On This Date: October 3, 1863

On October 3rd of 1863, which happened to be in middle of the Civil War, Abraham Lincoln issued the Thanksgiving Proclamation that created the holiday that we celebrate today.

When I first began researching this event, I was under the impression that Lincoln was the one who wrote it; that assumption was incorrect. It turns out that his secretary of state, William Seward, wrote the document, Lincoln just issued it. Then as I continued my research I found that even though Seward wrote it, a woman named Sarah Hale proposed the idea. I am a little mad that Sarah doesn't get much credit for the creation of the holiday.

(Side note: Ahhh, I just read that Sarah Hale is also the author of "Mary Had a Little Lamb")

Even though the idea of an national Thanksgiving had been around since the beginning of our nation, Sarah Hale was the first one to publish about it, writing editorials about it often, and bring awareness to the president about it. She felt that it would be a "unifying measure" that would help ease tensions during the Civil War. Through the creation of this holiday, she is basically saying "Guys, I know we are fighting right now, but can we be friends for a second and celebrate the things we are thankful for?"

I enjoyed researching this event, and I'm glad that I got to share my little finding with you. I used History.com for my research.


This part is extremely irrelevant to this blog post, but it thought I would share it. On the Tuesday before Thanksgiving this year, I will be getting my wisdom teeth taken out. That right, my face will be full of intolerable pain on a holiday centered around food... yay.