Vicksburg, President
Lincoln proclaimed a day of National
This was largely due to
the influence of the New England Pres
byterians and to that of Mrs. Sarah |
Josepha Hale. editor of Godey's Ladies
Book That year the thrilling victories
of Lookout Mountain and Mission Ridge |
came to add the keenest Zest to our first
National Thanksgiving. and fixed the ,
custom permanently upon the country.
It has now taken rank with Washing
tons Birthday and the Fourth of July
as National function, and comes as
near as either of the others to being a
National holiday.
As has been repeatedly explained in
these columns there is no such thing
rs n National holiday. nor can there be
one. Holidays are a matter exclusively
pertaining to the States. The President
merely recommends that such a day be
set apart, and the Governors of the sew
eral States accept his recommendation
and issue proclamations in accordance
herewith
For a long time the Governors of the
Southern States held off from recogniZ-
ing the festival. but now nearly all of
them accept it. and issue proclamations
the same as the Governors of the other
States.
No Nation on earth has as much
reason to be devoutly grateful on the
Thanksgiving Day than
ours. We have prosperity far ex-
ceeding that of any other country in
the world, and it is only disturbed, not
by the furry among the
reckless gamblers and spectators in
New .ork. We have had harvests of
great bountifulness and want is un
known from one end of the land to the
other. We have had neither wars nor
rumors of wars to disturb our peace.
Never in the history of the country has
lur foreign horizon appeared more
clear, pestilence has stayed it's hand,
and in the S7,000,000 of people in our
stretching over the greater
part of a hemisphere, there has been
singular freedom from all manner of
wasting disease. There is work and
wages for every man under the shadow
Of the Flag, and wherever our banner
floats men are better, happier, freer
and more contented than any other peo-
pie on whom the sun shines in his jour-
ney around the globe.
Let US all, therefore, unite in our
several places of worship next Thurs
day with feelings of exuberant graft