Yesterday, we celebrated a national day of Thanksgiving. Most of us think back to the Plymouth Colony and the Pilgrims when it comes to the first Thanksgiving. What most people don't know is that the first national day of Thanksgiving was created by what we now call an Executive Order by President George Washington, first president of the United States.
Five members of the first Congress in 1789 to ask President Washington 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 Constitution of government for their safety and happiness."[1]
Accordingly, the first presidential proclamation was issued to the states' governors in October 1789. The President requested that it be "published and made known in your State in the way and manner that shall be most agreeable to yourself.”[2] It requested that the first official national day of Thanksgiving be observed sometime in November of 1789.
Today, on the day after Thanksgiving 2017, I'd like to pose the question: how many of us spent our day yesterday in prayer and thanksgiving, acknowledging, with grateful hearts, the many blessings of Almighty God, especially the [blessing] of a Constitutional government? How many of us taught our children and grandchildren about that blessing? Or did we all spend the day watching parades and football on TV, perhaps saying a quick prayer at the table so that we could get to the feast? I'm embarrassed to admit, that was the case at my house.
For the past few weeks, all people seemed to talk about was today: not the national day of giving thanks but the day after: BLACK FRIDAY! Between Halloween and Christmas, Thanksgiving has become the forgotten holiday, yet it is the only truly American holiday to be officially proclaimed and celebrated. Quite frankly, it makes me feel sad. Commerce has become King.
Halloween when I was a child was a simple, fun celebration for children to dress up in inexpensive and usually homemade costumes and trick or treat in safe neighborhoods. Today, Halloween has been highly commercialized and targets adults as much, or even more, than children. Aisle after aisle of expensive costumes, masks, make-up, candy, accessories, and candy. Because of the huge potential for sales, Halloween themed items begin to appear in the stores not long after July 4!
The day after Halloween - and some stores the week of Halloween - Christmas appears. Christmas has become Xmas, a season to exploit the huge commercial potential to push retail stores out of the RED and into the BLACK financially. Hence the name, BLACK FRIDAY (in case you were wondering where the term originated.) It's all about the money honey.
Thanksgiving 2017 is history. Many of us (including me) missed the boat. But, as BLACK FRIDAY attests: Christmas is coming. Let's put Christ back in Christmas a remember to give thanks to almighty God for the greatest of all gifts: the gift of our Savior; the gift of His love.
©Gebara Education, November 24, 2017
[1] https://www.yahoo.com/news/washington-thanksgiving-proclamation-first-executive-order-104800400--election.html
[2] Ibid
No comments:
Post a Comment