Thanksgiving in “America”

THE ancient and honorable festival which we call Thanksgiving Day is at hand. In the fact that in the United States alone does the civil power set aside a day on which the people are invited to return thanks to Almighty God, the religious-minded citizen will find cause for gratification. The custom undoubtedly had its origin in pioneer New England, where under an extreme of Puritan influence it usurped for many years the place of Christmas Day. Joel and little Deborah might gambol it, in the grave fashion befitting a Puritan festival, on Thanksgiving Day, but the poor little creatures knew nothing of the Friend of children in His crib at Bethlehem. Happily, however, even in New England we can now turn our minds to God in grateful remembrance on the last Thursday in November, and feel our hearts respond with deeper gratitude as we contemplate God’s great Gift to the world on Christmas Day.

Christian folk will note with pleasure that within the last decade and a half Thanksgiving Day has assumed a more definitely religious tone than some of us knew in our childhood. Once it was a day for feasting merely, and without cakes, ale, and our national bird, the turkey, the festival was sadly incomplete. With these creature comforts at hand, the beginnings of a day of solid comfort were beyond hazard. But Mr. Volstead has deprived us of ale, that creature baptized by centuries of Christian usage, and the food profiteers have made the once abundant turkey the peculiar comfort of the opulent gullet. The rest of us must procure such meats as are in keeping with our lean purses, and season the dish liberally with thankfulness.

The custom of opening the churches for religious exercises is becoming common. There was a time when to throw open the doors on any morning save the Sabbath, savored of popery and the Gunpowder Plot. That era is passing as it should. Thanksgiving Day may be very properly celebrated with feasting, but its real purpose is lost unless we go down on our knees to return thanks to Almighty God for His countless blessings.

Governor Smith expressed one part of our duty admirably in his speech of November 13. “America cannot be unmindful of the blessings that have been showered upon her by an Almighty and Divine Providence,” said the Governor. “No one can read our history and be unmindful of the proclamation of the President of the United States, asking that on Thanksgiving Day, in grateful appreciation, we offer thanks by prayer, and at the same time pray for a continuance of that benediction.”

But we can go beyond this. For every Catholic the proper celebration of Thanksgiving Day will include, when possible, the bestowal of alms, attendance at the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, and the reception of Our Lord in Holy Communion.