The Prince George's enquirer and southern Maryland advertiser. (Upper Marlborough, Md.) 1882-1925, 1916-11-24
DATES FROM 1865
National Thanksgiving Day Is
Comparatively New in Coun-
try's History.

Ut is just 81 years since the last
Thursday in November was adopt
ed by the president of the United
i States as the day set apart from
| all others of the year to be observed
| by the people of the nation as Thanks
giving day. 1t was the first Thanks
giving celebrated after the close OF the
| Civil war, and the proclamation by
President johnson q few weeks prior,
| appointing such q date, was issued be-
cause it was a generally understood
| fact that Lincoln had planned, during
| the dark days at the end of the strug-
| gle, to have some one day in November
reserved yearly by all states in the
| Union.
Throughout the war the celebration
| had occurred only here and there in
scattered communities. And always be-
fore, in the various states which did
| celebrate the day, it was purely sec
| tional affair, for which the governor is
sued a proclamation upon his own in
itiative. November, 1865, witnessed the
beginning of the holiday as a national
1
nors of all states and territories, upon
receiving the presidents proclamation,
publish their own, naming the day in
formal fashion. 1t is an American fes-
| tival day, unique in more than one re
| spect, but most perhaps because 1t is
| the only religious festival celebrated
| in this country upon the recommends
tion of the government.
| Idea Borrowed From the Dutch.
| 1t had a tangled beginning. A score
| of origins are claimed. And one is
rather at sea in selecting his particu-
lar belief. In the congressional IL
brary it was a happy chance which
discovered these various sources and
their grave and gay histories outlined
in q chain Of sketches.
| In the middle states the day is OBJ
served more as a religious matter than
as q holiday. but in New England it Is
| festival, domestic feast day and the
chief of all holidays. Americans like
| to believe that Thanksgiving day Is
| purely and simply American, and it is,
| but as instituted in New England the
| idea was borrowed from the Dutch
| among whom the Pilgrims had dwelt
for ten years after leaving British soil
and before emigrating to America. The
| HollanderS had been accustomed to
celebrating October 8 both religiously
and socially, in honor of their deliver
ance from the Spaniards, and when the
first harvest in the new home OF the
English emigrants had yielded well it
seemed the natural thing to rejoice in
a period of public thanksgiving.
| Some deserted Indian huts stored
with corn had furnished the nucleus of
that harvest, and an Indian chief who
had once been in England and conse-
uuently trusted Englishmen gave the
Pilgrims instruction as to the planting
of the grain and the procuring of game
as well. Upon this first harvest rested
| the wellbeing of the little colony, SO
| many of whose members had perished
in that first fierce winter which follow
ed the landing of the Mayflower in De
| cember. 1920 The hardest, who sur
| vived were humbly grateful for the
rich harvest in October, which followed
the neighborly natives suggestions
and Governor Bradford ordered a
| three-day feast and celebration as rec
| ognition of such plenitude. The In
dians who had first extended the hand