What the first celebration of colonists and native people symbolized more than anything else was the coming together in peace of people with different languages, different ethnicities, different cultures, and different religions.
The Europeans were immigrants coming into a new land. It was the native peoples who helped assure their survival through the first winter, taught them much about farming, and celebrated with them their first successful crop.
Although George Washington issued the nation’s first proclamation for a day of Thanksgiving in 1789, it was not until the presidency of Abraham Lincoln, spurred by activist Sara Josepha Hale, that the November celebration was established as an annual national holiday. Lincoln’s proclamation urged all Americans to pray for “all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife” and to “heal the wounds of the nation.” These are words to live by.
Today when the drumbeat of hatred and intolerance grows louder, fueling wars worldwide, please use this Thanksgiving to set aside your own prejudices. With your family and friends, reflect on how a key moment in U.S. history epitomized the principles of acceptance, open-mindedness and peace.
To help you set the table for tolerance, check out the Recipe for Diversity and Teaching Tolerance. And for more information about the history of Thanksgiving as a U.S. national holiday, you might enjoy this video.
Kathie Malley-Morrison, Professor of Psychology
Pat Daniel, Managing Editor of Engaging Peace