| Show ot afi 1 l W eason A the F fourth of jular juar EXCEPT Thanks thanksgiving gi is the most distinctively ively american of all out our national holl holidays days it has not alwawi been keld held so 0 o late in the year nor has hai it always been neld held everywhere at the same time originating in ID new E england it was not observed throughout the country until after the civil war when the presidents as well ail aa the governors of states began to issue thanksgiving proclamations thus it has become a symbol of national unity the custom of celebrating a thanksgiving day daydif did not originate with the pilgrims though they introduced it into this country for seven days when the harvest was over the hebrews of the old testament held their feast of tabernacles a sort of camp ing out time in memory of their period of wandering in the wilderness in october the greeks celebrated at athens their in honor of demeter the goddess of agriculture it was a festival that began with religious rites performed by married women only and that ended with a general banquet and dancing on october 4 the kept a similar festival that they called cereallo Cereal Ce realla lall to in honor of ceres their goddess of the harvest indeed there Is in almost every flur european nation a tradition of a feast to mark the end of the garnering of the crops in old england it was called Ill harvest arvest home and came down from the saxon period in scotland it was I 1 kern a word that means the lost last sheaf tho the dutch of leyden where the pilgrims spent ten years before they canio came to new bog ang land celebrated on october 3 every year a festival to ghe thanks fur for their delivery from the Spin lards in 1574 a 8 city tt tl it to our armis tice lice day in the churches a special sunday Is every fall as Il lauks iving day youth lil companion |
