Thanksgiving day

 Thanksgiving day

Thanksgiving is one of the few holidays which origins do not come from Babylon's feasts, or church based traditions.
Today people around the United States will get together and eat and have a great time with family and friends and will give thanks for their blessings.
Thanksgiving is a national holiday based on a beautiful story. Here is a brief compilation of the story from the History channel web page.







Thanksgiving history
In 1621, the Plymouth colonists and Wampanoag Indians shared an autumn harvest feast that is acknowledged today as one of the first Thanksgiving celebrations in the colonies. For more than two centuries, days of thanksgiving were celebrated by individual colonies and states. It wasn't until 1863, in the midst of the Civil War, that President Abraham Lincoln proclaimed a national Thanksgiving Day to be held each November.
In September 1620, a small ship called the Mayflower left Plymouth, England, carrying 102 passengers—an assortment of religious separatists seeking a new home where they could freely practice their faith .
Throughout that first brutal winter, most of the colonists remained on board the ship, where they suffered from exposure, scurvy and outbreaks of contagious disease. Only half of the Mayflower’s original passengers and crew lived to see their first New England spring. In March, the remaining settlers moved ashore, where they received an astonishing visit from an Abenaki Indian who greeted them in English.
Several days later, he returned with another Native American, Squanto.
Squanto taught the Pilgrims, weakened by malnutrition and illness, how to cultivate corn, extract sap from maple trees, catch fish in the rivers and avoid poisonous plants.
In November 1621, after the Pilgrims’ first corn harvest proved successful, Governor William Bradford organized a celebratory feast and invited a group of the fledgling colony’s Native American allies, including the Wampanoag chief Massasoit. Now remembered as American’s “first Thanksgiving”—although the Pilgrims themselves may not have used the term at the time—the festival lasted for three days.










Thanksgiving Becomes an Official Holiday
In 1789 George Washington issued the first Thanksgiving proclamation by the national government of the United States; in it, he called upon Americans to express their gratitude for the happy conclusion to the country’s war of independence and the successful ratification of the U.S. Constitution.
In 1863 Abraham Lincoln established Thanksgiving as a national holiday, at the height of the Civil War, in a proclamation entreating all Americans to ask God to “commend to his tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife” and to “heal the wounds of the nation.” He scheduled Thanksgiving for the final Thursday in November.



Thanksgiving Tradition
In many American households, the Thanksgiving celebration has lost much of its original religious significance; instead, it now centers on cooking and sharing a bountiful meal with family and friends. Turkey, a Thanksgiving staple so ubiquitous it has become all but synonymous with the holiday, may or may not have been on offer when the Pilgrims hosted the inaugural feast in 1621. Today, however, nearly 90 percent of Americans eat the bird—whether roasted, baked or deep-fried—on Thanksgiving, according to the National Turkey Federation. Other traditional foods include stuffing, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce and pumpkin pie. Volunteering is a common Thanksgiving Day activity, and communities often hold food drives and host free dinners for the less fortunate.



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Thanksgiving is something that,beside this beautiful holiday, we should do everyday.
We need to thank God everyday for His blessings upon us. Specially for the gift of salvation, which was given to all human kind. And as I mentioned it was a gift, which we can accept freely ! Even though our Redeemer payed a price without measure, His precious life. But that did not end there, He rose again and lives at the right hand of the heavenly Father interceding for us in the holy heavenly sanctuary, as our high priest.
Thanks to that we can be victorious against evil and its deceits, reclaiming the precious blood of Christ our Lord and Savior.
Many of us have different situations today, specially because of the growing economy problems. But in the midst of all this, we can still be thankful to our loving Father. Thank God for what you have, first of all, LIFE and the opportunity that we have each day to start a new blank page and choose what we will do from that moment on, thanks to the free will that we can exercise. Thank God for the HEALTH that many of us have and the health of our love ones. Although many are not very healthy, we can ask God to restore them according to His perfect will. We can thank God for our jobs, for our belongings, for our family, for our friends, for His care and for the angels who take care of us from the day we came to this world. Thank God for EVERYTHING !
Soon, very soon things are going to get worse in this world, as it already is. Don't take anything for granted, take advantage of everything you are and have, enjoy it. And ask God for strength for the times we have ahead.

