Is Thanksgiving a secular or religious holiday?

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A secular holiday is a public holiday introduced by a government that does not commemorate or celebrate a religious person or event. Thanksgiving is not based on any religious doctrine like Christmas, or the commemoration of a historic event like the Fourth of July. So by this definition, Thanksgiving is a secular holiday. Let's look at the history of Thanksgiving. Most people are taught in school that the first Thanksgiving was held in the winter of 1621 when the Plymouth colonists shared an autumn harvest feast with the Wampanoag Indians. Thanksgiving proclamations were made mostly by church leaders in New England up until 1682, and then by both state and church leaders until after the American Revolution. As President of the United States, George Washington proclaimed the first nationwide thanksgiving celebration in America marking November 26, 1789, "as a day of public thanksgiving and prayer to be observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many and signal favours of Almighty God". Thanksgiving in the United States was observed on various dates throughout history. From the time of the Founding Fathers until the time of Lincoln, the date Thanksgiving was observed varied from state to state. The final Thursday in November had become the customary date in most U.S. states by the beginning of the 19th century. Thanksgiving was first celebrated on the same date by all states in 1863 by a presidential proclamation of Abraham Lincoln. "I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next, as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens." Abraham Lincoln may have been influenced by the campaigning of author Sarah Josepha Hale, who wrote letters to politicians for around 40 years trying to make Thanksgiving an official holiday. Because of the ongoing Civil War and the Confederate States of America's refusal to recognize Lincoln's authority, a nationwide Thanksgiving date was not realized until Reconstruction was completed in the 1870s. On December 26, 1941, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed a joint resolution of Congress changing the national Thanksgiving Day from the last Thursday in November to the fourth Thursday. Two years earlier, Roosevelt had used a presidential proclamation to try to achieve this change, reasoning that earlier celebration of the holiday would give the country an economic boost.

That's a lot of history. However, just by looking at the proclamations that created Thanksgiving, one could believe that Thanksgiving is a religious holiday. Is Thanksgiving a secular or religious holiday? Recently this country has been in conflict over whether god can be mentioned or honored anywhere in the public square. Whatever your traditions are for this upcoming holiday weekend, there is one thought that you might want to mull over about Thanksgiving. That is, who should we thank? The creator of football? The providence of Madison Avenue? Or the Food Network? I am not trying to turn this into a religious debate. But when people say they are thanking god they are at least making logical sense. It simply does not make logical sense when some people use the occasion to recognize things that they are thankful for without designating any recipient of the thanks. It just sounds so silly to me when I hear people every year saying they are "thankful", without designating any recipient of the thanks. If no recipient is specifically mentioned, then isn’t the thanks given to god? It does not matter who or what you give credit to for that thanks. It could be farmers, family, or even the inventor of the self-basting Butterball. Just please remember to mention someone or something. Otherwise, people may assume you are giving thanks to god. I try not to assume things because we all know what happens when we assume things. It is just that when someone says something so ambiguous, the comment is open to interpretation.

Maybe it was a religious holiday at first; but it has since devolved into just another secular celebration of gluttony and televised sports.

At least we still get to spend time with family, and catch up on each other's life's. I think that it's important to stay connected with family ... even if they're not speaking to me directly, they can still see what I've been up to this year.

(Yes, mom ... that IS Manny Pacquiao standing between my wife and I ...)

I don't think it's religious at all. It's one of the very few holidays where people say they can't celebrate it because they're Christian or Jewish or Muslim or whatever. Although some people say grace and take the whole thanking God for everything pretty seriously. I'm like, "We had to pay for this food, so thanks for nothing, lord".

In fact, Americans seem to take Thanksgiving in general much more seriously than Canadians. I'm like, forget Thanksgiving sure turkey and a long weekend is all fine and good now let's get to Halloween! Maybe Americans make a big deal out of it only because of Black Friday or whatever day it is this year. In fact they should just call Thanksgiving Christmas Junior.

Definitely secular.

It celebrates the first successful joint-venture harvest between the Native Americans and the Europeans around the Jamestown, VA area (I believe).

There's a "religious" element because both groups attributed the success to the gods (or God).

I think of it as an eating holiday for us Americans to get fat and then cause chaos and mayhem at stores the day after LOL!! !

it is quite possible to be grateful for things without ascribing a giver of those things. twelve step programs and psychologists tell their folks to make lists of things they're grateful for with zero mention of "grateful to whom".