A More Old-Fashioned Thanksgiving

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In my introduction post to this series, How to Live a More Old-Fashioned Life, I explained the heart of the matter. We need to find more balance in our lives. Doing so means pulling back from the internet a bit and learning to live a more old-fashioned life. So to continue on from there, in this post I am sharing ideas on how to have A More Old-Fashioned Thanksgiving Holiday.

There is so much I could say about this topic! But I’ve decided to try to keep it simple and really get to the heart of what Thanksgiving is about.

The big question I sought to answer was;

So, when I first started to write this post, I primarily thought about our grandparents generation or the Greatest Generation (click on that link for an article about this) as they are more commonly called. Their generation had lived through The Great Depression and served in WWII. After that, they had rocketed America into a prosperity it hadn’t known before.

I wanted to know how they celebrated Thanksgiving as they had such a unique view. Having had so much hardship in their youth during the Depression and having been so intimately connected to America in their service & sacrafice in WWII, I felt this holiday would be uniquely special for them. That this could then help us develop a greater depth for this holiday’s meaning. That, in itself could be a whole awesome blog post of its own and maybe next Thanksgiving I can tackle that topic.

There is the far back history, that is more commonly known in the culture, like the story of the Pilgrims and Native Americans. But I didn’t need to go that far back to find my answer.

I found exactly what I was looking for in 1863.

To give some background, America was about halfway through the Civil War at this point. That year was very pivotal in the war. I’m the type that when reading historical text, I like to see what the context of that time period was to gain greater understanding of the author’s meaning. If you’d like to dive deeper, this link here to Library of Congress has a timeline of the events that happened leading up to when Abraham Lincoln gave this proclamation in 1863.

And it is exactly what we are needing to hear at this point in America.

Let’s start with Abraham Lincoln

This except from Abraham Lincoln’s Proclamation of the Thanksgiving Holiday in 1863 showed me exactly what we celebrate on Thanksgiving and why we need it.

“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. I do therefore invite my fellow-citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next as a day of thanksgiving and praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the heavens. And I recommend to them that while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliverances and blessings they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to His tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners, or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to restore it, as soon as may be consistent with the divine purposes, to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquillity, and union.”

Abraham Lincoln, Proclamation 106—Thanksgiving Day, 1863 Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/203180

If you are interested in reading the whole text, please click on the link in the notation.

As a Christian, this text comes as a beautiful reminder that our faith and our love of country (which, in reality, is just made up of our neighbors) can be harmoniously lived out together.

But for those who are not Christian; another faith or maybe agnostic or questioning, the practice of gratitude & charity is for all Americans. You could find prayers from your own faith.

Or if you are agnostic, you could find prayers written by classic American authors such as this one from Ralph Waldo Emerson;

Thanksgiving Prayer
For each new morning with its light,
For rest and shelter of the night,
For health and food,
For love and friends,
For everything thy goodness sends.

-Ralph Waldo Emerson

Below, I have written out 5 ways to celebrate a more old-fashioned Thanksgiving based off Abraham Lincoln’s Proclamation.

Pray prayers of thanksgiving to the Lord

With everything going on in our world today, it is important to stop and think about all that we do have. And most importantly, to thank the Lord for those blessings. Because in Lincoln’s proclamation, “they are the gracious gifts of the Most High God”.

Pray for our nation

Our nation desperatly needs our prayers. And so do our leaders, no matter if you politically align with them or not. We need prayers of healing for the rifts that have formed in our country. We need prayers to re-unite families that have been divided by political arguments. Imagine if a large portion of Americans did this?

Pray for those who are suffering

As Lincoln’s proclamation had asked for Americans to pray for the “widows, orphans, mourners and sufferers”, we should do so, too.

There are many Americans that have lost loved ones throughout and due to this pandemic.

There are many families facing hard decisions right now. Some, whether to do something that is against their own will or lose their job. Some have already lost their jobs. Whether you agree or not, these discussions are happening at kitchen tables all across America.

There are families who were already struggling to put food on the table, and are increasingly having to make tough choices at the grocery store due to rising inflation rates. The dollars just aren’t going far enough.

We should keep all our fellow Americans in our prayers.

Donate time, money or gifts of food to a food bank, food pantry or church in your community

Find one of these in your local community and see what they are in need of. If they need volunteers, and you are available, help out. If you are unable to help in this way, give money or gifts of foods that the food pantry are in need of.

Instead of donating to large, national charities, find the ones in your local community that are reputable and need help.

Be charitable to those around you

Remember, when visiting relatives during this holiday season, to be charitable in your conversations and actions. Don’t try to start arguments. Just enjoy the time you have together and cherish that.

Wrapping Up

So to wrap up this post, I hope it inspires you to have a more Old-Fashioned Thanksgiving.

Be sure to check out the other posts I’ve written in this series below. 

And keep an eye out for the next installment of the series, where I tackle another area of life. 

Check out the rest of my A More Old-Fashioned Life Series

How to Live a More Old-Fashioned Life

Planning & Communication

Homemaking

Quality Family Time

Hobbies

Money Management

Holiday Edition: A More Old-Fashioned Christmas