Is Thanksgivng Still On? Yes. (Thanksgiving Day, 2020-11-26)

[_01_]  Is Thanksgiving still on? Is it happening this year? It’s not cancelled.

          I would like to suggest that it is still on, and that Thanksgiving as a holiday and observance is a whole lot older – been around chronologically a lot longer – than you and I…even older than the United States itself.

 [_02_]  As a country we came into existence as independent rebellious colonists in 1776, but Thanksgiving was being celebrated well before that, starting in the 1600’s  and with the first Pilgrims who arrived on the ship Mayflower in New England, ultimately landing at Plymouth in Massachusetts.

          The year was 1620.

          This year, then, of course is the 400^th anniversary of the landing at Plymouth Rock. I missed that anniversary too with everything else going on.

          Perhaps, we can take comfort that Thanksgiving holiday is only disrupted this way, this completely, once every few hundred years…on – in this case – the quadricentennial.

 [_03_] Is Thanksgiving still on?  Is it more difficult to be grateful for what we have in 2020?

          Yes, it can be more difficult because we can very easily focus on what we do not have or who is missing in our lives due to being sick, due to dying…due to distance.

          We know very well what we are not thankful for and restrictions upon us due to the COVID pandemic.

[_04_] Is Thanksgiving still on, in a moment of tragedy, crisis, heartbreak?

[_04.01_]  In fact, some of the earliest celebrations of Thanksgiving were are times of great difficulty.

          An author (Melanie Kirkpatrick) wrote that that the earliest Thanksgiving holidays were, in fact, giving thanks for the end of, say, a severe drought, the improvement o the weather for planting..or daresay, the end of a bad illness or disease.

          Of course, we are not finished with the pandemic yet, but shall we not give thanks that we have made it this far, to give thanks especially for the essential workers – police, firefighters, medical workers physicians nurses and technicians, those who clean the hospitals, those who deliver and prepare our food – that through many essential workers – we have made this far through COVID 19, and also give thanks that a medical vaccine is on the horizon.

          Thanksgiving in a time of crisis. Yes, it is still on.

          The author’s report on U.S. Thanksgiving is that the holiday was established by and from the government, telling us we should pause and give thanks for good fortune.

          This was, in particular, the tone of President Abraham Lincoln

          Thanksgiving as we know it today, being on the 4^th Thursday of November and being an annual celebration was established by President Abraham Lincoln in 1863 in the midst of the Civil War.

          In July of 1863, the same year as the proclamation, the Battle of Gettysburg had been fought.

          And in November of 1863, shortly before Thanksgiving, President Lincoln gave the Gettysburg Address reminding us that… after the battle and bloodshed and death and dying of the Civil War. Lincoln was speaking not just about the “battlefield” that had taken place in Gettysburg but that the whole country was a battlefield:

          “in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate — we cannot consecrate — we cannot hallow — this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. (Abraham Lincoln, Gettysburg Address, November 19, 1863)

          It’s a coincidence, in 1863, the first official “fourth Thursday”…that was also November 26.    

          The Gettysburg Address was given exactly 1 week before on November 19.

 [_04.02_]   And, so, in is Thanksgiving Proclamation was not just about a “scheduled date” but the shared destiny of all of us:

          “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 [declaring] the last Thursday of November next as a Day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the heavens ....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, tranquility, and union.”

          Is Thanksgiving still on?

          Thanksgiving in 1863 was not celebrated in a spirit of what had already been attained but what the country was still striving for. Perhaps, you and I can do the same.

          In our Christian Thanksgiving, our Holy Communion, Holy Eucharist,  we celebrate not because of what we already possess but because of who we are striving to emulate.

          In the Gospel, 1 leper returns, not only to give thanks for what he had obtained but also to follow Jesus and to strive for me, not to get more, but to give more.

          What you and I are striving for each day is that true greatness, a pursuit of greatness balanced also by HUMILITY and understanding that we are not God, but that in the smallest Thanksgiving celebration even for the person absolutely alone, is not abandoned for Jesus died for her also, for him as well and for you.

          Thanksgiving is still on.  [_fin_]