[Rhodes22-list] The Real Meaning of Thanksgiving

[Robert Dobson]

Rummy,

  Outstanding, What a great country in spite of all we
hear. Freedom to speak and exchange ideas is very
unique in this world. We do not have to travel far to
realize how God has blessed this country and us. Happy
Thanksgiving to to you  and  the rest on the list.

Bob
--- R22RumRunner at aol.com wrote:

>   
>  
>                  
>  
> Happy Thanksgiving!!! 
> A special greeting at Thanksgiving time to express 
> our best wishes for a 
> happy and healthy Thanksgiving Day  and a joyous
> holiday season.   
> The Real Meaning of  Thanksgiving  
> As we all enjoy turkey and the trimmings this 
> Thanksgiving, you may be 
> interested to know that  the first Thanksgiving
> celebration in America was  a 
> completely religious observance that didn't  include
> a feast. 
> 
> It occurred in 1619 --  more than a year before the
> Pilgrims arrived from  
> Massachusetts. A group of 38 English settlers 
> arrived in Virginia and set aside 
> a day to give  thanks to God for their safe passage.
> The  three-day festival 
> of food and friendship that was  the origin of
> Thanksgiving as we know it 
> today  didn't occur until 1621.
> 
> Not Just a  Private Celebration, a Public Thanks to
> God  
> Ever since, Thanksgiving has been a time for 
> Americans not just to celebrate 
> privately in our  homes but to give public thanks to
> God -- and not  just for 
> our material blessings but for our  freedom. Our
> earliest Thanksgivings were 
> in times  when that freedom was at its most
> vulnerable.  
> 
> In 1789, George Washington issued a  proclamation
> calling for a day of 
> "public  thanksgiving and prayer" -- a day for
> Americans to  acknowledge "the many 
> signal favors of Almighty  God, especially by
> affording them an opportunity  
> peaceably to establish a form of government for 
> their safety and happiness."
> 
> But Washington  didn't just say that individual
> Americans should  thank God. 
> He proclaimed that nations --  especially the
> one-year-old United States of  
> America -- have obligations to God as well. He 
> wrote, "It is the duty of all 
> Nations to  acknowledge the providence of Almighty
> God, to  obey His will, to 
> be grateful for His benefits,  and humbly to implore
> His protection and  favor."
> 
> Lincoln Makes It a Yearly  Celebration
> 
> But it wasn't until more  than 70 years later -- at
> a time when America  
> faced its greatest crisis -- that Thanksgiving 
> became a yearly celebration.
> 
> The Civil War  was raging. Three months earlier, the
> Battle of  Gettysburg 
> had left 50,000 Americans killed,  wounded or
> missing. Riots were tearing apart  
> American cities.
> 
> In the midst of this  chaos, President Abraham
> Lincoln proclaimed in  October 
> 1863 that the last Thursday of November  should
> henceforth be set aside as a 
> day of  thanksgiving.
> 
> Lincoln acknowledged that the  nation was "in the
> midst of a civil war of  
> unequaled magnitude and severity." But he focused 
> instead on the nation's 
> blessings, urging his  fellow Americans to remember
> that "No human  counsel hath 
> devised, nor hath any mortal hand  worked out these
> great things. They are the  
> gracious gifts of the most high God, who, while 
> dealing with us in anger for 
> our sins, hath  nevertheless remembered mercy."
> 
> And  Lincoln, too, proclaimed that all Americans set
>  aside the day for a 
> public expression of gratitude  to God. He wrote,
> "It has seemed to me fit  and 
> proper that they [gifts of God] should be  solemnly,
> reverently, and gratefully 
> acknowledged  as with one heart and one voice by the
> whole  American people." 
> 
> 
> 
> May the good things of life be yours in abundance,
> at  Thanksgiving and 
> throughout the coming year.  
> Rummy
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