Thanksgiving Proclamation
November 29, 1623
TO ALL YE PILGRIMS
Inasmuch as the great Father has given
us this year an abundant harvest of Indian corn, wheat, peas, beans, squashes,
and garden vegetables, and has made the forests to abound with game and the sea
with fish and clams, and inasmuch as he has protected us from the ravages of
the savages, has spared us from pestilence and disease, has granted us freedom
to worship God according to the dictates of our own conscience.
Now I, your magistrate, do proclaim that all
ye Pilgrims, with your wives and ye little ones, do gather at ye meeting house,
on ye hill, between the hours of 9 and 12 in the day time, on Thursday,
November 29th, of the year of our Lord one thousand six hundred and
twenty-three and the third year since ye Pilgrims landed on ye Pilgrim Rock,
there to listen to ye pastor and render thanksgiving to ye Almighty God for all
His blessings.
William Bradford
Ye Governor of Ye Colony
From my home to yours, may your Thanksgiving be filled with laughter, love, family and friends . . . and may your blessings overflow!
:)
