NOVEMBER 26: Thanksgiving Day
“In 1620 as we all well know,” said daddy, “a ‘little band of Pilgrims’ came to this country, brave, fearless souls who had already met with difficulties and were not afraid to face more. They had already tried to cross the Atlantic but their ships had leaked and they had had to go back.
“But they would have nothing to do with such a word as failure—and this is I think in itself an inspiration to all of us when we feel discouraged and as though we were failing in what we were trying to do—and so at last the Mayflower left Plymouth in Devonshire, England, and anchored on the American coast on November twenty-first.
“Here they were going to have freedom, and though the trip had been a terrible one and though there were only a hundred of them all told to keep up each other’s spirits, they did not lose heart.
“They had planned to land on the New Jersey coast, but driven as they had been by gales and storms they found themselves on the Northern shore of Cape Cod, New England. Finally they chose Plymouth for their colony. Then came a terrible winter when over half of their number died, but in the spring those who had lived through the winter still would not use the word failure—and decided to stay on.
“And then, at last, came harvest time, and hope and great thankfulness was in the hearts of these people. So that in the autumn in 1621 they set aside a day in which they gave ‘solemn Thanksgiving to the glorious Hearer of Prayers!’
“The first national celebration of Thanksgiving was in 1789 when George Washington named Thursday, November 26th of that year, as a day to be observed in which to give thanks for the blessings of the year.
“It was Abraham Lincoln who recommended that the last Thursday in November should be observed as a day of Thanksgiving.
“And ever since then it has been observed each year all over the country, and not from time to time in the different states according to whether their governors proclaimed it as such. Formerly that had been the custom.
“So it was Lincoln who gave us this day as a National holiday and day of Thanksgiving for every year. But it was because of that little group of people so many years ago that we have so much for which to be thankful.
“Sometimes it is hard to think that such terrible days followed one after the other, for the country is so big and prosperous and cultivated now. But everything has to be begun. And it seems to me that our present-day joyous Thanksgivings are just what those people, so full of pluck, would have wanted us to have. For people who could be so brave and who could endure so much for what they believed was right, could not help but have hearts full of love and capable of great happiness.”