Thanksgiving in Church History

What shaped the Thanksgiving holiday as we know it? Today, Stephen Nichols explores the holiday’s roots in colonial America, significant presidential proclamations, and enduring reflections on gratitude drawn from great figures in church history.

Welcome back to another episode of 5 Minutes in Church History. This is a special episode. Tomorrow is Thanksgiving Day. That is of course, if you are an American, Puerto Rican, Mexican, or Brazilian. All four of those places celebrate Thanksgiving on the fourth Thursday of November. And I thought on this occasion we would walk through the history of Thanksgiving as a holiday in the United States.

We have to go back to colonial times, and we could go up to New England to Massachusetts. And at various times at the end of the 1600s, the colony of Massachusetts or the colony of Connecticut would issue Thanksgiving proclamations and set aside a day for fasting and prayer and the giving of thanks for all of God's blessings. These tended to be in November, sometimes in early December, but the Virginians have New England beat. The first recorded act of Thanksgiving by English colonists in North America occurred in Virginia on December 4, 1619, but Florida has Virginia beat even still. These, however, were not English colonists. These were Huguenots, sailed all across the sea, landed on the coast of Florida, set up Fort Caroline just north of St. Augustine. And way back in 1564, we had our first Thanksgiving Day service on American soil as they sang hymns, as they gave prayers of Thanksgiving, and as they had a feast.

Well, as we move along in the colonial era, let's move forward to March 16, 1776. On that day, John Hancock, a few months before he put his signature on the Declaration of Independence, signed a day of fasting and humiliation and thanksgiving on March 16, 1776. November 1, 1777, while the war was underway, the Second Continental Congress issued a national proclamation for a day of thanksgiving and praised to be held on December 18 to commemorate the victory of the colonial forces at Saratoga. Then the United States became a nation, and in 1789, George Washington, after a congressional resolution, issued the first national thanksgiving proclamation.

Abraham Lincoln also issued a proclamation setting Thanksgiving as an annual holiday on the last Thursday of November. He did that in 1863 as an effort to try to unify the nation during the Civil War. Then we move into another era of war, and we move into 1941. In that year, Roosevelt's signature appeared on two very crucial acts. The first was on December 8, 1941, and that was a declaration of war, and the second was on December 26, 1941. And that act permanently set the fourth Thursday of November as Thanksgiving Day.

Well, that's a little history of the holiday of Thanksgiving. I thought I'd dip back into church history and visit with some of our friends and hear what they have to say about the subject of gratitude and thanksgiving. Let's go to Augustine, “O, my Lord, let me remember with gratitude and confess to Thee Thy mercies toward me.” Augustine even said, “Gratitude is the first sign of a thinking rational creature.” Or how about Anselm? “I thrice owe Thee all that I am, O my God.” And of course, we can't leave out Luther. Luther once said, “We cannot give God anything, for everything is already His, and all that we have comes from Him. We can only give Him praise and thanks and honor.” Or Calvin saying similarly, “A gratitude is the only thing of value we have to offer. It seems so small, so inconsequential, yet it is absolutely necessary.” And then let's end with that quote from that famous telegram that Machen sent just before he died, “I'm so thankful for the active obedience of Christ. No hope without it.”

Well, to my American and Puerto Rican and Mexican and Brazilian friends, I hope you have a happy Thanksgiving Day tomorrow. And to all of you, I just want to say thank you.