Thanksgiving Day Proclamations

Well, it's Thanksgiving season again! It's time for some healthy doses of the symbolic turkey, watching football matches and the famous Thanksgiving parades, meeting family and friends, and making trips to nearby holiday destinations. Even though Thanksgiving is a harvest festival, it is celebrated with immense fervor and magnificence throughout the United States of America, the key nation observing this frivolous holiday. People take this occasion as an opportunity to thank God for the bountiful food collected at the end of the harvest season and bestowing everyone with his everlasting blessings in the past season. Such is the significance of this festival that it is regarded as one of the six national holidays across the US. And since it falls on a Thursday, most organizations and offices are closed on Friday, thereby giving most people to enjoy a four-day weekend.

Thanksgiving Day proclamations given by various Presidents of the United States of America are the best resources to understand the historical significance and true meaning of Thanksgiving as the national holiday of the nation. Our collection includes the very first Thanksgiving Proclamation of 1676, issued by the governing council of Charlestown, Massachusetts; the 1789 Thanksgiving Proclamation by George Washington; the proclamations of Abraham Lincoln in 1864 and 1864; the Ronald Reagan's Thanksgiving Proclamations from 1981 to 1988; the Thanksgiving Proclamations by Bill Clinton in 1996, 1999 and 2000; and the Thanksgiving Proclamation by George W. Bush, issued in 2001. Raid this section to know the different proclamations announced by these eminent personalities of the USA.

First Thanksgiving Proclamation
The Holy God having by a long and Continual Series of his Afflictive dispensations in and by the present Warr with the Heathen Natives of this land, written and brought to pass bitter things against his own Covenant people in this wilderness, yet so that we evidently discern that in the midst of his judgements he hath remembered mercy,

Thanksgiving Day Proclamation 1789
Whereas it is the duty of all nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey His will, to be grateful for His benefits, and humbly to implore His protection and favour; and Whereas both Houses of Congress have, by their joint committee, requested me "to recommend

Thanksgiving Day Proclamation 1863
The year that is drawing towards its close has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies. To these bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the source from which they come, others have been added which are of so extraordinary a nature that they cannot fail to penetrate and soften even the heart,

Thanksgiving Day Proclamation 1864
It has pleased Almighty God to prolong our national life another year, defending us with his guardian care against unfriendly designs from abroad, and vouchsafing to us in His mercy many and signal victories over the enemy, who is of our own household. It has also pleased our Heavenly Father to favor as well our citizens in their homes as our soldiers in their campus,

Thanksgiving Day Proclamation 1981
America has much for which to be thankful. The unequaled freedom enjoyed by our citizens has provided a harvest of plenty to this nation throughout its history. In keeping with America's heritage, one day each year is set aside for giving thanks to god for all of His blessings. On this day of thanksgiving, it is appropriate that we recall the first thanksgiving,

Thanksgiving Day Proclamation 1982
Two hundred years ago, the Congress of the United States issued a Thanksgiving Proclamation stating that it was "the indispensable duty of all nations" to offer both praise and supplication to God. Above all other nations of the world, America has been especially blessed and should give special thanks. We have bountiful harvests, abundant freedoms,

Thanksgiving Day Proclamation 1983
Since the Pilgrims observed the initial Thanksgiving holiday in 1621, this occasion has served as a singular expression of the transcending spiritual values that played an instrumental part in the founding of our country.

Thanksgiving Day Proclamation 1984
As we remember the faith and values that made America great, we should recall that our tradition of Thanksgiving is older than our Nation itself. Indeed, the Native American Thanksgiving antedated those of the new Americans. In the words of the eloquent Seneca tradition of the Iroquois, "...give it your thought, that with one mind we may now give thanks to Him

Thanksgiving Day Proclamation 1985
Although the time and date of the first American thanksgiving observance may be uncertain, there is no question but that this treasured custom derives from our Judeo-Christian heritage. "Unto Three, O God, do we give thanks," the Psalmist sang, praising God not only for the "wondrous works" of His creation, but for loving guidance and deliverance from dangers.

Thanksgiving Day Proclamation 1986
Perhaps no custom reveals our character as a Nation so clearly as our celebration of Thanksgiving Day. Rooted deeply in our Judeo-Christian heritage, the practice of offering thanksgiving underscores our unshakable belief in God as the foundation of our Nation and our firm reliance upon Him from whom all blessings flow.

Thanksgiving Day Proclamation 1987
Thanksgiving Day is one of our most beloved holidays, an occasion set aside by Americans from earliest times to thank our Maker prayerfully and humbly for the blessings and the care He bestows on us and on our beautiful, bountiful land. Through the decades, through the centuries, in log cabins, country churches, cathedrals,

Thanksgiving Day Proclamation 1988
The celebration of Thanksgiving Day is one of our Nation's most venerable and cherished traditions. Almost 200 years ago, the first President of these United States, George Washington, issued the first national Thanksgiving Day Proclamation under the Constitution and recommended to the American people that they "be devoted

Thanksgiving Day Proclamation 1996
America's oldest tradition, Thanksgiving is also a reaffirmation of our most deeply held values; a public recognition that, in the words of Thomas Jefferson, "God who gave us life gave us liberty." In gratitude for God's gift of freedom and "for all the great and various favors which he hath been pleased to confer upon us," George Washington made

Thanksgiving Day Proclamation 1999
Well over three and a half centuries ago, strengthened by faith and bound by a common desire for liberty, a small band of Pilgrims sought out a place in the New World where they could worship according to their own beliefs. Surviving their first harsh winter in Massachusetts and grateful to a merciful God for a sustaining harvest,

Thanksgiving Day Proclamation 2000
We have much to be grateful for this Thanksgiving Day. Our Nation is free, prosperous, and at peace. The remarkable growth in human knowledge and technological innovation offers real hope for defeating the age-old enemies of humanity: poverty, famine, and disease. Our dynamic economy continues to generate millions of new jobs,

Thanksgiving Day Proclamation 2001
Nearly half a century ago, President Dwight Eisenhower proclaimed Thanksgiving as a time when Americans should celebrate "the plentiful yield of our soil.the beauty of our land.the preservation of those ideals of liberty and justice that form the basis of our national life, and the hope of international peace." Now, in the painful aftermath of the September 11 attacks