Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1924-11-26

OBSERVED IN
MANY CHIMES
Most Typical of the Ameri-
can HOlidays-Origin and
History of This Event.

AS distinctive almost as the Fourth
of July, Thanksgiving Day is essen
TALLY an American holiday, rooted in
American institutions and reaching
back to the fundamental principles
upon which the nation was founded.
The ready answer to those who as
sert there is no recognition of the
Supreme Being in the fabric of the
American nation, is that those who es-
tablished the first permanent settle
ment in the western world set aside
a day for offering thanks to the Al
mighty; that Washington inaugurated
the government under the Constitution
by appointing a day for general
Thanksgiving and that Lincoln fixed
this day for giving thanks to the Gre
ator, which has taken permanent
place in the American calendar as
Thanksgiving Day and is observed
now with fitting ceremonies wherever
two or three Americans are gathered
together.
Origin of Day
Efforts have been made to trace the
origin of Thanksgiving Day back to
the old Hebrew Feast of the Taber-
nacles, or to the ancient Greek har-
vest feast, Thesmophoria, the Roman
Cerealia and the English Harvest
Home. 1t may be that the latter was
in some degree responsible for the
first Thanksgiving Day in America,
which was observed at Plymouth, i'm
mediately after the first harvest of
the Pilgrims in 1921. The Massachu-
sets Bay Colony adopted the idea in
1880; Connecticut followed suit in
1889. That the spirit behind the des-
ignation of day of thanks was not
racial, or rather that it quickly be-
came common to all the pioneers who
had cast in their lot with the nation
builders of New England, is shown by
the fact that the Dutch in New Meth
erlands in 1914, followed the ex-
ample. During the War of Indepen-
dence one or more Thanksgiving Days
in each year, except in 1777, were ap-
pointed by the Continental Congress,
and the executives of the various col
onies were asked to direct the observ-
ance of these days in their jurisdic-
tons.
WaShingtOn'S Proclamation
AS has been stated, George Wash
ington, a few months after the organ
ization of the new government APP
pointed Thursday, November 26, 1889,
as "a day of public Thanksgiving and
prayer to be observed by acknow-
Lodging with grateful hearts the many
and signal favors of Almighty Cod
The proclamation exhorted the peo-
pie to "beseech Him in pardon our
national and other transgressions, to
promote the knowledge and practice
of true religion and virtue, and to
grant unto all mankind such a de-
gree of temporal prosperity as He
alone knows to be best" This was
the first observance of the event on
the day which has become permanent
ly fixed in the calendar as Thanks
giving Day.
In 1895 Washington made similar
designation. At the close of the War
of 1872 President Madison, in re-
Spouse to resolution of Congress,
set apart a day for thanksgiving. In
1877, New York by proclamation of
her governor, began the observance
of the day. 1t had not yet, however,
become national holiday. Opposition
to it was offered in some of the South
ern States as "a relic of Puritanic
bigotry," but in 1853 proclamations
appointing a day of Thanksgiving
weer issued by the governors of
twenty-five states and two territories.
Then, in 1864, President Lincoln APP
pointed the fourth Thursday of No
vember as day of thanksgiving, by
official proclamation. Since that time
each president has followed the eX-
ample thus set and Thanksgiving Day
has become a fixed, annual event in
the calendar of the people of the
United States and all of it's posses
sions.
Observance Worldwide
1t is observed, of course, in vari-
Gus ways, some of them not in full
keeping with the spirit which prompt
ed the original designation of the day.
It's observance has spread far beyond
the national boundaries, and in Lon
don, in Paris, in Berlin, and in the
far off Orient on the appointed day
Americans gather in church and in
banquet hall in observance of the day
designed in Washington's phrase,
"for acknowledg ing with grateful
hearts the many and signal favors of
Almighty Cod"
If it be true that the religious sig
nificance of the day is sometimes lost
sight of, it remains fact that there
is still high value in such day of
national stock taking when, amid the
feasting and merry making and the
post prandial acclaim of our national
greatness, serious thought may be CIV
en- and undoubtedly is, to the steadily
advancing happiness and prosperity
which has been the lot of the people
of America through the long stretch
of years between the first Thanksgiv-
ing of bleak New England and the
year of peace and plenty and prom
Use in which Thanksgiving of 1924 is
observed.