Rensselaer Union, Volume 9, Number 12, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 7 December 1876 — Old-Fashioned Thanksgiving. [ARTICLE]

Old-Fashioned Thanksgiving.

The first public Thanksgiving in New England was held in December, 1621, about a year after the landing of the Pilgrims. The harvest having been gathered, and the severest labor of the year having ended, the .Governor sent out four men, with guns, to procure material fora feast, that in a special manner they might rejoice and give thanks. The day was, as its name would indicate, a day of thanksgiving to God for his many mercies. It was also a day of general rejoicing. In short, it was a religious festival, ’without the formality and restraint of the ordinaiy Puritan Sabbath—a festival in which religion did not exclude sociality, but in ■which the two were happily combined. As the Colonies grew in size and in numbers, and friends became scattered, Thanksgiving gradually came to be a day of reunion of families, a day when all the children returned to the old homestead to meet familiar faces and exchange friendly greetings. Still, it maintained the same general character. It was pre-eminently a day of public thanksgiving, a day when all united to praise the Lord ana to return thanks for blessings, special or ordinaiy, for peace and prosperity, for abundant harvests, for freedom from any public calamity, It was customary also to remember, at this time, God’s goodness to us as a Nation, His providential guidance of the Pilgrims to our shores, and His merciful protection of their interests. They acknowledge also the blessings of good* government, of free schools, and of liberty, equality and justice to all mankind — which blessings they fully enjoved, as they supposed. It was also a* day of private thanksgiving, when individuals called to mind whatever mercies they had received, and expressed their gratitude for he same. e All hasten to the village church, where the pastor directs their thoughts above, and urges upon them the duly of obedience to the “ Father of all mercies.” Then comes the dinner—the old New England dinner, so famed in song and stoiy; the table filled with good things ana surrounded by happy faces —for a moment, all voices are hushed, while the aged sire, vfith beautiful simplicity, invokes the Divine blessing. Again, at evening time, after the pleasures of the day, the whispered secrets, the delightful little chats, the romps and games of the children are ended, the grandfather calls them all together, and, taking down the old familiar Bible, reads therefrom a chapter, and, all kneeling, he pours out his soul in praise to God for this Thanksgiving day and all its privileges. Such was the day to our fathers—a day of thanksgiving and rejoicing. Now what is ft to’ us? Has its character changed? yes, to some extent. It is still a season of religious and social festivity, but the order is reversed. It is no longer thanksgiving and rejoicing, but rejoicing first, and thanksgiving as something secondary, and of less importance. Thanksgiving day is gradually losing its old religious flavor. All the sociality is retained, as’it should be; but the religious element is being slowly crowded out.

Again Thanksgiving day is getting to be more of a name than a reality, on the part of individuals. As the comforts of life have increased with the progress of. civilization, we have learned to take them as a matter of course, without considering from whom they come—not that we are less grateful than our fathers, but that the day of gratitude is less faithfully observed by us than it was by them. ’ Now the question arises: Which is the better way ? The original way in which thanksgiving predominated, or the modern way, in which sociality predominates ? I am sure all right-minded persons will approve the good old fashioned way of keeping Thanksgiving. Let us, as we enjoy the good things of life, remember those whose means prevent a like enjoyment; those whose wants are so numerous-that they seem to have little to be thankful'for. lie who is truly grateful himself delights to confer favors upon others. Let us, then, prove our gratitude to God by caring for his poor children here below, let us make the hearts glad, and we shall surely please Him who pitieth the poor and hath compassion upon all men. “ For the Lord is good to all, and his tender mercies are over all his works.” “ Blessed be the Lord, who daily loadeth ns with benefits.”— H. W. Pope, in N. x . Observer.