What do we give thanks for this holiday season?
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.
Thanksgiving or Thanksgiving Day, currently celebrated on the fourth Thursday in November by federal legislation in 1941, has been an annual tradition in the United States by presidential proclamation since 1863 and by state legislation since the Founding Fathers of the United States. Historically, Thanksgiving began as a tradition of celebrating the harvest of the year.
With Thanksgiving fast approaching, there are many plans and preparations to be made for this special holiday. While we may get overwhelmed with budget concerns, trying to plan an elaborate feast, or making plans and accommodations for ourselves or relatives, it is easy to forget the reason for the season, those two words contained in the name ‘Thanksgiving’–giving and thanks.
This is a time for counting our blessings more than it is counting chairs for the table or money to be spent on the holiday. This Thanksgiving I will be giving thanks for many things. The daily hustle and bustle of life sometimes leaves us forgetting the many things that we have to be thankful for.
The small and not so small things that we overlook or under-appreciate daily are what we should all be most thankful for.
For instance, ‘I’m alive’, ‘I’m reading (writing) this’. ‘I have a roof over my head and family to share it with.’ The list goes on. There is food in my cabinets. I have friends to share the up and downs of life with. I have a warm bed to sleep in. I have a wonderful dog that brings joy to myself and my family daily. My children are alive and healthy. I have a car and enough money to supply my family and myself with our basic needs and then some. I live in a country where my opportunities are endless.
There are so many things to be thankful for, I really could go on and on. Not to say that I don’t sometimes forget, or perhaps wish I had more, when you really stop and think about it, we all have so much to be thankful for.
There is a quote that is enjoyed by many. ‘Everyday may not be good, but there is something good in everyday.’ That pretty much sums it up.
Find the good in everyday and then you will know why we should all be thankful every day, not just on a day that is set aside on our calendars for giving thanks.
Happy Thanksgiving, Beaufort. There, that’s one more thing to be thankful for….being able to call beautiful Beaufort… ‘home’.