If it wasn't for Sarah, you and I might be at work today
instead of relaxing around a turkey dinner with family and friends on a
national holiday. Although the pilgrims and Indians were credited with
celebrating the first Thanksgiving, it is through the persistence of Mrs. Sarah
Josepha Hale that Thanksgiving was finally designated as a national holiday. Sarah
believed in the power of giving thanks and persevered through five US
presidents before Abraham Lincoln finally designated a national day of
Thanksgiving. Each successive President then issued an annual Thanksgiving Day
declaration until finally in 1941 an Act of Congress made Thanksgiving the law
of the land.
Exactly who was Sarah and why was Thanksgiving so important
to her? Born in New Hampshire in 1788, she and her siblings were educated at
home. Although women were not allowed to attend college, when her brother
Horatio attended Dartmouth, he insisted on sharing with Sarah everything he
learned.Sarah taught school and married David Hale, a lawyer who encouraged her
in her intellectual pursuits. Nine years later, David died of a stroke, leaving
Sarah to raise their five children alone.
With the support of friends, she published two books of
poetry, the second one containing her original poem that we now know as the
nursery rhyme, "Mary Had a Little Lamb." She also wrote a
novel, "Northwood" which described a New England Thanksgiving meal,
the first reference to what we now consider a traditional Thanksgiving meal,
complete with turkey and pumpkin pies.
Sarah later published a book of short stories, including one
called "The Thanksgiving of the Heart." In it she describing how a
group of people giving thanks together changes a community.
“Our good ancestors were wise, even
in their mirth. We have a standing proof of this in the season they
chose for the celebration of our annual festival,
the Thanksgiving. The funeral-faced month of November is thus
made to wear a garland of joy…
There is a deep moral influence in
these periodical seasons of rejoicing, in which a whole community
participate. They bring out, and together, as it were, the best
sympathies of our nature. The rich contemplate the enjoyments of the
poor with complacency, and the poor regard the entertainments of the rich
without envy, because all are privileged to be happy in their own
way.”
Sarah was on to something there – Thanksgiving/giving thanks
with others does change something. Hearing the blessings and struggles that
other people have experienced in the past year has a way of changing my
perspective of my own situations. Earlier today I took a long walk with a dear
friend that I haven’t seen in a year. As we talked, I realized that she and her
family had gone through several situations that I hadn’t fully pieced together
from the few letters or phone calls we have had. It made me all the more
grateful for her friendship of reaching out to me even in the midst of her own
situations, and more determined to stay better in touch in the future.
I wish you a happy Thanksgiving today – and pray that the
power of giving thanks changes us all.
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