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Thanksgiving - Religious Holiday????

Is Thanksgiving A Religious Holiday?

  • Yes

    Votes: 3 15.0%

  • No

    Votes: 16 80.0%

  • Used to be, but not anymore

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • other - please explain

    Votes: 1 5.0%
  • Total voters
    20
Obviously, no.

It's an American holiday that has no roots in any religion.
 
Dragonfly said:
Why "obviously"?

I'm betting somebody here disagrees quite strongly.
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It's an American holiday that has no roots in any religion. So by definition, it is not a religious holiday.
 
Abraham Lincoln:

The text of Lincoln's 1863 Thanksgiving proclamation follows:
October 3, 1863
By the President of the United States
A Proclamation
The year that is drawing toward its close has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies. To these bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the source from which they come, others have been added, which are of so extraordinary a nature that they cannot fail to penetrate and soften the heart which is habitually insensible to the ever-watchful providence of Almighty God.
In the midst of a civil war of unequaled magnitude and severity, which has sometimes seemed to foreign states to invite and provoke their aggressions, peace has been preserved with all nations, order has been maintained, the laws have been respected and obeyed, and harmony has prevailed everywhere, except in the theater of military conflict; while that theater has been greatly contracted by the advancing armies and navies of the Union.
Needful diversions of wealth and of strength from the fields of peaceful industry to the national defense have not arrested the plow, the shuttle, or the ship; the ax has enlarged the borders of our settlements, and the mines, as well of iron and coal as of the precious metals, have yielded even more abundantly than heretofore. Population has steadily increased, notwithstanding the waste that has been made in the camp, the siege, and the battlefield, and the country, rejoicing in the consciousness of augmented strength and vigor, is permitted to expect continuance of years with large increase of freedom.
No human counsel hath devised, nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy.
It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently, and gratefully acknowledged as with one heart and one voice by the whole American people. I do, therefore, invite my fellow-citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next as a Day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the heavens. And I recommend to them that, while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliverances and blessings, they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to His tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners, or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty hand to heal the wounds of the nation, and to restore it, as soon as may be consistent with the Divine purposes, to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquility, and union.
In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United Stated States to be affixed.
Done at the city of Washington, this third day of October, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, and of the Independence of the United States the eighty-eighth.
Abraham Lincoln
​
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Sounds pretty damn religious to me.
 
Dragonfly said:
Yes or no, and why please.
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If one is religious, it's a religious holiday. If one isn't? It isn't. I'd bet grace is said at more tables at Thanksgiving than any other holiday though.
 
Dragonfly said:
Abraham Lincoln:



Sounds pretty damn religious to me.
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It's not tied to any one religion, it is not considered a holy day, therefore, it is not a religious holiday, period.
 
MaggieD said:
If one is religious, it's a religious holiday. If one isn't? It isn't. I'd bet grace is said at more tables at Thanksgiving than any other holiday though.
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Even if one is religious it doesn't mean it is a religious holiday. Grace being said at a table doesn't make it a religious holiday. You could say the same thing about the 4th of July, yet no one would claim that is a religious holiday.
 
Your Star said:
Obviously, no.

It's an American holiday that has no roots in any religion.
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I don't agree:

Thanksgiving, or Thanksgiving Day, is a holiday celebrated in the United States on the fourth Thursday in November. It became an official Federal holiday in 1863, when, during the Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln proclaimed a national day of "Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens", to be celebrated on Thursday, November 26.[1] As a federal and public holiday in the U.S., Thanksgiving is one of the major holidays of the year. Together with Christmas and New Year, Thanksgiving is a part of the broader holiday season.

The event that Americans commonly call the "First Thanksgiving" was celebrated by the Pilgrims after their first harvest in the New World in 1621.[2] This feast lasted three days, and it was attended by 90 Native Americans (as accounted by attendee Edward Winslow)[3] and 53 Pilgrims.[4] The New England colonists were accustomed to regularly celebrating "thanksgivings"—days of prayer thanking God for blessings such as military victory or the end of a drought.[
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Your Star said:
That proves my point :shrug:
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Yes, I suppose to you it does. Lordy.

How about just saying, "Huh! I didn't know that."

You do know there's strength in admitting when one is wrong?
 
Your Star said:
Even if one is religious it doesn't mean it is a religious holiday. Grace being said at a table doesn't make it a religious holiday. You could say the same thing about the 4th of July, yet no one would claim that is a religious holiday.
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It's not about any one religion. It is about giving thanks to God for your life in America and all that encompasses. It can be any religion and any name for its god but it is religious in nature. Who do atheist give "thanks" to on Thanksgiving? Nobody I suspect, they just view it as a good day to pig out so yes Thanksgiving is a religious holiday for religious people.
 
it is about food
 
MaggieD said:
Yes, I suppose to you it does. Lordy.

How about just saying, "Huh! I didn't know that."

You do know there's strength in admitting when one is wrong?
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It was made a holiday by a political figure of the US. Yes, he used some religious language, but that doesn't make it a religious holiday. It makes it a federal holiday, people in other countries don't celebrate American Thanksgiving. It is an American holiday that isn't religious.

So yes, that does prove my point. So maybe you should admit that you are wrong?
 
sawyerloggingon said:
It's not about any one religion. It is about giving thanks to God for your life in America and all that encompasses. It can be any religion and any name for its god but it is religious in nature. Who do atheist give "thanks" to on Thanksgiving? Nobody I suspect, they just view it as a good day to pig out so yes Thanksgiving is a religious holiday for religious people.
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Other people in their lives. Which is far more meaningful in my mind.

And again, it's an American holiday that is celebrated in America. If it was a religious holiday, people all over the world would celebrate it.
 
As far as I'm concerned, any event with copious amounts of delicious food is a religious experience
 
Your Star said:
Other people in their lives. Which is far more meaningful in my mind.

And again, it's an American holiday that is celebrated in America. If it was a religious holiday, people all over the world would celebrate it.
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It is an American holiday because it is giving thanks to God for what being an American means.
 
Your Star said:
It was made a holiday by a political figure of the US. Yes, he used some religious language, but that doesn't make it a religious holiday. It makes it a federal holiday, people in other countries don't celebrate American Thanksgiving. It is an American holiday that isn't religious.

So yes, that does prove my point. So maybe you should admit that you are wrong?
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Thanksgiving was celebrated as a religious holiday by the Pilgrims. It was enshrined as a National Holiday by Abraham Lincoln who proclaimed it: "a national day of "Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens."

Believe what you wish. *shrug*
 
"Religion" is properly an organized system of beliefs, typically with some form of "clergy," some sort of narrative (e.g. the Bible, etc.), some sort of object of worship (e.g. God, etc.) and etc.

I know of no religion, no religious narrative that includes Thanksgiving as part of their system of beliefs - including Christianity, which is the likely "religion" in question here, given its prevalence in America and in particular at the time President Lincoln issued that proclamation (thanks to Dragonfly for posting the proclamation, btw :thumbs:).

That Lincoln invoked the name of God as the object of our thanks on this particular day does not mean it is somehow therefore "religious." The reasons he cited for our thanks - the abundant blessings of this land, the wealth and prosperity we've enjoyed as a consequence, etc. are undeniable; yet while Lincoln and Christians in general will direct their thanks at God, others may very well be thankful in different ways and with equal sentiment.

So no, I don't think Thanksgiving is a "religious" holiday.
 
Giving thanks to God is a religious pastime. It's not a secular activity.
 
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