On the day before Thanksgiving, I thought it was only appropriate to give thanks to Sarah Hale.
WHO?!?
Exactly. I thought that would be your reaction which is why I thought I’d tell you a little bit about Sarah and how she saved Thanksgiving.
One day, as I was preparing to leave my office the library, I decided to pick up a few books for my 4 year old. I never know what he’ll like but neither does he so he’s good and happy to have me come up with a random selection of books for him.
I recently checked out a kids’ book written by Michael Phelps about how he trained to win 8 gold medals. Evan loved it. He wanted to read it over and over again. I was a little surprised. So I took a chance on another “non-fiction” book for him.
Thank You, Sarah: The Woman Who Saved Thanksgiving
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It was subtitled “The Woman Who Saved Thanksgiving.” Seriously. In all my years, I’ve never heard of her or this story. I had my doubts.
Turns out she was a real woman, who really did awesome things on behalf of this country and for children, and more than anything, she had perseverance.
Thanksgiving was a holiday generally only celebrated in New England and Sarah thought that the whole country should celebrate. Most states agreed with her but that wasn’t good enough for Sarah. She wanted the country to celebrate together as a whole. She wanted a national holiday.
In a time when women were easily dismissed, she used the power of her pen to write letter after letter after letter to the Senate Congress, and to the President of the United States. The only problem is the players kept changing.
Over the decades, she ended up writing letters to five Presidents of the United States: Zachary Taylor, Millard Fillmore, Franklin Pierce, James Buchanan, and Abraham Lincoln.
It wasn’t until she wrote Lincoln, great President that he was, that she finally had her wish that Thanksgiving should be treated as a national holiday.
I love Thanksgiving because its one of the few holidays that hasn’t become entirely commercialized and bastardized. Until this year. Many stores are open on Thanksgiving Day. I think this goes against what Sarah petitioned for for so long. I plan to stay home all days visiting with friends and family, filling my belly, and giving thanks for Sarah Hale.
7 comments
I have never heard of her before. How very interesting. Also interesting? The story behind Mary Had A Little Lamb. I love learning new things!
Happy Thanksgiving to you!
Check her out on Wikipedia sometime. She really was a fascinating women!
Happy Thanksgiving to you and your family! I hadn’t heard of her, so thank you! I think I remember reading that FDR finally decided that Thanksgiving would be the 4th Thursday of the month.
You might be right about FDR. That sounds familiar to me. Hope you have a great Thanksgiving!
I say the name sounds familiar but I know I did not learn about her in history class. Thank you Sarah…now everyone can eat until they are in a food coma and enjoy the day!
It really bothered me that the stores were open on Thanksgiving Day. Next thing you know they will stay open all night on Christmas Eve!
Wow, good for her! I had never heard of her either. I love learning all over again through Oscar. I think I might actually pay attention this time!
How cool – I love that a woman is the reason we celebrate Thanksgiving! I’m going to share this with my family when we sit down for dinner on Thursday. Visited because Kim of Kim’s Korner told me this was a post worth reading – and it was!