Many people expressed their gratitude and I would like to include some of those beautiful thoughts here, so enjoy.

Thanksgiving quotes

Whereas 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– and whereas both Houses of Congress have by their joint Committee requested me to recommend to the People of the United States a day of public thanksgiving and prayer to be observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many signal favors of Almighty God especially by affording them an opportunity peaceably to establish a form of government for their safety and happiness. (Opening quote from the Thanksgiving Proclamation signed by George Washington, President of the United States of America, October 3, 1789)


We have been the recipients of the choicest bounties of Heaven; we have been preserved these many years in peace and prosperity; we have grown in numbers, wealth, and power as no other nation has ever grown. ~ Abraham Lincoln, at Thanksgiving time during the Civil War, 1863


Let us remember that, as much has been given us, much will be expected from us, and that true homage comes from the heart as well as from the lips, and shows itself in deeds. ~ Theodore Roosevelt, 1901


As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them. ~ John Fitzgerald Kennedy


Gratitude is a quality similar to electricity: it must be produced and discharged and used up in order to exist at all.  ~ William Faulkner, American writer and Nobel Prize recipient

“I preached on the righteousness of the law and the righteousness of faith. While I was speaking, several dropped down as dead and among the rest such a cry was heard of sinners groaning for the righteousness of faith that it almost drowned my voice. But many of these soon lifted up their heads with joy and broke out into thanksgiving, being assured they now had the desire of their soul – the forgiveness of their sins.” ~ John Wesley

"If the only prayer you said in your whole life was, "thank you," that would suffice." -Meister Eckhart

"Thanksgiving was never meant to be shut up in a single day." -Robert Caspar Lintner

Beautiful quotes, very inspiring. We should remember them and keep them in our hearts.
But let me share with you this last quotes, taken from the mouth of God, His holy bible. Cherish this words, remember them as well and keep them in you hearts also let them influence your life, thoughts and actions, and they will change your life. Enjoy !



Thanksgiving bible verses

Psalm 28:7 - The LORD is my strength and my shield; My heart trusts in Him, and I am helped; Therefore my heart exults, And with my song I shall thank Him.

Psalm 69:30   I will praise the name of God with song, And shall magnify Him with thanksgiving.

Psalm 95:1-6 - O Come, let us sing for joy to the LORD; Let us shout joyfully to the rock of our salvation. Let us come before His presence with thanksgiving; Let us shout joyfully to Him with psalms. For the LORD is a great God, And a great King above all gods, In whose hand are the depths of the earth; The peaks of the mountains are His also. The sea is His, for it was He who made it; And His hands formed the dry land. Come, let us worship and bow down; Let us kneel before the LORD our Maker.

1 Chronicles 16:8 - Oh give thanks to the LORD, call upon His name; Make known His deeds among the peoples.

Psalm 107:29-32 - He caused the storm to be still, So that the waves of the sea were hushed. Then they were glad because they were quiet; So He guided them to their desired haven. Let them give thanks to the LORD for His lovingkindness, And for His wonders to the sons of men! Let them extol Him also in the congregation of the people, And praise Him at the seat of the elders.

Colossians 2:6-7  Therefore as you have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him, having been firmly rooted and now being built up in Him and established in your faith, just as you were instructed, and overflowing with gratitude.
 
1 Chronicles 16:34 O give thanks to the LORD, for He is good; For His lovingkindness is everlasting.

Psalm 34:1   I will bless the LORD at all times; His praise shall continually be in my mouth.

Psalm 100:4   Enter His gates with thanksgiving, And His courts with praise. Give thanks to Him; bless His name.

Jonah 2:9  But I will sacrifice to You With the voice of thanksgiving.  That which I have vowed I will pay Salvation is from the LORD.”

Ephesians 5:3-4   But immorality or any impurity or greed must not even be named among you, as is proper among saints; and there must be no filthiness and silly talk, or coarse jesting, which are not fitting, but rather giving of thanks.

Colossians 3:15   And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body; and be thankful.

1 Timothy 4:4-5 -  For everything created by God is good, and nothing is to be rejected, if it is received with gratitude; for it is sanctified by means of the word of God and prayer.

1 Thessalonians 5:18   in everything give thanks; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.



Be thankful ! Have a great and blessed thanksgiving day ! :)