From that first Thanksgiving feast the Wampanoag tribe shared with the Pilgrims back in the fall of 1621 to the present day, America has a history of taking time to express thanks to God for His generous blessings on this country and on us as individuals. Random days of thanksgiving were celebrated until late in the 1700s when George Washington declared a national day of thanksgiving for November 26, 1789. The celebration was focused on the formation of a new nation and the establishment of the constitution. It wasn't until Lincoln designated the last Thursday of November in 1863 as the official national day of Thanksgiving that it was celebrated annually. But as you might suspect, the date wasn't always advantageous to retailers and the Christmas shopping season. They lobbied President Franklin D. Roosevelt to change the date in 1939 because Thanksgiving fell on November 30 that year. This left only 24 days before Christmas and the U.S....
Positively encouraging