Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow.
Melody Beattie
Happy Thanksgiving!
In honor of this day of thanks, we will explore the beginnings of our traditions of feasting, parades, football and givings of gratitude.
The first feast:
In November of the year 1621 Pilgrims and Native Americans came together to celebrate a fruitful harvest. Despite severe illness and scarcity they were blessed with an plethora of healthy crops, poultry, wild game and fish.
The holiday:
For 36 years Sarah Josepha Hale, a renound publisher and author, fought to make Thanksgiving a national holiday. In 1863, Abraham Lincoln coined the fourth Thursday of November as a national holiday of thanks.
The Macys Thanksgiving Day Parade:
In 1924 Macys department store hosted it’s launch of a yearly traditional parade. This was not the spectical that it is today. The parade was established by immigrants that were employed by Macy’s in Times Square. They created the parade to show gratitude for their lives in America. This event did not have floats or balloons but rather live wild animals borrowed from the zoo. The flagship store had just expanded their store to being the “largest department store in the world” and had gained quickly in popularity over the years.
Over the past 397 years since our first Thanksgiving celebration, we have had much to be grateful for.
Thankful as a country for victories, economic prosperities and daily potential to create one’s own success.
Thankful in our community for one another; our neighbors, friends and family. Thankful for our lives that we are blessed with everyday.
