The entrance of His Word gives light. (Ps. 119:130)
Thanksgiving
Hebrew word: noun- Todah comes from the verb- Yadah which means to praise
Greek: “eucharisteo” or “Efharisto”, meaning Thank You.
The root of the word eucharisto is Eucharisteo or Eucharist.
In the Christian world; The Holy Communion, the Lord’s Supper, The Last Supper, or, The Breaking of the bread
Biblically
Thanksgiving means to offer praise to God
Because of who God is and not predicated by our present circumstances we give the offering of thanksgiving to Him. Because of who God is we give him praise. Here we see that the demonstrative meaning of the word thanking giving is imployed
One of the three annual festivals the children of Israel were instructed to celebrate was Sukkot, also spelled Sukkoth, Succoth, Sukkos, Succot, or Succos, Hebrew Sukkot (“Huts” or “Booths”), singular Sukka, also called Feast of Tabernacles or Feast of Booths, Jewish autumn festival of double thanksgiving that begins on the 15th day of Tishri (in September or October), five days after Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement. It is one of the three Pilgrim Festivals of the Hebrew Bible.
The Psalmist tells us why we must give thanks. Ps. 107:1 O give thanks unto the Lord, for he is good: for his mercy endureth for ever. 8 Oh, that men would praise the Lord for his goodness, and for his wonderful works to the children of men! Verse 15 and verse 21 repeats
Moreover Psalm 100
A Psalm of praise.
1Make a joyful noise unto the Lord, all ye lands.
2Serve the Lord with gladness: come before his presence with singing.
3Know ye that the Lord he is God: it is he that hath made us, and not we ourselves; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.
4Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise: be thankful unto him, and bless his name.
5For the Lord is good; his mercy is everlasting; and his truth endureth to all generations.
Among other Definitions
Merriam Webster; a public acknowledgment or celebration of divine goodness to the act of giving thanks.
Historically
In 1621, the Plymouth colonists and Wampanoag Native Americans shared an autumn harvest feast that is acknowledged today as one of the first Thanksgiving celebrations in the colonies. For more than two centuries, days of thanksgiving were celebrated by individual colonies and states. It wasn’t until 1863, in the midst of the Civil War, that President Abraham Lincoln proclaimed a national Thanksgiving Day to be held each November.
Some 100 people, many of them seeking religious freedom in the New World, set sail from England on the Mayflower in September 1620. That November, the ship landed on the shores of Cape Cod, in present-day Massachusetts. A scouting party was sent out, and in late December the group landed at Plymouth Harbor, where they would form the first permanent settlement of Europeans in New England. These original settlers of Plymouth Colony are known as the Pilgrim Fathers, or simply as the Pilgrims.
Rough seas and storms prevented the Mayflower from reaching their initial destination in Virginia, and after a voyage of 65 days the ship reached the shores of Cape Cod, anchoring on the site of Provincetown Harbor in mid-November.
The Pilgrims knew if something wasn’t done quickly it could be every man, woman and family for themselves. While still on board the ship, a group of 41 men signed the so-called Mayflower Compact, in which they agreed to join together in a “civil body politic.” This document would become the foundation of the new colony’s government. Signed on November 11, 1620, the Mayflower Compact was the first document to establish self-government in the New World.
The native inhabitants of the region around Plymouth Colony were the various tribes of the Wampanoag people, who had lived there for some 10,000 years before the Europeans arrived. Soon after the Pilgrims built their settlement, they came into contact with Tisquantum, or Squanto, an English-speaking Native American. Squanto was a member of the Pawtuxet tribe (from present-day Massachusetts and Rhode Island) who had been seized by the explorer John Smith’s men in 1614-15. Meant for slavery, he somehow managed to escape to England, and returned to his native land to find most of his tribe had died of plague. In addition to interpreting and mediating between the colonial leaders and Native American chiefs (including Massasoit, chief of the Pokanoket), Squanto taught the Pilgrims how to plant corn, which became an important crop, as well as where to fish and hunt beaver. In the fall of 1621, the Pilgrims famously shared a harvest feast with the Pokanokets; the meal is now considered the basis for the first Thanksgiving holiday.
The first Thanksgiving likely did not include turkey or mashed potatoes (potatoes were just making their way from South America to Europe), but the Wampanoag brought deer and there would have been lots of local seafood plus the fruits of the first pilgrim harvest, including pumpkin.
Modern Day
Today, formed associations with thanksgiving in society are tarnished by black Friday shopping deals and Cyber Mondays, gathering around tables specifically in Canada and the U.S, and eating ourselves into a stupor.
For the wisdom of this world is foolishness in God’s sight. As it is written: “He catches the wise in their craftiness.” 20And again, “The Lord knows that the thoughts of the wise are futile.”…1 Corinthians 3:19
We are so often carried away, by the way, the world or the way the majority does things that we compromise the word of God. The enemy is subtle. "It's the way of the world" and if we don't move the younger generation are chastised into thinking their life is less than the shoes they can afford to wear and the fancy home they are not afforded to live in.
.jpg)