THANKSGIVING DAY 



5780 



THANKSGIVING DAY 



Suggestive Program for 

 Thanksgiving 



The wee bird has its nest, 



Safe in the tree so tall ; 

 For birdlings' nest, for children's homes, 



I thank the Lord for all. 



Thanksgiving Hymn Montgomery 



A Thanksgiving Lucy Larcom 



Reading of the Thanksgiving 

 Proclamation 



When the Frost Is on the Punkin. .Riley 

 Essay, The First Thanksgiving 



.Thanksgiving Day Lydia M. Child 



Autumn Fires Stevenson 



Essay, The Pilgrims' Journey to 

 America 



What the Wood Fire Said to the 



Little Boy Frank L. Stanton 



The Pumpkin Whittier 



Fable of the Ant and the Grass- 

 hopper 



The Story of a Seed 

 Thanksgiving quotations 



The Gift of Maize, from Hiawa- 

 tha's Fasting Longfellow 



Tableaux 



Puritans going to church 

 The Puritan (Deacon Chapin) 

 Priscilla and John Alden . 

 A Thanksgiving dinner in old New 



England 



The visit of an Indian chief 

 Landing on Plymouth Rock 



Song, We Thank Thee 



giving, and while the purpose has become less 

 specific, the festival still takes place late in the 

 autumn after the crops have been gathered. 

 Indeed, it is probably an outgrowth of the 

 harvest celebrations of England. 



The First Thanksgiving in the New World. 

 In Plymouth Colony the first dreadful winter, 

 during which almost half of the Pilgrim com- 

 pany died, had passed, and renewed hope had 

 grown up with the summer. With the fall, the 

 corn crop was gathered, and Governor Brad- 

 ford decreed a day of thanksgiving. Great were 

 the preparations the few women in the colony 

 ' spent days before boiling and baking and roast- 

 ing; and even the children were busy turning 

 the roasts on the spits- before the open fires. 

 As guests, there were more than fourscore 

 friendly Indians, who brought as their share of 

 the feast wild turkeys and venison from the 

 woods. The tables were set out of doors, and 

 the company sat about them as one big family. 

 This first Thanksgiving, however, was not 

 merely a feast there were prayers and ser- 

 mons and songs of praise; and three days had 

 gone by before the Indians returned to their 

 forest and the colonists to their tasks. 



Later History. From Plymouth the custom 

 spread to the other colonies, until in time the 

 governor of each issued such a proclamation 

 annually. During the Revolutionary War eight 

 special thanksgiving days were observed after 

 signal victories or wonderful deliverances from 

 danger, and President Washington issued a gen- 

 eral thanksgiving-day proclamation in 1789. In 

 the same year the Protestant Episcopal Church 

 in America announced the first Thursday in 

 November as a regular annual day for giving 

 thanks, "unless another day be appointed by 

 the civil authorities." 



But there was no uniformity. Some states 

 had an annual thanksgiving, others did not, 

 and no proclamation was issued by the Presi- 

 dent. One woman, Mrs. Sarah Josepha Hale, 

 the editor of Godey's Lady Book, took an in- 

 tense interest in the subject, and for twenty 

 years sent out pleas through the columns of her 

 journal for a nation-wide thanksgiving. Nor 

 did she stop at this. She wrote letters to each 

 of the Presidents; and finally, in 1863, her ef- 

 forts were rewarded, for President Lincoln ap- 

 pointed the last Thursday of November as 

 Thanksgiving Day. Thus Mrs. Hale won the 

 title of the "Mother of Thanksgiving." 



From 1863 the same day has been regularly 

 set apart. The President annually makes a 

 formal announcement, and the governors of the 



