| Happy Thanksgiving |
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| Written by WHVoice | |
| Thursday, 27 November 2008 | |
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As we mark another Thanksgiving Day, it is proper, we think, to remember why it is this day became the tradition it is. Begun in New England during colonial times, Thanksgiving Day was the premiere holiday in a land that eschewed Christmas as an affront to Puritan Christianity. It remembered those who came to this land seeking a new life, A City on a Hill. Celebrated by those pilgrims who survived that initial winter season at Plymouth, the tradition worked its way into the fabric of American life through the 19th century. After much prodding by New Englanders, the holiday was eventually extended to the entire nation as a way to counter-balance the horrors of the Civil War. It was mandated by President Abraham Lincoln to be celebrated on the last Thursday in November, and, except for moving up a week during the Great Depression, it has remained on that date. In remembrance of those pilgrims who sat in the Mayflower off the coast of Plimouth Rock, we present the compact or covenant they signed organizing the first community.
The Mayflower Compact In the Name of God, Amen. We, whose names are underwritten, the Loyal Subjects of our dread Sovereign Lord King James, by the Grace of God, of Great Britain, France, and Ireland, King, Defender of the Faith, &c. Having undertaken for the Glory of God, and the Advancement of the Christian Faith, and Honour of our King and Country a Voyage to plant the first colony in the northern Parts of Virginia; Do by these Presents, solemnly and mutually in the Presence of God and one another, covenant and combine ourselves together into a Civil Body Politick, for our better Ordering and Preservation, and Furtherance of the Ends aforesaid; And by Virtue hereof do enact, constitute and frame, such just and equal Laws, Ordinances, Acts, Constitutions and Offices, from time to time, as shall be thought most meet and convenient for the general Good of the Colony; until which we promise all due Submission and Obedience. In WITNESS whereof we have hereunto subscribed our names at Cape Cod, the eleventh of November, in the Reign of our Sovereign Lord King James of England, France and Ireland, the eighteenth and of Scotland the fifty-fourth. Anno Domini, 1620. |
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