Blue Elevator Blog

Thoughts on Thanksgiving

What are your earliest recollections of Thanksgiving?

Many of us may recall the stories of The Mayflower, Plymouth Rock, Pilgrims, and Squanto.  That first celebration was in 1621.

Our first president, George Washington, issued the first Thanksgiving proclamation in 1789.  In 1817, New York became the first state to declare and celebrate Thanksgiving as an official holiday.

But, the United States of America didn’t recognize Thanksgiving as a national holiday until the first celebration in 1863.  I have included President Abraham Lincoln’s proclamation below.  But before we get there …

Celebrating Success

As is the case in human history, a lot of progress is overlooked and often unheralded.  As a people and as a nation, we celebrate “breakthrough.”  A birth.  A graduation.  A marriage.  The launch of a business.  A first sale.  A successful IPO.  The stuff in between?  We don’t celebrate it so much.

But without the stuff in between, there is no breakthrough.

An Unsung Hero

The unsung hero of Thanksgiving is Sarah Josepha Hale.  Chances are, you have never heard of her.  You might recall the familiar nursery rhyme, Mary Had a Little Lamb.  That was credited to Sarah.  But, Thanksgiving?

The History of Thanksgiving

Starting in 1837, Sarah began a certain effort.  She published an editorial suggesting that Thanksgiving … “might, without inconvenience, be observed on the same day of November, say the last Thursday in the month, throughout all New England; and also in our sister states, who have engrafted it upon their social system.” 

Presidential Requests

And, Finally

As providence would have it, Sarah’s letter to President Abraham Lincoln would not fall on deaf ears.  Her letter to President Lincoln dated September 28, 1863 was the penultimate act preceding Lincoln’s Proclamation that he issued October 3, 1863.

So, after some 26 years of hard work and effort, Thanksgiving was officially launched as the National Holiday that we celebrate today.

Final Encouragement

I’m glad that Sarah didn’t give up.  And, neither should you!

As the saying goes, “Rome wasn’t built in a day.”  And, it took some 26 years of concerted effort to nationalize Thanksgiving.

So, take courage as you continue to build your fledgling business.  Pursue that world-changing idea.  Keep praying.  Keep hoping.  Keep working.  Keep the faith.

If you are doing your best to make the world, the marketplace, your work, or your neighborhood better, then you, the reader, are a modern-day hero.

As you continue in your efforts, I hope that, this Thanksgiving, you will also take a few moments to reflect on your blessings.

Happy Thanksgiving!

President Lincoln’s Thanksgiving Proclamation

Washington, D.C.
October 3, 1863

By the President of the United States of America.

A Proclamation.

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 defence, have not arrested the plough, the shuttle or the ship; the axe has 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 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 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.

By the President: Abraham Lincoln

William H. Seward,
Secretary of State