Who wants cauliflower mashed potatoes on Thanksgiving Day?
There will be some takers, especially the caloric and health-conscious eaters.
But it’s Thanksgiving!
We can splurge one day of the year without speaking about the H or healthy word. Let your conscience and gut be your guides, whether cauliflower mashed potatoes or the Real Mccoy like Idaho potatoes.
I’m getting it on with mashed potatoes, cornbread dressing, macaroni and cheese, cake and pies, and other holiday goodies on Thanksgiving Day. But it wouldn’t be a Thanksgiving dinner without the TT, the Thanksgiving turkey.
I’ve never heard of anyone pardoning a turkey except the U.S. President. The only pardon I hear is: “Pardon or excuse me, I would like a slice of turkey, please.”
The turkey adorns and takes center stage on millions of dinner tables on Thanksgiving Day.
Have we always had Thanksgiving?
Well, every day is a day of thanks and gratitude, and God gets the glory. But there’s also one day designated as a national day of Thanksgiving in America. And it all began with the Pilgrims.
Historians say colonial Pilgrims celebrated their successful autumn harvest of corn with Native Americans in the New World with a feast. Although this celebratory feast wasn’t initially called Thanksgiving, it is acknowledged as one of the first Thanksgiving celebrations in the colonies. The Pilgrims thanked God for their harvest and the help of the Native Americans, who taught them how to fish and grow corn. This feast and celebratory Thanksgiving was held in November around 1621.
And now, Thanksgiving is a national holiday. Thanksgiving Day is always on the same day of the week, Thursday, but the yearly date may differ. Thanksgiving 2023 falls on November 23, the fourth Thursday in the month. Before `1941, Thanksgiving was the last Thursday in November.
Congress settled on a specific Thursday to lessen any impact on the impending Christmas holiday season.
Like the Pilgrims, we continue to thank God for His provisions and blessings, and as many as do thank Him daily.
Even though Thanksgiving isn’t a Christian holiday, thanking God is a natural Christian behavior and principle.
First Thessalonians 5:18 (KJV) says, “In everything give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.”
First Chronicles 16:34 (NIV) says, “Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good, his love endures forever.”
Giving thanks daily and Thanksgiving Day are proper times to thank God for his many blessings.
A Thanksgiving poem by Lizelia Agusta Jenkins Moorer
Thanksgiving
Let us give thanks to God above,
Thanks for expressions of His love,
Seen in the book of nature, grand
Taught by His love on every hand.
Let us be thankful in our hearts,
Thankful for all the truth imparts,
For the religion of our Lord,
All that is taught us in His word.
Let us be thankful for a land,
That will for such religion stand;
One that protects it by the law,
One that before it stands in awe.
Thankful for all things let us be,
Though there be woes and misery;
Lessons they bring us for our good-
Later ’twill all be understood.
Thankful for peace o’er land and sea,
Thankful for signs of liberty,
Thankful for homes, for life and health,
Pleasure and plenty, fame and wealth.
Thankful for friends and loved ones, too,
Thankful for all things, good and true,
Thankful for harvest in the fall,
Thankful to Him who gave it all.
Happy Thanksgiving 2023!
Be well.