"By the Goodness of God .....

..... we are so farre from want, that we often wish you partakers of our plentie." ..... There are two primary sources for the events of autumn, 1621, in Plymouth, Massachusetts, on the occasion of the first Thanksgiving celebration. You can read them here.

The precedent for an official, national day of Thanksgiving was set in 1863 - during one of the darkest periods of American history - by President Abraham Lincoln, who proclaimed, "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 which is habitually insensible to the ever watchful providence of Almighty God." Read his entire proclamation here.

Frank at Books, Inq. linked me to this column in the Wall Street Opinion Journal by Joseph Epstein, who wrote, "I wish the poet W. H. Auden were still alive, so that he might be at the same table where I eat my Thanksgiving dinner. Auden, I think, nicely captured the spirit of Thanksgiving when he wrote that, in prayer, it is best to get the begging part over with quickly and get on to the gratitude part. He also wrote, 'let all your thinks be thanks.'"

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!