Thanksgiving Day is upon us. This year it may look a little different for you, that is, if you or some of your family have decided not to gather for a traditional meal. That traditional meal of special foods we typically only eat this time of year –roasted turkey, bread stuffing, cranberry sauce, candied yams, pumpkin pie – are the centerpiece of most Thanksgiving celebrations. But did you know that the earliest Thanksgiving Day recognitions were days of fasting, not of feasting?

We have heard about the original Thanksgiving in 1621 when the Pilgrims and their Wampanoag Indian neighbors shared a meal together after the harvest. However, they did not serve up many (if any) of our traditional foods in that Thanksgiving Day, they set aside the day to give thanks for surviving a particularly harsh year. They also did not stuff themselves until they could eat no more because food was still scarce, especially with the winter coming on. Nor did they intend to kick off an annual holiday – they did not celebrate another Thanksgiving Day for another two years.

Since the time of the Pilgrims, there have been several dates for Thanksgiving Day. The New England Christian churches - particularly those of Puritan background - had days of prayer and fasting in autumn to humble themselves and give thanks to God for the harvest. This was ended with a community feast. No particular date was set on the calendar for these days of fasting because the Puritans railed against some of the annual pagan celebrations of harvest gods. Instead, their leaders sent out a proclamation to determine the date of their Thanksgiving Day for that particular year. In 1777, the Continental Congress asked the thirteen colonies to hold a day of thanksgiving after the American victory over the British at Saratoga, October 7, 1777. George Washington issued a presidential decree to have a Thanksgiving Day on November 26, 1789 after the ratification of the U.S. Constitution. He also issued a later decree, naming Thursday, February 19, 1895 as the day of thanks. John Adams followed Washington with presidential decrees, naming May 9, 1798 and April 25, 1799 as days of national "fasting and humiliation”, beckoning back to his Puritan roots. James Madison issued a similar decree after the War of 1812 had come to an end, naming Thanksgiving Day to be the second Thursday of April in 1815. It wasn’t until 1863 that Abraham Lincoln named the last Thursday of November to be the National Thanksgiving Day. All these days had two things in common: they were set aside to stop and give thanks for God’s goodness, and they were days of fasting! You were to give up food on these Thanksgiving Days, not eat until you couldn’t stand up from the table!

My how our thinking has changed since the earlier Thanksgiving Days! Did they understand something that is now lost on us as a society? They voluntarily declined to eat for a day to humble themselves in order to remind them that they had so much to be thankful for. We eat to remind ourselves of… well, what are we reminding ourselves of? Maybe it is that we are overindulgent. We overeat and then overspend as the Christmas shopping season begins. I’m not sure overindulge has any real virtue about it. It takes no discipline to be a glutton or a shopaholic. This makes me wonder if we really know how to be grateful any longer. Thankfulness doesn’t necessarily come about when I get what I want when I want it – that is selfishness. Thankfulness comes when I stop and reflect. That was the whole point of fasting on a special day. Hunger pangs have a way of reminding you to stop and think.

I am not suggesting we give up the turkey and dressing. I am suggesting we take a break to do three things: reflect on our blessings, thank those who have made our lives full of good moments, and be grateful for what we have.

Happy Thanksgiving.

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Artwork: The Embarkation of the Pilgrims, by Robert Walter Weir, 1857. Displayed at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C.