Thanksgiving is a national holiday celebrated on various dates in the United States, Canada, Grenada, Saint Lucia, and Liberia. It began as a day of thanksgiving and sacrifice for the harvest and blessings of the previous year. Similarly named festival holidays are in Germany and Japan. Thanksgiving is on the second Monday of October in Canada It is celebrated in the United States on the fourth Thursday of November and elsewhere in the same part of the year. Although Thanksgiving has historical roots in religious and cultural traditions, it has long been celebrated as a secular holiday as well.
History of Thanksgiving
Prayers of thanksgiving and special thanksgiving ceremonies after harvest and at other times are common in almost all religions. The history of the Thanksgiving holiday in North America is rooted in English traditions dating from the Protestant Reformation. It also has aspects of a harvest festival, even though in New England the harvest precedes the late November date on which the modern Thanksgiving holiday is celebrated.
In English tradition, thanksgiving and special thanksgiving services became important during the English Reformation during the reign of Henry VIII and in response to a large number of religious holidays on the Catholic calendar. Before 1536 there were 95 church holidays, as well as Sundays when people had to go to church and leave work and sometimes pay for expensive ceremonies. The reforms of 1536 reduced the number of church holidays to 27. But some Puritans wanted to end all church holidays, including Christmas and Easter.
Holidays are specifically called fasting days or thanksgiving days, in response to events that the Puritans saw as acts of special providence. Unexpected disasters or high-level threats of justice called for days of fasting. Special blessings, seen as coming from God, called for days of thanksgiving. For example, the fasting days were droughts in 1611, floods in 1613 and 1604, and 1622.
In Canada
According to some historians, the first celebration of Thanksgiving in North America took place during Martin Frobisher’s 1578 voyage from England in search of the Northwest Passage. However, other researchers say that “the origin of Canadian Thanksgiving Day is not a compelling story.”
The origins of Canadian Thanksgiving are sometimes traced to French settlers who came to New France in the 17th century to celebrate their successful harvest. French settlers in the area usually feasted at the end of the harvest. They continued throughout the winter, even sharing food with the indigenous people of the area.
After settling in Nova Scotia from New England in the 1700s, late autumn Thanksgiving celebrations became common. New immigrants to the country—such as the Irish, Scottish, and German—also added their own traditions to the harvest festival. Most of the American aspects of Thanksgiving (such as turkey) were incorporated when United Kingdom loyalists began fleeing the United States during the American Revolution and settled in Canada.
in the United States of America
Pilgrims and Puritans who migrated from England in the 1620s and 1630s took the tradition of fasting days and thanksgiving days with them to New England. The modern Thanksgiving holiday tradition is a well-documented 1619 event in Virginia and a rare documented 1621 occurrence in Plymouth, Massachusetts. Searched for celebration.
The arrival of 38 English settlers in Berkeley Hundred in Charles City County, Virginia in 1619 was marked by a religious celebration, as stipulated by the London Company’s group charter, which required that “the day of our ships be appointed Arrived at the location…In the land of Virginia shall be yearly and forever kept holy as a day of thanksgiving to the Almighty.” The 1621 Plymouth Feast and Thanksgiving were prompted by a good harvest. The Pilgrims celebrated it with Native Americans.
Many days of Thanksgiving were observed in early New England history, which have been identified as the “first Thanksgiving”, including Pilgrim holidays in Plymouth in 1621 and 1623 and a Puritan holiday in Boston in 1631.
According to historian Jeremy Bangs, director of the Leiden American Pilgrim Museum, the Pilgrims may have been impressed by the annual services of thanksgiving for relief from the siege of Leiden in 1574. While they were living in Leiden. Now called the Oktoberfest, Leiden’s autumn Thanksgiving celebration in 1617 was the occasion for communal unrest that spurred the Pilgrims’ plans to travel to America.
Later in Massachusetts, religious thanksgiving services were announced by civic leaders such as Governor Bradford, who planned the colony’s thanksgiving ceremonies and feasts in 1623. In the late 1630s, the Pequots were convicted of their murder. A white man inspires colonists to burn Pequot villages and kill those who do not perish in the fire. Hundreds of Pequots were killed, causing Governor Bradford to declare that Thanksgiving would “celebrate a bloody victory, thanks to God that the battle was won.” [17] [18] By the end of the 1660s, the practice of holding annual harvest festivals had not become a regular affair in New England.
