Having a Real Thanksgiving

Mr Coulombe looks at the history of the Thanksgiving holiday, pointing out that the word "eucharist" means "thanksgiving" in the original Greek.

From Catholicism.org

By Charles Coulombe, KC*SS, STM

As the Halloween decorations in American stores make way for those of Christmas (although in many such places the two have already co-existed happily in different aisles), here and there yet remain retail locales — especially such as sell turkeys — who still advertise Thanksgiving Day. Now celebrated in the United States on the Fourth Thursday in November (Canada’s version takes place on our Columbus Day — the First Monday in October), it has, over the course of the last 50 years slightly faded as an important holiday in the national mind — possibly because it is so closely identified with family, and that institution is ever weaker.

Nevertheless, it is still widely observed. The sitting president of the United States issues a proclamation — often citing the Pilgrim Fathers of Plymouth, and pardons two turkeys at the White House. Extended families continue to gather for dinner, in the company of one or more turkeys for whom no such pardon was forthcoming. Innumerable traditional recipes for the bird and the various side dishes (often in the family for generations) are trotted out, while various versions of family dramas and joys are borne out. Television has come to play a large if secondary role, as those who rise early can watch New York City’s, Philadelphia’s, and Detroit’s Thanksgiving Day parades, to mention a few. The NFL offers plenty to watch, and until recently many local stations offered Twilight Zone and Perry Mason marathons. These varying pleasures offered a wonderful chance for extended families and often enough their friends to enjoy each other’s company in a relaxed atmosphere — and often enough today the grace before meals is the only religious ritual many families participate in jointly, save weddings and funerals.

But many on this day still “attend the church of their choice,” as the religion pages of the newspapers of my childhood urged their readers to do. For those of the Catholic persuasion in the United States, the current Missal has a proper collect for the feast: “Father all-powerful, your gifts of love are countless and your goodness infinite; as we come before you on Thanksgiving Day with gratitude for your kindness, open our hearts to have concern for every man, woman, and child, so that we may share your gifts in loving service. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.”

Of course, one might find Mass propers of what was in origin a Protestant or at least a civic holiday a bit much. But “Eucharist” has its roots in a Greek word meaning “to give thanks,” and, indeed, there is no higher or better way to give thanks to God than to have a priest offer the Sacrifice of the Mass. Indeed, this daily offering by Christ of Himself to His Father through a priest may well be the key to our continued survival. There can be no praise too high for the Blessed Sacrament, and next to It, any other purely human attempts to give thanks to the Almighty pale in comparison.

This does not mean they are pointless, however, and the desire to give thanks to his creator for all that he has been given is both natural and laudable. From it arose in every culture on Earth harvest festivals of one kind or another. Autumn in the Northern Hemisphere and Spring in the Southern are the time when men of all races and tribes have traditionally ingathered their crops against the coming of cold weather; in days gone by, their very survival depended upon it. Giving thanks for favours granted was also an investment in the future. Therefore, it can be no surprise that all the early colonists in the Americas — French, Spanish, and English — so far from home and dependent upon a new and often unfriendly environment, were particularly fervent in thanking their God for all He had done in bringing them from their faraway homelands and sustaining them in the wilderness. So it is that Quebec, Florida, New Mexico, Virginia, and Massachusetts all claim to be the site of the first Thanksgiving. In American mythology, it is certainly the Pilgrims and Puritans who have won out.

Not too surprisingly, Thanksgiving remains a huge holiday in Plymouth, Massachusetts, where the iconic (if not actual) first celebration took place. The Pilgrim Hall Museum, Old Colony Club, and Mayflower Society all celebrate the great day in emulation of their ancestors. Given that the feasts of Christmas, Easter, and Pentecost with their attendant celebrations were banned from Calvinist New England, the celebrative spirit endemic to Mankind was transferred to this day. All through the Colonial era and into the early National Period it remained the major annual festival.

