Shopping is one of my favorite pastimes. Just ask any members of my family. They know I’m ready to shop at the drop of a hat — or any object, for that matter!
But when it comes to shopping on Thanksgiving Day, it’s another story. I have been resenting the encroachment of “Black Friday” — the name given to the day after Thanksgiving — onto the holiday itself.
We usually think of Thanksgiving Day as hearkening back to the story of the Pilgrims and Indians in the 17th century. Certainly the observance of a day of thanksgiving in our country does trace its origins back to the harvest feast held in Plymouth, Mass., in 1621.
However, what many of us may not know is that the official proclamation of Thanksgiving Day as a national holiday happened in the middle of the American Civil War. Perhaps with our own “civil war” of sorts happening in 2012, in the aftermath of a contentious election, it might be worth noting what President Abraham Lincoln said at that time.