Proclamations of thanksgiving were made by church leaders in New England until 1682, and by both state and church leaders after the American Revolution. During the Revolutionary period, political influences influenced the issuance of Thanksgiving proclamations. Various proclamations were made by royal governors, and conversely by patriotic leaders such as John Hancock, General George Washington, and the Continental Congress, each thanking God for events favorable to their causes.
As President of the United States, George Washington proclaimed the first national thanksgiving in America on November 26, 1789, “as a day of public thanksgiving and prayer, with thankful hearts to many and signal favors.” will be accepted and celebrated.
The debate about the country’s first ceremony
The question of where the first Thanksgiving was held in the United States has been a matter of dispute, mainly between New England and Virginia. The question is complicated with the concept of Thanksgiving. James Baker says, “The true origin of the American holiday was the New England Calvinist Thanksgiving. It was never coupled with the meeting of the Sabbath.”Puritan observances included special days for thanksgiving and praise in response to God’s prophecy during the week.” Baker called the debate over territorial claims “a storm in the beanpot” and “wonderful nonsense”.
However, In 1619, Berkeley was instrumental in President John F. Kennedy’s efforts by issuing Proclamation 3560 on November 5, 1963, to strike a compromise between territorial claims, particularly for codified thanksgiving services in the establishment. “Three centuries ago, Our ancestors in Virginia and Massachusetts set aside a time of thanksgiving, far from home, in the secluded woods. On the appointed day, they reverently gave thanks for their safety, for the health of their children, for the fertility of their fields, for the love that bound them together, and for the faith that united them to their God.
United States of America
Thanksgiving is celebrated on different dates in the United States of America. From the time of the founding father to the time of Lincoln, the date varies from state to state. The last Thursday in November became the customary date in most American states by the early 19th century, eventually commemorating the Evacuation Day holiday (the day the British left the United States after the Revolutionary War).
A modern-day of thanksgiving for all states was announced by Abraham Lincoln in 1863. Influenced by Sarah Joseph Hale, who wrote letters to politicians for nearly 40 years advocating for the official holiday, Lincoln instituted a national day of thanksgiving by proclamation for the last Thursday in November, apparently in celebration of the rewards of the Union.
Military success in war continued for this, And apparently also in “humble repentance for our national perversions and disobedience”. Due to the ongoing civil war, a nationwide Thanksgiving celebration was not realized until reconstruction was completed in the 1870s.
On October 31, 1939, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed a presidential proclamation changing the holiday from the next to the last Thursday in November for business reasons. On December 26, 1941, he signed a joint congressional resolution that changed National Thanksgiving Day to the fourth Thursday in November.
Since 1971, when the American Uniform Monday Holiday Act went into effect, the American observance of Columbus Day has coincided with Canada’s observance of Thanksgiving.
United Kingdom
The harvest festival of Thanksgiving is not an official date in the United Kingdom, however, it is traditionally held on or near the Sunday of the harvest moon which is closest to the autumn equinox. Harvest Thanksgiving in Britain also has pre-Christian roots, when the Saxons would first chef barley, oats, or wheat to the fertility gods.
When the crop was finally collected, So the communities used to come together to eat the harvest. [55] Many traditions persisted when Christianity arrived in Britain, and today the Harvest Festival is celebrated by churches and schools in late September/early October (similar to Canada) with singing, prayer, and food and fruit baskets. With is marked for a successful celebration. To harvest and thank you. A collection of food is usually organized which is then donated to local charities that help the homeless and those in need.
Australia
On the Australian outskirts of Norfolk Island, Thanksgiving is celebrated on the last Wednesday of November, similar to the pre-World War II American observance on the last Thursday of the month. This means that Norfolk Island’s observance is either one day before or six days after the United States observance. The holiday was brought to the island by visiting American whaling ships.
Brazil
In Brazil, National Thanksgiving Day was established through Law 781 of August 17, 1949, by President Gaspar Dutta at the suggestion of Ambassador Joaquim Nabuco, who in 1909 at St. I was excited. , In 1966, Law 5110 established that the Thanksgiving ceremony would take place on the fourth Thursday of November.
