Significance of Thanksgiving Day (Last Thursday of November)

 The good and the bad started with the first breath of man .Ingratitude is as old as the sentiment gratitude.That's one reason why the Founders of America knelt on the ground and raised their faces to the sky to make a harvest day in November a red-letter day.. Thanksgiving has thus become official. Why were the pioneers impelled to pause to make thankfulness a feeling for the record? Universally accepted is the belief that the Pilgrim Fathers suffered from the great dread and the fear that they were not thankful enough.

On rising from bed, they voiced their thanksgiving for seeing the new light of day.On going to bed , they again thanked the Lord for seeing them safely  through the daylight hours. They blessed each meal. Gratitude and praise were woven into the daily ritual. They were a cornerstone in the services for the Sabbath.To thank God enough, they made of each action a tribute to the goodness and warmth and justices of the Being Who gave them life. They couldn't praise  more than by adhering to the Christian Faith on which they had not been matured. On top of all that, they still had to have Thanksgiving Day.

The Americans transplanted Thanksgiving Day to our shores. It has remained with us.We have retained Thanksgiving Day. But do we have the spirit? We have the day but we didn't have the substance.What is important is the attitude of counting one's blessing each day instead of one's tribulations. It means appreciating the good each thing has.It is building up on the solid rock of the good in every person,place and event. 

Grateful persons are optimists. They draw from each day new strength for tomorrow.They store up a fund of goodness from which to draw everyday.Use of the funds renews it with dividends in the same coin.

Grateful persons are rich in humility.They are not likely to be bloated with self importance.They are prone to see the other fellow's side.Selfishness is not a common fault among people who can say"Thank  you" with pride and sincerity.

Let each Thanksgiving Day come as a reminder that here is a virtue that we can cultivate individually and as a nation. It won't hurt to be like the Pilgrim Fathers waking each morning thanking for the new day ; retiring each night with gratitude for what has been done and hope for tomorrow. Making each deed a tribute to the goodness and warmth and justices of the Being Who gave us life.

reference : The Manila Times 1964