Russell said:
So, guys, I've never actually bothered looking this up, and can't really be arsed. What actually is thanksgiving all about?
The Real Story of the First Thanksgiving
By Benjamin Franklin (1785)
There is a tradition that in the planting of New England, the first settlers met with many difficulties and hardships, as is generally the case when a civilizd people attempt to establish themselves in a wilderness country. Being so piously disposd, they sought relief from heaven by laying their wants and distresses before the Lord in frequent set days of fasting and prayer. Constant meditation and discourse on these subjects kept their minds gloomy and discontented, and like the children of Israel there were many disposd to return to the Egypt which persecution had inducd them to abandon.
At length, when it was proposed in the Assembly to proclaim another fast, a farmer of plain sense rose and remarkd that the inconveniences they sufferd, and concerning which they had so often wearyd heaven with their complaints, were not so great as they might have expected, and were diminishing every day as the colony strengthend; that the earth began to reward their labour and furnish liberally for their subsistence; that their seas and rivers were full of fish, the air sweet, the climate healthy, and above all, they were in the full enjoyment of liberty, civil and religious.
He therefore thought that reflecting and conversing on these subjects would be more comfortable and lead more to make them contented with their situation; and that it would be more becoming the gratitude they owd to the divine being, if instead of a fast they should proclaim a thanksgiving. His advice was taken, and from that day to this, they have in every year observd circumstances of public felicity sufficient to furnish employment for a Thanksgiving Day, which is therefore constantly ordered and religiously observed.