This date is celebrated by many Native American families, some by Protestant Christian denominations, Such as the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Brazil (which is of American origin), the Presbyterian Church, the Baptist Church, the Methodist Church, and the Church of the Nazarenes, and the Methodist denomination university. This day is also celebrated by evangelical churches such as the Foursquare Gospel Church in Brazil.
Canada
Thanksgiving (French: l’Action de grâce), occurring on the second Monday in October, is an annual Canadian holiday to mark the end of the harvest season. Although the original Act of Parliament makes reference to God and the holiday is observed in churches, the holiday is mostly observed in a secular manner. Thanksgiving is a statutory holiday in all Canadian provinces except New Brunswick and Nova Scotia. Although businesses may remain open in these provinces, the holiday is recognized and celebrated regardless of its status.
Grenada
In the western Indian island of Grenada, in the Caribbean, there is a national holiday known as Thanksgiving Day, which is celebrated on October 25. Even though it bears the same name, and is celebrated in the same way as the American and Canadian versions. Thanksgiving, this holiday is not related to any of those celebrations. Instead, the holiday marks the anniversary of the US-led invasion of the island in 1983, Which is in response to the statement and execution by a military government from within his own party of socialist Grenadian Prime Minister Maurice Bishop.
Liberia
In the West African country of Liberia, Thanksgiving is celebrated on the first Thursday of November.The roots of the Thanksgiving tradition lie in the founding of the nation by free people of color in the United States of America in 1821 as a colony of the American Colonial Society. Although recognized throughout the country,
Thanksgiving is primarily practiced by American Liberians, descendants of Liberia’s native African-American settlers.
Netherlands
Many of the pilgrims who migrated to Plymouth lived in the town of Plantation Leiden from 1609–1620 and had recorded their births, marriages, and deaths at Pieterskerk (St Peter’s Church). In commemoration, a non-denominational Thanksgiving Day service is held every year on the morning of American Thanksgiving Day at Peterskerk, a Gothic church in Leiden, with a focus on the hospitality of pilgrims on their way to the New World in Leiden, Netherlands.
Thanksgiving is celebrated by Orthodox Protestant churches in the Netherlands on the first Wednesday of November (Dunkdag [nl]). It is not a public holiday. Those who observe the day either go to church in the evening or take the day off and go to church in the morning (and sometimes even the afternoon).
Philippines
The Philippines, while it was an American colony in the first half of the 20th century, celebrated Thanksgiving as a special public holiday on the same day as the Americans. During the Japanese occupation during World War II, both Americans and Filipinos celebrated Thanksgiving in secret.
1945 After the Japanese withdrawal in 2006, the tradition continued until 1969. It was revived by President Ferdinand Marcos, but the date was changed to every 21 September, when martial law was imposed in the country. After Marcos’ ouster in 1986, the tradition no longer continued, due to controversial events that took place during his long administration.
As of 2020, Thanksgiving has been revived as a commercial and cultural holiday, though stripped of its official status. SM Supermalls paved the way for a slow revival of Thanksgiving Day on the same day as in the US,In the old days. Many malls and hotels offer special sales on this day, as part of the longer Christmas celebrations in the Philippines, which begin in September (unlike Black Friday in the United States).
Germany
The Harvest Thanksgiving festival, Ertendankfest, is An edible decoration for Ertendankfest, a Christian Thanksgiving harvest festival celebrated in Germany a popular German Christian festival on the first Sunday of October. The festival has an important religious component, and many churches are decorated with autumn crops. In some places, religious processions or parades also take place. Many Bavarian beer festivals, such as the Munich Oktoberfest, take place in the vicinity of Ertendankfest.
Japan
Labor Thanksgiving Day (勤労感謝の日, Kinr Kansha no Hi) is a national holiday in Japan. It takes place annually on 23 November. The law establishing the holiday, adopted during the American occupation after World War II, describes it as an opportunity to celebrate labor and production and thank each other. It has its roots in the ancient Shinto harvest ceremony (ninam-sai (新嘗祭)).
Click this link to read our important and interesting articles as soon as they are published!