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  • 2012-11-19 (xsd:date)
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  • Washington's Thanksgiving Proclamation? (en)
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  • Although the observance of thanksgiving ceremonies in the North American colonies that now constitute the United States dates to the 17th century, many years elapsed before Americans settled on a fixed date for a national Thanksgiving holiday. The date on which Thanksgiving was celebrated varied from state to state until President Abraham Lincoln issued a proclamation in October 1863, calling upon the entire nation to observe the last Thursday of November [1863] as a day of thanksgiving and praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the heavens. And not until 1941 did Congress pass legislation establishing the fourth Thursday in November as the Federal Thanksgiving Day holiday we now observe. However, it was President George Washington who first issued a proclamation calling upon all the people of the United States to observe a day of public thanksgiving and prayer on a specific date. In 1789, the first year of Washington's presidency, the U.S. Congress approved a resolution requesting that President Washington recommend to the people of the United States a day of public thanksgiving and prayer: Although the Thanksgiving Proclamation issued by President Washington in 1789 did not literally state that Americans should be thankful for the happy conclusion to the country's war of independence and the successful ratification of the U.S. Constitution (as quoted in the above example), it did embody those concepts, recommending that the people of the United States observe 26 November 1789 as an occasion for giving thanks to Almighty God for the favorable interpositions of his Providence which we experienced in the course and conclusion of the late war and for the peaceable and rational manner in which we have been enabled to establish constitutions of government for our safety and happiness: As noted at the University of Virginia's The Papers of George Washington web site, the day of thanksgiving proclaimed by President Washington was widely celebrated throughout the fledgling United States of America: (en)
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