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Thanksgiving and God
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Editor, Manteca Bulletin,
Thanksgiving is a national holiday to thank God for His blessing on America.  In 1789, President George Washington issued a proclamation to celebrate Thanksgiving to God. Yet, official Thanksgiving observances usually occurred at the state level.

The idea of a national Thanksgiving Day can be attributed to Sarah Joseph Hale who promoted the idea to President Abraham Lincoln.  In 1863, President Lincoln set aside the last Thursday of November as a National Day of Thanksgiving.  President Lincoln later explained to a friend:

“When I left Springfield (to assume the presidency) I asked the people to pray for me.  I was not a Christian.  When I buried my son, the severest trial of my life, I was not a Christian.  But when I went to Gettysburg and saw the graves of thousands of our soldiers, I then and there consecrated myself to Christ.”

In 1941, Congress made Thanksgiving a national holiday.

The real meaning of thanking God for His blessing on America has been replaced by “Turkey Day” and football games. Even the original Thanksgiving has been replaced by myths.  The spiritual significance is no longer taught in our public schools.  While children are taught the original Thanksgiving occurred when the Pilgrims invited their Indian friends to dinner, history shows us there is more to the story.  The Pilgrims comforted themselves during the voyage to America through their faith in God and singing from the Book of Psalms.  

A letter written by Edward Winslow in 1621 described the first Thanksgiving as a feast between the 52 remaining colonists and the Wampanoags Indians.  Winslow described in his letter the “fowl” that they ate was not turkey but geese or duck, while five deer were contributed by the Wampanoags, and their feast lasted for three days.

Regardless of how our Thanksgiving traditions were formed, America has had an incredible harvest blessed by God.  Thanksgiving gives us the opportunity to realize the incredible abundance of blessings we have as a nation.  It is a time to celebrate our prosperity and freedom granted to America by God.
Frank Aquila
Manteca
President of the South
San Joaquin Republicans
mantecarepublicans@yahoo.com