Most people believe that as Americans we celebrate THANKSGIVING because of the pilgrims and the Indians. While I do think that the feast to celebrate the first successful harvest, certainly does make a good story...I love what President Abraham Lincoln had to say when he declared the first thanksgiving holiday more. One hundred and forty five years later his words still ring strong and true!
Lincoln's Thanksgiving Proclamation
Washington, DC—October 3, 1863
Lincoln proclaimed Thanksgiving a national holiday in 1863. |
The year that is drawing toward 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 can not 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 unequaled 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 theater of military conflict, while that theater 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 plow, the shuttle, or the ship; the ax has enlarged the borders of our settlements, and the mines, as well as the iron and coal as of our 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 battlefield, 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 one 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 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 imposition of the Almighty hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to restore it, as soon as may be consistent with the divine purpose, 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 3d day of October, A.D. 1863, and of the Independence of the United States the eighty-eighth.
My beautiful brined 15 pound turkey!! It was so moist and yummy :-)
Where else but the kitchen...the hub of all activity on Thanksgiving or any other gathering for that matter.
Mum taking care of a little pre-dinner clean up
My station by the stove
Time for a quick cuddle in between duties :-)
It's gravy time
Me and my girl Tannis
Mum, Me, Tannis and Esther - what Thanksgiving is all about :-)
The babes are ready to eat!!
Looks good...
Oh no, Jack is falling out of his chair with joy ;-)
Dennis' plate for when he returns from the Ukraine...straight to the freezer
Love this picture of Tannis and Esther
The 4 Gage present and accounted for...just missing Big Daddy
We switched on the holidays lights, turned on the Christmas carols and let the countdown begin before I even started the dishes... A wonderful end to a fabulous day. Thanks to the Webers and the Nichols for making a special day even more so. Love y'all!
