Images of Thanksgiving for most are football, turkey, shopping, and the inevitable holiday weight gain, but past Thanksgivings were not predicated on excess and plenty but survival, unification, and need to stimulate the economy. Even today the roots of this holiday resonate.
However, for approximately 1.9 million executive branch civilian employees, is it another day off or a day of reflection and thankfulness?
Perhaps an OhMyGov! history of the holiday will provide some grounding.
In 1621, after a hard and devastating first year in the New World, the Pilgrims' fall harvest was very successful and plentiful and they showed their gratitude to the Native Americans for their help by hosting a feast to give thanks. While this was not the first Thanksgiving in America ("thanksgiving" services were held in Virginia as early as 1607), it was America's first Thanksgiving Festival.
The custom of an annually celebrated thanksgiving, held after the harvest, continued through the years. During the American Revolution (late 1770's) a day of national thanksgiving was suggested by the Continental Congress. On October 3, 1789, President George Washington issued a proclamation and created the first Thanksgiving Day designated by the national government of the United States of America.
By the mid-1800s, many states observed a Thanksgiving holiday. Meanwhile, the poet and editor Sarah J. Hale had begun lobbying for a national Thanksgiving holiday. In 1863 President Abraham Lincoln, looking for ways to unite the nation during the Civil War, gave his Thanksgiving Proclamation declaring the last Thursday in November a day of thanksgiving.
In 1939, 1940, and 1941 Franklin D. Roosevelt, seeking to lengthen the Christmas shopping season, proclaimed Thanksgiving the third Thursday in November. Controversy followed, and Congress passed a joint resolution in 1941 decreeing that Thanksgiving should fall on the fourth Thursday of November, where it remains.
Just a reminder... there is only one federal holiday left for 2009. This year Christmas falls on a Friday, so unlike last year, government workers only get the standard three-day holiday weekend.