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 Lincoln's 1863 Thanksgiving proclamation began an unbroken string of annual observances that continues to this day. Congress wrote Thanksgiving into law in 1941; the text of the law is found in 5 U.S.C. § 6103. What does the law say Thanksgiving means? The law says nothing about its meaning. The law simply lists the "Thanksgiving Day" as a "public legal holiday" and states that it will observed on the fourth Thursday in November. So if there is a public meaning for Thanksgiving Day, it is found in the presidential proclamations. You can find all the Presidential proclamations from 1789 onwards here. As you read these proclamations, however, you find that each president took a different approach to the day, although they do share some common elements.

From my point of view, the two best have been Washington's first in 1789 and Lincoln's first in 1863.

So, here are a few thoughts from Washington's 1789 proclamation. He begins, as did Congress' proclamations in 1777 and 1782, with what today would be considered a rather striking proposition:

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

It is the duty of all nations to acknowledge God and submit themselves to his will. Indeed it is.

Washington calls on the people of the United States to give thanks to God for all their blessings, but especially for those related to the life of the nation. To modern ears, Washington's litany of favors granted by God will sound overly nationalistic: God's providence in the War of Independence, in the establishing of the new government, in the safety and prosperity of the nation. He asks God to help all citizens fulfill their public and private duties and ensure the national government might be a blessing for all the people it served.

Washington's proclamation, however, is not a piece of America uber alles propaganda. Remember, he begins his proclamation with the words, "It is the duty of all nations ...." He concludes by asking God to similarly bless all the nations of the earth and give all of humanity more of what is good for it. He calls on the people to pray that God would ...

protect and guide all Sovereigns and Nations (especially such as have shewn kindness unto us) and to bless them with good government, peace, and concord--To promote the knowledge and practice of true religion and virtue, and the encrease of science among them and us--and generally to grant unto all Mankind such a degree of temporal prosperity as he alone knows to be best.

Washington did not see an inconsistency between thanking God for his blessings to the nation and seeing the United States as one nation among many under God's care and reign.

And, like Lincoln in 1863, he asks the people to pray for God to '"pardon our national and other transgressions." Washington's vision of thanksgiving came with a healthy dose of penitence. You won't find that in many modern Thanksgiving proclamations.

Washington was a member of the Church of England (and a Mason) whose public religious thoughts were also greatly influenced by Enlightenment philosophy. Some people denigrate these public proclamations as a form of "deism" (or, more lately, imperial religion), but I find value in them. There's nothing here to which I cannot say "Amen." They are not cast in the language of God's great saving acts in Jesus Christ and they do not represent the sum total of my faith - but there is nothing in this proclamation to which I object and much for which I can genuinely pray to God.

There was a great deal of religious diversity in the early United States. I wonder how the Unitarians or Congregationalists of New England would have heard Washington's call to prayer. Or the backwoods Presbyterians of the Appalachians. Or the Catholics of Maryland, or the Jews of Charleston (yes, Charleston, South Carolina had the largest Jewish population in young United States). Or the Quakers or Anabaptist sects or the German pietists of Pennsylvania.  Some kept their distance from government and would want nothing to do with a presidential proclamation of religion. Some would have objected to what they, in their theology, would have considered a sub-Christian form of prayer. Most, I think, would have heard quite a bit to which they could add their "amen."

Today, of course, the United States is even more diverse religiously. How do Buddhists hear a call to Thanksgiving? I'm learning more about Buddhism every day, but I'm still not sure that I know the answer to that. Or what about Muslims? Or neo-Pagans? Or atheists?

In my research, I found one atheist author who wanted nothing to do with gods or deities, but still affirmed that atheists celebrate thanksgiving. This atheist said that we should give thanks

  • To People Who Make a Difference in Our Lives
  • To Farmers
  • To Soldiers and Veterans
  • To Doctors and Modern Medicine
  • To Engineers and Modern Technology
  • To Science and Scientists
  • To Friends and Family

I can say "amen" to all of those suggestions (especially the part about Soldiers and Veterans).

So what is Thanksgiving? Is it a harvest festival? Is it a day to count your blessings from God? Is it a day to reflect on the source of good things in our world? Whatever it is, it is more about the nation than it is about the individual. Christians and Buddhists and Atheists don't need the government to tell them when to give personal thanks or what they should think about God. Thanksgiving is a national holiday on the federal calendar, not a cultic festival on a religious calendar. And it should unite us, not divide us.

So here's my take on Thanksgiving as a national holiday. The thread that runs from Washington to Lincoln to the present is this: Thanksgiving is a day of national humility. It's the day that we as a nation remember that the nation is not a god! We are under god, that is, we are less than god. The nation is not all powerful or all good or worthy of all worship. That the good that we experience does not come entirely from our own hands implies responsibilities on our part: to be grateful for that which we have received, to be responsible and trustworthy in the use of these gifts, to critique ourselves and improve our society. It seems to me that this is what societies who know themselves to be less than gods do. They cannot do whatever they please for their own glory and aggrandizement; they must do what is right. History has judged that nations which see themselves at the center of the universe do not long endure, and they cause a great deal of harm while they do.

For theists, Thanksgiving entails giving actual thanks to "that great and glorious Being, who is the beneficent Author of all the good that was, that is, or that will be" (Washington's words, from the 1789 proclamation) and recognizing that we have a responsibility to him. For others, the abstract concepts of justice, peace or interdependence may take the place of God in their thoughts. In either case, on Thanksgiving we come together around the idea that there is something bigger than we are, something of greater value, something or someone to which we owe a great debt, something that draws us ever forward to a more perfect union and a more blessed life together.

Happy Thanksgiving

*   *   *

Thanksgiving Day, 1789
By the President of the United States of America, a Proclamation.

Whereas 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-- and whereas both Houses of Congress have by their joint Committee requested me to recommend to the People of the United States a day of public thanksgiving and prayer to be observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts 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.

Now therefore I do recommend and assign Thursday the 26th day of November next to be devoted by the People of these States to the service of that great and glorious Being, who is the beneficent Author of all the good that was, that is, or that will be-- That we may then all unite in rendering unto him our sincere and humble thanks--for his kind care and protection of the People of this Country previous to their becoming a Nation--for the signal and manifold mercies, and the favorable interpositions of his Providence which we experienced in the course and conclusion of the late war--for the great degree of tranquility, union, and plenty, which we have since enjoyed--for the peaceable and rational manner, in which we have been enabled to establish constitutions of government for our safety and happiness, and particularly the national One now lately instituted--for the civil and religious liberty with which we are blessed; and the means we have of acquiring and diffusing useful knowledge; and in general for all the great and various favors which he hath been pleased to confer upon us.

and also that we may then unite in most humbly offering our prayers and supplications to the great Lord and Ruler of Nations and beseech him to pardon our national and other transgressions-- to enable us all, whether in public or private stations, to perform our several and relative duties properly and punctually--to render our national government a blessing to all the people, by constantly being a Government of wise, just, and constitutional laws, discreetly and faithfully executed and obeyed--to protect and guide all Sovereigns and Nations (especially such as have shewn kindness unto us) and to bless them with good government, peace, and concord--To promote the knowledge and practice of true religion and virtue, and the encrease of science among them and us--and generally to grant unto all Mankind such a degree of temporal prosperity as he alone knows to be best.

Given under my hand at the City of New York the third day of October in the year of our Lord 1789.

Go: Washington

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