Thanksgiving became a holiday | Rapp Report Daily 0188 | Striving for Eternity

Welcome to the Rapid Bull, daily edition, where we provide a quick biblical interpretations and

applications.

This is a ministry of striving for eternity.

So the first Thanksgiving was in 1621.

You may not realize that it wasn't until 1863, under

President Abraham Lincoln, that it was proclaimed a national holiday.

It hadn't actually been celebrated in 1622.

No, it was 1623 when Governor Bradford called for a religious

fast because of the fact that there was a long and threatening drought that year that was threatening harvest.

And he called for a religious fast, and the breaking of that

was a time of thanksgiving.

But that ended up starting a time of giving thanks.

It was not universal throughout all the colonies.

They celebrated at different times, always in November, it seemed.

But you end up seeing that our country didn't actually have a holiday known as Thanksgiving.

But thanks to a woman, Sarah Hale, and we're going to get to her a little bit more on the next episode.

But what you see with her is she put on a 30 -year letter writing campaign.

Who is she?

Well, you may know of her.

She is the author of a nursery rhyme, Mary Had a Little Lamb.

She spent 30 years writing to Congress to make the holiday Thanksgiving a

holiday, to nationalize it.

And it was Abraham Lincoln who finally had done that.

She did so because she had read about the Puritans and saw what they had done and wanted to have a

day of Thanksgiving for what they had done when they came to this country.

Tomorrow, we're going to talk about what they ate.

This podcast is part of the Striving for Eternity ministry.

For more content, or to request a speaker or seminar to your church, go to strivingforeternity .org.