Abraham Lincoln’s Thanksgiving Proclamation is the origin of our national holiday that is so quintessentially American. He was spurred on by Sarah Hale, a magazine editor and ardent campaigner for Thanksgiving as a national event.
It is a great unifier, so much so that even expatriates will celebrate it as their link to America. I am unsure whether it can operate as perhaps Lincoln intended, to ease the divisions and remind people of our great common cause. But it can at the very least be a day of respite from the exhausting and painful and disturbing events of recent years.
Have a happy and healthy and peaceful Thanksgiving!
