JAMAICA, AMERICA AND THANKSGIVING DAY

From start to finish he made it abundantly clear that Thanksgiving Day was about the Almighty God and nobody else!
I must confess that from that day I have come to appreciate Thanksgiving Day in the USA. Now please do not get me wrong, my appreciation for that particular holiday has nothing to do with the fact that it is an American holiday.

After all, the US is not the only nation in this hemisphere which has Thanksgiving Day holiday. Canada also has such a holiday which is celebrated on the second Monday in October of every year. What struck me about thanksgiving in the US were its remarkable history and its religious significance.

PRAYER AND FASTING

According to the history book, Thanksgiving Day was first celebrated in the early colonial times in New England. After the first harvest was completed by the Plymouth colonists in 1621, Governor William Bradford proclaimed a day of thanksgiving and prayer, shared by all colonists and neighbouring Native Americans.

In 1623 a day of prayer and fasting during a period of drought was changed to one of thanksgiving because the rain came during the prayer.

Gradually the custom prevailed in New England of annually celebrating thanksgiving after the harvest. During the American Revolution a yearly day of national thanksgiving was suggested by the Continental Congress.

Then in 1817 the then New York State adopted Thanksgiving Day as an annual custom, and by the middle of the 19th century many other states had done the same. In 1863 President Abraham Lincoln appointed a day of thanksgiving. Since then each president has issued a Thanksgiving Day proclamation, generally designating the fourth Thursday of November as a holiday.

So there we have it, a holiday steeped in tradition and true Christian values. A holiday which had its genesis in the harvest fields and evolved into a nation wide celebration!

TURKEY

Of special significance is the fact that it is the only religious holiday in the US which has not been significantly tainted by commercialism. Granted, the US does there are really not many commer¬cial distractions from the essence of the holiday.

This is more than can be said about so many of our traditional religious holidays. Take Easter and Christmas for example. On a yearly basis there seems to be more emphasis on bun and cheese, sorrel and cake, greeting cards and presents. Easter eggs and Christmas trees than on Jesus the Christ! Of course, one is not saying that these things are wrong in and of themselves but we must not forget the real reason for the season! We must not allow Easter or Christmas to be completely tainted by commercialism.

Finally, the religious significance of a Thanksgiving Day is evident in the fact that it encourages and challenges individuals to realize the importance of simple giving God thanks for all that He has done, is doing and will do.

You see, oftentimes we can become so unmindful of or so ungrateful towards God that we fail to give Him all the praise and all the glory. Thanksgiving Day serves as a timely reminder that Almighty God is still worthy of praise and thanksgiving.

I believe that now more than ever Jamaica needs to, as a nation, take time out to give thanks to the Lord for all His goodness towards us. Yes, in the midst of all the doom and gloom, sadness and sorrow, crime and violence we need to "count our many blessings, name them one by one, and it will surprise us what the Lord has done"! If only more of us could adopt an attitude of gratitude, what a difference it would make, not only to ourselves but our surroundings as well.