This Thursday is Thanksgiving, the closest day that our nation has to a holy day. The earliest Thanksgiving Day in America was in 1631, when pilgrims who had come to the new country and the Native Americans who supported and helped them through the harsh winter gathered together to celebrate their great harvest and the fact that they had survived a year in this beautiful and harsh land.
   
Sadly, this great peace and sharing of Native Americans and pilgrims would only last for one year. A great war for America would take place over the next 300 + years, up until today.

In 1863, President Lincoln would declare Thanksgiving to be a national holiday. How strange that it was during the most distressing time in our nation’s history, the Civil War, that a holiday dedicated to counting our national and personal blessings was established.
   
An interesting but totally irrelevant Thanksgiving fact took place in 1953. The Swanson Company dramatically overestimated how much turkey they could sell and ended up with 260 tons of extra turkey. They decided to put together what people could buy, including turkey, dressing, gravy, sweet potatoes and peas. They sold 10 million of these the first year, beginning the frozen dinner industry.

Note: Mass will be at 10 am on Thanksgiving Day. This year our Thanksgiving Day Mass Collection (food and monies) will be given to St. Vincent DePaul Society. Thank you for your generosity!