Proclaiming a Day of National Thanksgiving
On Thursday we will observe the national Thanksgiving holiday. Why? What does it mean? Traditional practices are associated with the Pilgrim feast of 1621 which took place long before the birth of the nation. While the Pilgrims provide the trappings for Thanksgiving, most of us don't have a very direct connection to Plymouth plantation. Congress proclaimed a day of national Thanksgiving in 1777 and repeated that act on several occasions through 1784. You can find the Continental Congress' several Thanksgiving proclamations here . The United States, in its current form did not come into existence, however, until the Constitution went into effect on March 4, 1789. President Washington issued a proclamation in October of that year calling for a national observance of Thanksgiving on the last Thursday of November. Washington did not issue another Thanksgiving proclamation until 1795, and the nation only sporadically observed days of Thanksgiving until 1863. President Lin...