Why we celebrate Thanksgiving

To make a long story short, thousands of years ago when our founders came to America they sat down for dinner with the pilgrims for what was called the first dinner. Here they all Thanked each other for being there and they enjoyed each other’s company. But it wasn’t until Sarah Joseph Hale, The wittier of the children’s song “Mary Had a Little Lamb.” Even Pilgrim Hall a museum in Plymouth Mass preserving and passing down the history and stories of the Pilgrims, calls Hale the “godmother of Thanksgiving.” She was a poet and a writer when she first started a few years ago in 1837, writing a series of editorials advocating for a national Thanksgiving holiday. George Washington, John Adams, and James Madison had issued Thanksgiving proclamations in the early years of the nation, but after Madison’s 1799 proclamation, the practice ceased. As the Civil War came closer Hale wanted to do something that could bridge the divide that people had and instead be thankful for each other, So On Sept. 28, 1863, at the height of the war, she wrote a letter to President Abraham Lincoln entreating him to call for a national celebration of Thanksgiving. On Oct. 3, he did so. In her writings, Hale emphasized our togetherness as Americans, our need for community, and our dependence on God — all things we forget in our observances.