Talk to most Americans about the origins of Thanksgiving or look-up the information on the Internet or in Text, you'll find alot of talk about Pilgims, Indians, Plymouth Rock and the first dinner! I think this is the way alot of Americans are taught to think about Thanksgiving, but did you know that "Thanksgiving" as we celebrate it, was actually instituted as a national holiday as a product of the Civil War in the United States!
"In the middle of the Civil War, prompted by a series of editorials written by Sarah Josepha Hale, the last of which appeared in the September 1863 issue of Godey's Lady's Book, President Abraham Lincoln proclaimed a national Thanksgiving Day, to be celebrated on the final Thursday in November 1863:
"The year that is drawing towards its close, has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies. To these bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the source from which they come, others have been added, which are of so extraordinary a nature, that they cannot fail to penetrate and soften even the heart which is habitually insensible to the ever watchful providence of Almighty God. In the midst of a civil war of unequalled magnitude and severity, which has sometimes seemed to foreign States to invite and to provoke their aggression, peace has been preserved with all nations, order has been maintained, the laws have been respected and obeyed, and harmony has prevailed everywhere except in the theatre of military conflict; while that theatre has been greatly contracted by the advancing armies and navies of the Union. Needful diversions of wealth and of strength from the fields of peaceful industry to the national defense, have not arrested the plough, the shuttle, or the ship; the axe had enlarged the borders of our settlements, and the mines, as well of iron and coal as of the precious metals, have yielded even more abundantly than heretofore. Population has steadily increased, notwithstanding the waste that has been made in the camp, the siege and the battle-field; and the country, rejoicing in the consciousness of augmented strength and vigor, is permitted to expect continuance of years, with large increase of freedom.
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.
It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently and gratefully acknowledged as with one heart and voice by the whole American people. I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next, as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens. And I recommend to them that while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliverances and blessings, they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to his tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty Hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to restore it as soon as may be consistent with the Divine purposes to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquillity and Union.
In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand, and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed.
Done at the city of Washington, this third day of October, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, and of the independence of the United States the eighty-eighth.
Proclamation of President Abraham Lincoln, 3 October 1863."
"Since 1863, Thanksgiving has been observed annually in the United States."
from Wikipedia
I first heard this bit of information while watching "The Civil War", a documentary by Ken Burns. Thanksgiving was instituted as a national holiday during the Unions' siege at Confederate city of Vicksburg. I remembered this bit of information while going to my mothers House for Thanksgiving turkey.
The Civil War was kind of a referendum about slavery in United States, I mean that alot of the Civil War was over slavery in the U.S. Therefore this holiday should hold special attention if you African-American (ancestor of Slaves) in this Country. It represents a time of conflict and bloodshed in a land of plenty. Alot of sacifices were made during the Civil War, alot of lives lost, Union and Confederate, so that African-Americans could be free today. A fact that alot of African-Americans don't harken to, but its true. . I don't think alot of African-Americans (ancestor of slaves) remember this, we forget it at our peril. Lest we end up like the old saying, "Those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it."
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