Being Thankful

With the American holiday of Thanksgiving nearing, it is good to remember what this day is all about. On this day, people give thanks with feasting and prayer. The holiday is celebrated in the United States and Canada. Interesting enough, potatoes were note a part of the first celebration...Irish immigrants had not yet brought them to North America.

In America, the Pilgrims celebrated their first Thanksgiving in 1621 after the first harvest and are generally considered the founders of this holiday. These were the folks that settled in Plymouth, Massachusetts. But on December 4, 1619, a group of 38 English settlers had arrived at Berkeley Hundred, about 20 miles upstream from Jamestown, where the first permanent settlement of the Colony of Virginia was established on May 14, 1607.

This group stated that the day of arrival be observed yearly as a "day of thanksgiving" to God. On that first day, Captain John Woodleaf stated, "Wee ordaine that the day of our ships arrival at the place assigned for plantacon in the land of Virginia shall be yearly and perpetually keept holy as a day of thanksgiving to Almighty god."

Traditionally, Americans celebrate Thanksgiving on the fourth Thursday of November. Yet, the first North American Thanksgiving was celebrated in 1578 when the English Navigator, Martin Frobisher, held a formal ceremony in Newfoundland. He did this to give thanks for surviving the long sea journey, and other settlers arrived in Newfoundland, and the tradition was continued by them. This holiday is held on the second Monday in October in Canada.

Regardless of who was first or where it occurred, the point is to take time out of your busy schedule to be thankful for what you have. It isn't a day of rest before going out the next day and spending all of your money. Take the day to reflect on all of the goodness in your life.

“Be thankful for what you have; you'll end up having more. If you concentrate on what you don't have, you will never, ever have enough.” -Oprah Winfrey