This Week in Christian History: Luis Palau Born, Pope Attacked, Thanksgiving

By Michael Gryboski, Mainline Church Editor Sunday, November 25, 2018

First National Observance of Thanksgiving – November 26, 1863

This week marks the anniversary of when the national holiday Thanksgiving was first observed on the last Thursday in November, courtesy a proclamation by President Abraham Lincoln.

Although Thanksgiving proclamations had been observed in the United States before 1863, Lincoln’s proclamation, issued that October, made the holiday an annual event.

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“No human counsel hath devised nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things,” read Lincoln’s proclamation, which evidence indicates was actually written by Secretary of State William Seward.

“They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy.”