Thanksgiving

[PictureGuy]

The American Thanksgiving is coming up next week, and I am about to go visit family. I know. The busiest time of the year for travel. What was I thinking? Oh, well.

Now we all learned in school how the Pilgrims started this holiday, but the American Thanksgiving actually has nothing to do with the Pilgrims. Rather it has everything to do with the Civil War. The modern Thanksgiving is actually traced back to a proclamation by Abraham Lincoln in 1863, as an answer to suffering morale in the country as the war dragged on:



Note his statement of God "dealing with us in anger." Is Lincoln saying that the Civil War came in punishment for our sins?

Also note that he does not speak of a Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist, or any other particular concept of God. Lincoln speaks in generalities. (The phrase at the end, "year of our Lord" is more of a legal phrase used in certain government documents.) This is in line with Lincoln's own views. He did not believe in organized religion. He did read his Bible, but did not take it literally. Lincoln felt that belief in God is personal, and thus leaves his proclamation open for all sects.

No mention of turkey and football, however.

[Digimon_Sommelier]

Happy Thanksgiving, AF!!