The citizen. (Frederick City, Md.) 1895-1923, 1912-11-22

Gus celebration of the gathering OF the
years harvest. day or week Of feast,
ing. song, dance and reVel. is found
n ali ages ana among ali peoples.
Thanksgiving days are also common
10 all religions, past aud present, but
{hey were not regular or periodical
eyents-ocourring generally after
some victory OF war The Puritans
and the Pilgrims brought with them
from England both the Harvest festi-
val and the Thanksgiving days, the
latter being observed whenever the
deeply religious mind OF the Puritan
saw in their prosperity or good for
tune the direct intervention Of Provi-
dcDce. The Puritan also stripped the
ancient Harvest festival Of much of its
rude license that had grown up around
she celebration in England, and grad
ually through the two centuries fol
lowing the settlement OF New England,
there grew up the practice OF combin-
ING the two events and making the
Thanksgiving annual The religious
clement has been greatly subordinated
IS The years passed until at the pres
IT "'. il is to a majority Of Ameri-
cans only an incident that by many is
ag; erved only in the breach
TO the stern old Puritan Of almost
tLree centuries ago. the Thanksgiving
a.y OF 1912 would seem little less than
saCrilege so far as the thanksgiving
feature Of It IS concerned But he
would understand and appreciate the
days feasting and revel as q part of
me celebration OF the Harvest festl-
"a. The difference is apparent in the
records Of the early settlement OF
America. The first thanksgiving sery-
zee held in North America was OBJ
served with religious ceremonies CON
Alcted by an English minister ia the
year 1913 OF the shores OF Newfound-
land This clergyman, accompanied
thr expedition under F'ro6isher who
settled the first English colony in
america. The records Of this slgnif,
cant day have been preserved in the
QLalnt rules and regulations Of tha *.
petition as follows.
Il E-imp-: To Danish swearing.
dice and card playias aud filthy com.
m1nicatior and TO serve God twice a
day with the ordinary service Of the
Church Of England. On Monday morn
5ag. Nay -. 1913, aboard the Ayde,
we received all. the communication by
taa minister OF Gravesend. prepared
g. good Christians toward God. and
resolu;e men for all fortunes.
and Master Wolfall made unto US a
goodbye sermon. eXhorting all espe-
eially TO be thankful to Cod for His
strange and marvellous deljverance in
those dangerous places
The second record of a THANKSGIVING
service in America is that of the Pop
ham colony which settled at Sagada-
hoe on the Maine coast in 1907. It
consisted of prayer and sermon as in
the first instance. These were thanks
giving days pure and simple, and after
the settlement OF Plymouth many 9TH
ers Of similarly solemn religious ma
ture occurred.
the first Harvest festival held in
America was upon December Is, 1921.
1t has been called, wrongly, the first
,Gutumnal thanksgiving held in Amer
1ca. but it was in reality the observ-
ance Of the Harvest festival. with
which the settlers had been acquaint.
ed in England. 1t was not q day set
apart for religious worship and it is
not likely that any religious service
was held; on the contrary. it was the
beginning of whole week of festiv-
ity in celebration Of the successful
garnering OF their fret harvest in