Thanksgiving and a Future of Belonging

By Ken Giglio, Principal of Mindful Leadership Consulting

Thanksgiving is the most popular holiday in the United States. It is a day when we take the time from all our work activities to reflect and give thanks.

Thanksgiving was proclaimed by George Washington as a National Day of Thanksgiving in 1789 after the Revolutionary War as a way to encourage a sense of belonging to a new country.

It was later enshrined as a national holiday on last Thursday of the month in 1863 by Abraham Lincoln. Lincoln was strongly influenced by Sarah Josepha Hale, the editor of a women’s magazine. She envisioned a day of unity and remembrance to offset the division and trauma of the Civil War. In the decades following the war, Thanksgiving took on many rituals and traditions, and, to this day, more people travel at this time than any other in the US. We want to be with family and loved ones to express and share our thanks, our gratitude for all we have.

The origins of Thanksgiving are rooted in the desire by our forebearers to seek unity and belonging for a new country that struggled through wars to become independent and realize its identity. Washington and Lincoln wanted all Americans to be thankful for our country and all it gives us in our pursuit of safety and happiness.

To create a future of Belonging, we must also acknowledge and face into our history, and pre-history, as a country. Thanksgiving is a National Day of Mourning for the First Peoples, the Native Americans like the Wampanoag, who met, engaged, and co-existed with the European people who landed on their shores.

As we give thanks this year, let us move beyond a simple thanksgiving for what we possess. Let us acknowledge, appreciate, and give thanks for all we have—a thanksgiving for ourselves, those around us, our families, and all those who are not like us who share this diverse land and country. In whatever ways we see our current social and political climate, we all belong here in this present moment and in this time in history. 

How can we together build a future of belonging?