I have the day off and plan to non-rev to GSP for fried turkey, then back tomorrow afternoon in order to work Friday.
I'd like to wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving, and, as a public service, I'd like to remind all those on this board who are anti-religion that this a holiday with Christian foundations in which the Pilgrims thanked God (not the Indians as some people are apparently taught nowadays) for their harvest. These people might want to work on Thursday to avoid the appearance of hypocrisy (just kidding... mostly
).
Seriously, wherever you are, I hope that you all have a safe and happy holiday.
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On the history of Thanksgiving, from
thefederalist.com .
Consider the circumstances of our country's first Thanksgiving Day celebrated after our Declaration of Independence. The first national Thanksgiving Proclamation, issued by the revolutionary Continental Congress on November 1, 1777, expressed gratitude for the colonials' October victory over British General Burgoyne at Saratoga. Authored by Samuel Adams, its one sentence of 360 words reads in part: "Forasmuch as it is the indispensable duty of all men to adore the superintending providence of Almighty God; to acknowledge with gratitude their obligation to him for benefits received...together with penitent confession of their sins, whereby they had forfeited every favor; and their humble and earnest supplications that it may please God through the merits of Jesus Christ, mercifully to forgive and blot them out of remembrance...it is therefore recommended...to set apart Thursday the eighteenth day of December next, for solemn thanksgiving and praise, that with one heart and one voice the good people may express the grateful feeling of their hearts and consecrate themselves to the service of their Divine Benefactor...acknowledging with gratitude their obligations to Him for benefits received....To prosper the means of religion, for the promotion and enlargement of that kingdom which consisteth 'in righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Ghost'."
On Wednesday, December 17th, General George Washington issued general orders including the following: "Tomorrow being the day set apart by the Honorable Congress for public Thanksgiving and Praise; and duty calling us devoutly to express our grateful acknowledgements to God for the manifold blessings he has granted us, the General directs that the army remain in its present quarters, and that the Chaplains perform divine service with their several Corps and Brigades. And earnestly exhorts, all officers and soldiers, whose absence is not indispensably necessary, to attend with reverence the solemnities of the day."