To Read at the Table for Thanksgiving
We Americans are very bad at knowing how to celebrate holidays. We have feasts, and that is good, but nowadays we get to eat so well every day that feasting doesn’t have the oomph it once had. Every day, we get to eat meat at every meal, we can eat until we’re not hungry any more, and we can have something sweet with the meal. Only the nobility could do that during most of human history. It’s still good, and it promotes good fellowship, but we should also make speeches, pray, sing, and read passages that convey the meaning of the holiday. Here is my attempt.1
The Head of Household should appoint Heads of Tables, one for each table, if you have so many people you need separate tables. Once people sit down and start eating at step 4 below, “the Head” means the Head of Table, and each table is autonomous, going at its own rate. The Head of Table should tell people at his table in advance if he wants them to read an item so they will be ready mentally. If one of the separate tables is “the Kid’s Table”, that’s fine— the Head of Table can be a child if he’s old enough to read and lead.
1. The Head of the Household should read the current Presidential Thanksgiving Proclamation unless it’s very bad. The current one is President Biden’s proclamation for 2024, and it’s okay. Biden is a bad President and a bad man. Nonetheless, we should read his Proclamation, because, nonetheless, he IS our President. (Conservatives and Trumpers, take note.)2
2. Everyone sings, “We’re Gathered Together to Ask the Lord’s Blessing.” Make multiple copies of this beforehand. Do not make one for each person. Make one for each two people so they’ll share and be forced to be sociable.
3. The Head of Household says a prayer. He should really say his own prayer, but if you’re shy about that, I recommend the 1662 Anglican “prayer of General Thanksgiving”.3
(Item 1 could go here at 3.5 instead of at the beginning if you have a lot of people and they’re serving themselves buffet-style in a line past the food. The reading of the Proclamation would be while people are serving themselves.)
4. Start eating. (Probably you have been cooking too long and everybody is famished.)
5. After a while, the Head of Table reads the 1621 Winslow story of the first Thanksgiving, or appoints someone to do it. I recommend reading the abridged version in the footnote to this sentence.4
6. At intervals that seem appropriate to the Head of Table, appoint divers other people to read the other readings, in any order. The Head calls the table to order each time and says what is going to be read and who is reading it.
(6a) The 1676 First Proclamation
(6b) Psalm 100. Use the King James Version; it is grander, more beautiful, and no harder to understand than the kindergartenized translations.5
(6c) The 1789 Washington Proclamation
(6d) The 1777 Proclamation
Or, pass around the words and have each person read one paragraph. Be careful that this does not shame people who aren’t good at reading if you do pass them around.
After each reading, the Head of Table tries to get some conversation going about it. Ask people what the hard words mean. Tell about the history—King Philip’s War, the Revolutionary War, the Constitution, peace in Israel and the meaning of the word “shalom”, and so forth. Maybe do some reading up beforehand so you can do this.
When people go home, give them the leftover copies of the readings to take with them. Remember: you do not need to make a copy for each person present, just enough for those who are doing the readings.
Footnotes
More materials are in the directory listing http://rasmusen.org/special/thanksgiving/. Something I just thought of, and might add, is that a set of pictures would be good to show too, as a slideshow. I am thinking of the kids in particular. See my “The Twelve Days of Christmas”. I would welcome suggestions from readers on this. See, too, the version of this published at The American Reformer in 2024, which is better than this Substack in several ways.
Yes, the 2024 Biden Proclamation is atheistic, but so is Mr. Biden, so we can’t complain too much. At least it’s not blasphemous.
To find the 2025 Proclamation next year, Google “Presidential thanksgiving proclamation 2025”. Trump 2017 is good, Trump 2020 not as good. Biden 2021 is too clunky and political. A list of the old ones up to Obama is available; someone should make a webpage with all of them. An interesting UCSB analysis of content is here.
https://cradleofprayer.org/praying-the-general-thanksgiving/ is a good webpage. Here is my tightened up version of the history it gives (not a pure quotation):
Once a staple of the daily offices of the Protestant Episcopal Church in America, the General Thanksgiving is one of the most beloved prayers in the Prayer Book. The prayer was authored by Bishop Edward Reynolds (1599-1676), the only Puritan to accept a Bishopric at the time of the Restoration. He succeeded John Donne at Lincoln’s Inn when he was but 23. He was a conformist Puritan, a loyal churchman who accepted the legitimacy of the Established Church and Prayer Book. In the Civil War he threw his lot with the Roundheads, yet he was ever a moderating influence among them. He sat in the Westminster Assembly, which revised the Articles of Religion into the Westminster Confession of Faith and Catechism, and opposed (unsuccessfully) banning the use of the Book of Common Prayer. While he accepted the legitimacy of Presbyterian church government, as he had the Episcopacy, he never assented to the claim that it was the only divinely authorized model.
(Edward Winslow, December 11, 1621)
Our corn did prove well, and God be praised, we had a good increase of Indian corn, and our barley indifferent good,
but our peas not worth the gathering, for we feared they were too late sown, they came up very well, and blossomed, but the sun parched them in the blossom;
our harvest being gotten in, our governor sent four men on fowling, that so we might after a more special manner rejoice together after we had gathered the fruit of our labors.
They four in one day killed as much fowl as, with a little help beside, served the company almost a week.
At which time, amongst other recreations, we exercised our arms,
many of the Indians coming amongst us, and amongst the rest their greatest King Massasoit, with some ninety men,
whom for three days we entertained and feasted, and they went out and killed five deer, which they brought to the plantation and bestowed on our governor, and upon the captain and others.
And although it be not always so plentiful as it was at this time with us, yet by the goodness of God, we are so far from want that we often wish you partakers of our plenty.
I was using hyperbole when I said “kindergartenized translations”. The widely used New International Version (NIV) loose translation was designed to be read by 12-year-olds, not kindergarteners, though they also have a 3rd-grade version of it. Translation Reading Levels claims the King James Version is at the 12th grade reading level. If that is true, it’s sad. For most of American history, few people went to school past 8th grade, yet they could read the King James Bible. If, “Make a joyful noise unto the Lord, all ye lands. Serve the Lord with gladness: come before his presence with singing,” is too tough for your guests (which I doubt; even if they are illiterate), take this as a chance to teach them.