But the other, non-Puritan, colonies’ Royal Governors would also proclaim days of Thanksgiving throughout their respective realms. Moreover, these proclamations needed not anything to do with feasting, per se, but rather the end of a war, birth of a prince, and the like. In 1773, Massachusetts-Bay Governor Thomas Hutchinson issued one such “Proclamation for a Publick Thanksgiving.” This read: “Whereas it is our incumbent Duty to make our frequent publick thankful Acknowledgement to Almighty GOD our great Benefactor, as well for the Mercies of his common Providence as for the distinguishing Favours which at any Time he may see meet to confer upon us: AND WHEREAS among many other Instances of the Favour of Heaven towards us of a publick Nature in the Course of the Year past, it hath pleased God to continue the Life of our Sovereign Lord King GEORGE — of our most Gracious Queen CHARLOTTE and of the rest of the Royal Family — to succeed His Majesty’s Councils and Endeavours for Preserving Peace to the British Dominions — to continue to us a good Measure of Health — to prosper our Husbandry, Merchandize, and Fishery: I HAVE therefore thought fit to appoint, and I do, with the Advice of His Majesty’s Council, appoint Thursday the Twenty-fifth Day of November next to be a Day of Publick Thanksgiving throughout the Province, exhorting and requiring the several Societies for Religious Worship to assemble on that Day, and to offer up their devout Praises to GOD for the several Mercies aforementioned, and for all other Favours which He hath been graciously pleased to bestow upon us, accompanying their Thanksgivings with fervent Prayers that, after they shall have sang the Praises of God, they may not forget his Works. And all servile Labour is forbidden on the said Day. GIVEN at the Council-Chamber in Boston, the Twenty-eighth Day of October, in the Fourteenth Year of the Reign of our Sovereign Lord GEORGE the Third, by the Grace of GOD, of Great-Britain, France, and Ireland, KING, Defender of the Faith, &c. Anno Domini, 1773. By His Excellency’s Command, GOD Save the KING.”

During the revolution, various State governors and congresses, as well as the Continental Congress issued such proclamations, when the war was going well for the rebel side. In 1789, George Washington made another such, whose first paragraph read: “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.” The first half of the first sentence prefigured Quas Primas in an odd way. It is interesting to see also that the recent passage of the Constitution was directly referenced.

Washington’s second paragraph also reveals what he considered to be the providential nature of the new constitution: “Now therefore I do recommend and assign Thursday the 26th day of November next to be devoted by the People of these States to the service of that great and glorious Being, who is the beneficent Author of all the good that was, that is, or that will be — That we may then all unite in rendering unto him our sincere and humble thanks — for his kind care and protection of the People of this Country previous to their becoming a Nation — for the signal and manifold mercies, and the favorable interpositions of his Providence which we experienced in the course and conclusion of the late war — for the great degree of tranquility, union, and plenty, which we have since enjoyed — for the peaceable and rational manner, in which we have been enabled to establish constitutions of government for our safety and happiness, and particularly the national One now lately instituted — for the civil and religious liberty with which we are blessed; and the means we have of acquiring and diffusing useful knowledge; and in general for all the great and various favors which he hath been pleased to confer upon us.”

He then concludes with a rather more ambitious set of requests for the Almighty: “and also that we may then unite in most humbly offering our prayers and supplications to the great Lord and Ruler of Nations and beseech him to pardon our national and other transgressions — to enable us all, whether in public or private stations, to perform our several and relative duties properly and punctually — to render our national government a blessing to all the people, by constantly being a Government of wise, just, and constitutional laws, discreetly and faithfully executed and obeyed — to protect and guide all Sovereigns and Nations (especially such as have shewn kindness unto us) and to bless them with good government, peace, and concord — To promote the knowledge and practice of true religion and virtue, and the encrease of science among them and us — and generally to grant unto all Mankind such a degree of temporal prosperity as he alone knows to be best.”

Unconsciously, the Father of Our Country invoked a sense of Thanksgiving and prayer that can ultimately only be accomplished by Catholics, given that they alone can be expected to truly “promote the knowledge and practice of true religion and virtue.” Indeed, that is the duty of every Catholic in every land. Regardless of the many and interesting historical twists Thanksgiving has undergone, and especially in light of the recent election, let us remember that giving thanks — Pilgrims aside — is a uniquely Catholic duty. Let us use this day both to exercise gratitude, and to recall ourselves to the service of Him to Whom we should be grateful always. May He use us all as He sees fit — now and in the future.

Pictured: Decoration for ‘thanksgiving’ (Erntedank) in a Catholic church in Upper Austria.