[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 152 (2006), Part 17]
[House]
[Page 22020]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                         WHY THANKSGIVING DAY?

  (Mr. POE asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute.)
  Mr. POE. Mr. Speaker, in 1621, the Pilgrims held a 3-day festival 
giving thanks to the Lord for a bountiful harvest. They celebrated with 
the Indians, who had also suffered through a previously hard winter. 
This feast would become the birth of our national holiday of 
Thanksgiving.
  President Franklin Delano Roosevelt made the fourth Thursday of 
November the official Thanksgiving day, which we celebrate Thursday 
next. For the first 150 years, Thanksgiving was celebrated whenever the 
Colonists believed it was necessary to do so. President George 
Washington stated in the first Thanksgiving proclamation authorized by 
Congress in 1789: ``It is the duty of all nations to acknowledge the 
providence of Almighty God, to be grateful for His benefits and to 
request His protection and favor. I recommend to the people of the 
United States a day of public Thanksgiving and prayer to show the many 
favors of the Almighty and especially the opportunity for this form of 
government.''
  So as this Nation, Mr. Speaker, seems to move toward a secular 
country, we would do well to remember the purpose of Thanksgiving and 
the words of the Good Book, which says: ``Unless the Lord watches over 
the city, those that guard the walls do so in vain.''
  And that's just the way it is.

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