Friday, November 20, 2009

Thanksgiving...7 days to go

You will notice that this post was actually suppose to be written a day ago. Well, sometimes I procrastinate a little to much. Please accept my aplologies and enjoy the 3 posts that will be done in one day!! (oh my!)

I watched a video on history.com about Thanksgiving. It was a short three and a half minute video on why we celebrate Thanksgiving. It had the first thanksgiving to be in 1621 when the Pilgrims celebrated a community feast with the Indians after a year of being taught to farm and hunt and fish. It goes on to say that in 1777 the Continental Congress declared all thirteen colonies to celebrate one day for the victory over the British in the battle of Serratoga. Later on in our history a women by the name of Sara Joesepha Hale began a one woman letter writing campaign to the government on the benefits of a national holiday to give thanks (she is also given credit for writing Mary Had A Little Lamb). She told of how it would be a good way to unite our country. In 1863 Abraham Lincoln signed into law that the last Thursday of November be that day. A day of thanks. A reminder that we are United.

Are we doing that??? I wonder if my boys will learn the same things about our country's history that I did. Will they learn about all the reasons we are such a great country or just the basic, watered down facts. At any rate, there you have it in a very small nutshell. My short research into why we celebrate Thanksgiving as a national holiday.

2 comments:

  1. I think it's very cool that you researched this! Not many people dig deeper than the basic gratitude concept, and it's neat that you're able to have a fuller conversation about the holiday and its background with your kids :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. I am SO glad that the same woman who gave us Mary Had A Little Lamb also gave us Thanksgiving. Seriously, what a legacy!

    ReplyDelete

Thanks for visiting!