Get ready. Get on your mark. Set. Go!

You have only a few days to get prepared for Thanksgiving! 

If you’re hosting the dinner, well get goin! What are you doing, sitting there reading my column. Now if you are going “Over the river and through the woods, to Grandmother’s house you go,” then start starving yourself today.

Thanksgiving. It oozes all kinds of feelings and emotions, doesn’t it? 

Do we all know how it started? Of course, we do!!

It began with the Pilgrims. In 1620, after a horrendous winter which killed half of their colony, the Pilgrims befriended the Waupina tribe of Native Americans. This tribe taught the Pilgrims some of their hunting and fishing secrets. The two united groups collected so much food that by 1621, they celebrated with a three-day feast in honor of the bounteous provision.

That first Thanksgiving probably had no turkey for dinner. Most likely the colonists dined on roast goose, corn, codfish and lobster.

That doesn’t sound too bad to me!! I like the idea of the lobster. I did roast a goose one time, and I’ll never do THAT again! 

In 1777 the Continental Congress decreed this an official holiday in all of the 13 colonies, to celebrate the victory over the British, and to give thanks to God.

Those were the days when the Congress did HELPFUL things!!

By the mid 19th century, many states celebrated the holiday, although the date often varied by weeks and even months.

A determined magazine editor by the name of Sara Josepha Hale, set about establishing a national Thanksgiving Day. She passionately believed that a national holiday would help to unite a nation headed toward civil war.

I told Fred, “There ya go! A woman was trying to find ways to make peace!”

Hale began a letter writing campaign, promoting her cause. Her efforts were rewarded by Abraham Lincoln, who saw the holiday idea as a unifying purpose as well. In 1863, four months after the battle of Gettysburg, he declared Thanksgiving a national holiday. It would be celebrated the 4th Thursday in November.

Now here’s where it gets good!

By the 20th Century, Thanksgiving was recognized as an important day of leisure, a welcome relief from the six-day work week. By the 1920s the National Football league was formed. (Is this beginning to fit together for you, dear readers?!)  

In order to boost attendance, the fledgling New York Lions devised the idea of playing a Thanksgiving Day game.

And the rest, they say, is history.

Parades also became a “Turkey Day” tradition, and department stores saw their value as a kickoff to the Christmas shopping season. The Macy’s parade began in 1924, and ever since millions have braved the cold to watch.

Gee, I hope Macy’s is still in business. Maybe we need a Walmart parade now!

That’s it. Our little history lesson! 

Most of all, Thanksgiving is about thanking God for our many, many blessings. No civilization on the face of the earth has every prospered and lived in the comfort that we do. How grateful we are to Him. And Thanksgiving is about family, and giving us time to reconnect, enjoy each other, and again, to realize how grateful we are for all that we have. And it’s a time to hold our tongue!

“It is a good thing to give thanks unto the Lord, and to sing praises unto thy name, O most High” Psalm  92:1  Happy Thanksgiving!

Judi Tabler lives in Pawnee County and is a guest columnist for the Great Bend Tribune. She can be reached at juditabler@gmail.com or juditabler@awomansview.