Prayer and Thanksgiving

With the presidential election over, and the first signs of Christmas beginning to appear, the holiday season is finally getting underway.

Soon, the parades and school pageants will begin.  Home- and shop-owners will try to outdo one another with festive decorations and lights.  And family and friends will gather together to enjoy the annual turkey dinner, complete with all of the fixings and trimmings –  stuffing, cranberries, green beans, corn, squash, sweet potatoes, and pumpkin pie. 

Thanksgiving Day marks the beginning of the holidays, and, too often, it comes and goes without sufficient recognition to its religious significance.

We think of the Plymouth pilgrims and their journey on the Mayflower, of the Wompanoag Indians who helped them to survive their first year in America, and of the feast of wild turkeys, vegetables, and stews that followed their first harvest.  But, we forget why the Pilgrims were there in the first place.

The Plymouth pilgrims, driven by faith and devotion, courageously voyaged across the Atlantic in search of religious freedom.  When they arrived in the New World, there were no people to greet them or buildings to provide shelter; just a barren and sterile coastline.  They had to build a settlement and food supply from scratch.  After one year, that first thanksgiving must have been a soul searching, but joyful, moment for giving thanks to God and recognizing the miracle that they had been able to survive. 

In today’s hectic and modern world, when too many are quick to invoke God when things go badly, it is worth pausing for a moment to recognize that the pilgrims – after enduring tremendous hardships and sufferings, hunger and starvation, and seeing their families and friends stricken by disease and death – still took the time to thank God for their blessings.

The annual thanksgiving we think of today evolved sporadically and irregularly over time, but, notably, with an eye toward God. 

In October 1789, once the new government was up and running and at the request of the first Congress, President George Washington issued a proclamation recommending a day of public thanksgiving and prayer, saying “it is the duty of all Nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey his will, to be grateful for his benefits, and humbly to implore his protection and favor.” 

Not until the Civil War did our Nation begin to observe thanksgiving annually. 

In 1863, President Abraham Lincoln issued a proclamation identifying the last Thursday in November “as a day of thanksgiving and praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the heavens.”

Later, his successor, Andrew Johnson, issued a thanksgiving proclamation recommending that people "set apart and observe the first Thursday of December next as a day of national thanksgiving to the Creator of the Universe for these great deliverances and blessings."

Incidentally, it was President Franklin Roosevelt, who signed a law in 1941 that finally established Thanksgiving Day as a Federal holiday to be observed on the fourth Thursday in November.

Still, the religious undercurrents of the holiday remain. 

You can see it in the families who bow their heads in grace before their meal; in the church attendance that increases during the season; and in the charity and kindness exhibited by strangers during this time of the year.

This Thanksgiving, let us savor the simple pleasures of the holiday and of family and friends and neighbors joining in a communal meal.  I hope that West Virginians will think about the blessing owed to our Creator and the love and fellowship we share with one another.  Let us give thanks for our many blessings and for what the future will bring.

U.S. Rep. Nick Rahall (D-WV) represents West Virginia’s 3rd District

For more information contact: Diane Luensmann (202) 225-3452

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