Thanksgiving and Thanksgiving
Day
Prayers of thanks and special thanksgiving ceremonies are common
among almost all religions after harvests and at other times. The
Thanksgiving holiday's history in North America is rooted in English traditions dating from the
Protestant. It also has aspects of a harvest festival,
even though the harvest in New England occurs well before the late-November date on which the modern
Thanksgiving holiday is celebrated. In the English tradition, days of
thanksgiving and special thanksgiving religious services
became important during the English Reformation in the reign of Henry VIII and
in reaction to the large number of religious holidays
on the Catholic calendar. Before 1536 there were 95 Church holidays, plus 52
Sundays, when people were required to attend church and forego work and sometimes pay for expensive celebrations. The 1536 reforms
reduced the number of Church holidays to 27, but some Puritans wished
to completely eliminate all Church holidays, including Christmas and Easter.
The holidays were to be replaced by specially called Days of Fasting or Days of
Thanksgiving, in response to events that the
Puritans viewed as acts of . Unexpected disasters or threats of judgement from on
high called for Days of Fasting. Special blessings, viewed as coming from God, called for Days of Thanksgiving. For
example, Days of Fasting were called on account of drought in 1611, floods in
1613, and plagues in 1604 and 1622. Days of Thanksgiving were called
following the victory over the Spanish Armada in
1588 and following the deliverance of Queen in
1705. An unusual annual Day of Thanksgiving began in 1606 following the failure
of the Gunpowder Plot in 1605 and developed into
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