Thanksgiving is one flexible holiday.

It has been a political vehicle, played a part in splitting the nation from its religious foundations, been transformed into an extravagant retail opportunity, and underneath it all, it celebrates the influence of an Almighty power on our nation today.

To tell the holiday's story can be tricky, since after more than 300 years of Thanksgiving traditions, sometimes it can be difficult to separate the fact from the folklore. Here's a broad overview.

Yes, there really were pilgrims and Indians sitting down together at early Thanksgiving celebrations. But more often than not, they seemed to have been fighting each other, not feasting together.

Historical records tell of a number of feasts being disrupted by Indian uprisings, and recorded speeches often give praise to God for "victory over the savages."

Yes, ladies and gentlemen, after-Thanksgiving sales are a part of Americana. So powerful is our national craving to shop, in fact, that Theodore Roosevelt tried moving Thanksgiving to the third Thursday in November in order to create more shopping days before Christmas.

Unfortunately, the date change interfered with another American institution, watching football, so after much public protest, the holiday was set for the fourth Thursday of November by a Congressional Joint Resolution in 1941.

However, buried deep beneath the food, the football games and the piles of Christmas decorations brought out way too early, in its history, Thanksgiving's purpose still gleams.

Although "thanks-giving" celebrations have occurred sporadically throughout America's history, Thanksgiving as a national observance got started in 1775, when the Continental Congress, "considering the present critical, alarming, and calamitous state of these colonies," deemed it necessary to reserve Thursday, the 20th of July as "a day of public humiliation, fasting and prayer" to God.

In 1777, another national Thanksgiving was instituted to celebrate a key American victory over the British and in 1789, members of Congress approached President Washington, asking him to "recommend to the people of the United States a day of public thanksgiving and prayer to be observed by acknowledging, with grateful hearts, the many signal favors of Almighty God, especially by affording them an opportunity peaceably to establish a Constitution of government for their safety and happiness."

Washington agreed to their request, beginning the first presidential Thanksgiving Proclamation: "Whereas it is the duty of all Nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God . . ." and establishing a form of address still followed by presidents today.

But not every president was as willing to exercise his power to make such proclamations.

Thomas Jefferson's famous "Wall of Separation" letter, which contains some of his earliest remarks on the separation of church and state was actually intended as an explanation of his refusal to proclaim national days of thanksgiving and prayer.

After that, the holiday dwindled in popularity. Madison's Thanksgiving declaration of 1815 would be the last for decades.

It was Sarah Josepha Hale, editor of the "Boston Ladies' Magazine" and "Godey's Lady's Book" who next took up Thanksgiving's banner. For 36 years, she printed editorials, wrote letters, and generally harangued governors, senators and presidents in her quest to re-establish the holiday to its once-national prominence, determined that it would not lose its religious consequence in the process.

As she said in an 1858 editorial, "Let this day, from this time forth, as long as our Banner of Stars floats on the breeze, be the grand THANKSGIVING HOLIDAY of our nation, when the noise and tumult of worldliness may be exchanged for . . .the humble gratitude of the Christian heart."

Hale was confident that a governmentally-sponsored day of gratitude could unite the nation, a notion that President Abraham Lincoln found very appealing during the strife caused by the Civil War. Accordingly, after Union victory at Gettysburg, President Lincoln, "in the midst of a civil war of unequaled magnitude and severity," delivered an address thanking God for blessing the American people:

"No human counsel hath devised nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy. It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently and gratefully acknowledged as with one heart and one voice by the whole American People," he said in his Thanksgiving Proclamation of 1863.

Every president since then has followed Lincoln's example, proclaiming at least one day of Thanksgiving per year. As President Bush told Americans last year in his own Thanksgiving Proclamation: "During these extraordinary times, we find particular assurance from our Thanksgiving tradition, which reminds us that we, as a people and individually, always have reason to hope and trust in God, despite great adversity."

Thanksgiving has been through many permutations. But minus the feast and the football, our holiday still remains much the same as that celebrated by our ancestors, since the reason for Thanksgiving throughout history hasn't been victory, politics, or even neighborliness. It is a time to acknowledge God's hand in our lives and the success of our nation, something that remains as necessary today as it was more than 300 years ago.
Copyright Brigham Young University 22 Nov 2002