Is Thanksgiving Secular or Religious?

“Gratitude” is considered among the highest of virtues today. Although it is not among Plato’s four cardinal virtues of ancient times first written about in The Republic—justice, wisdom (prudence), courage (fortitude), and moderation (self-control, temperance), we can easily relate gratitude to several of these virtues. For example, gratitude is related to wisdom or prudence because if you are grateful for something someone has done for you, it will wisely or prudently help to grow your relationship with the other person. Likewise, gratitude is an attribute which relates closely to moderation (self-control, temperance) because you will likely be grateful for what you have if you are able to set limits in your behavior as far as consumption.

In today’s world gratitude is seen to be a reflection of a positive mental attitude. It is correlated very closely to optimism and community. It is seen to be prized for community life, which leads it to be valued in our democratic republic. It is also seen to be the opposite of a sense of entitlement, believing that everything we have is a result of our earning it and therefore having ownership of it. In the world today entitlement and gratitude do not go together. You cannot feel that everything you have you deserve and have any gratitude.

This brings me to a question for our American annual observance of Thanksgiving on Thursday, November 24 this year. Is thanksgiving secular or religious? Keeping a harvest festival of thanksgiving goes back to ancient times and is written about in the Hebrew Bible (Old Testament). Consequently, the early meal shared by the first Puritan settlers at Plymouth Rock and the native Americans was understood to be a religious festival of thanksgiving. When President George Washington proclaimed thanksgivings in the early years of the country he likely was acting upon this history, calling for "national days of prayer, humiliation, and thanksgiving.” In his 1789 National Thanksgiving Proclamation, President Washington gave many noble reasons for a national Thanksgiving, including "for the civil and religious liberty", for "useful knowledge", and for God's "kind care" and "His Providence.”

This manifested itself in the established American observances of Thanksgiving, which President Lincoln made an annual national day of thanksgiving during the Civil War in 1863.

The church has largely used this secular expression of gratitude and thanksgiving as an opportunity for a religious festival that ties closely to the Jewish harvest festivals. As we say often in the Eucharist or Thanksgiving service, “it is our duty and our joy to give thanks for all that God has done for us.” Just as the day itself is essentially a time to pause and be grateful for all that we have, we clearly state to whom we are grateful. Although for some of the Founding Fathers our gratitude might be given to “nature and nature’s god,” a kind of indistinct divine nature who wound up the clock on the world and lets it run, we Christians understand that God is involved in our daily lives, providing and sustaining us with our many blessings. So this secular observance of gratitude and thanksgiving becomes an opportunity for us to “praise God from whom all blessings flow.”

Is Thanksgiving secular or religious? The answer is that it is a secular holiday, but can be filled with religious implications. Whether or not you are Christian, gratitude and thanksgiving need to be a part of everyone’s life. For gratitude is an expression of our belief that we cannot and must not live only for ourselves. We are interdependent, and that should lead our gratitude and thanksgiving to overflow in sharing our abundant blessings with others.

Happy Thanksgiving!