By The Student Council

In the coming days, families and communities across the country will gather to celebrate Thanksgiving. Parades will consume the streets and avenues of America’s small towns and bustling metropolises. Feasts will completely obscure our finest dining-room tables. Most of all, alongside a few family squabbles, the cheerful chorus of anecdotes and laughter will accompany every moment between the morning’s football games and the exhausted slumber of children and adults alike at night. (Much of this idealistic scene is depicted in the classic interpretation of Thanksgiving by Norman Rockwell.)

The origin of what is arguably the “most” American of the nation’s holidays has been debated over the centuries, but many historians agree on the following.

• Declaring regular days of “thanksgiving” were part of the Protestant Reformation’s and the English Reformation’s revolution against the Catholic Church, specifically the church’s “burdensome” number of Catholic holidays requiring attendance at service.

• Building upon the lore of Native Americans and pilgrims coming together in New England and the traditions of a predominately Protestant nation, President Washington called on Americans to be thankful for “the great degree of tranquility, union, and plenty” the new nation was enjoying on Thursday, November 26, 1789.

• Many historians attribute the start of modern holiday to October, 1863 when Abraham Lincoln reminded a war torn nation to celebrate it had been “the recipient of the choicest bounties of heaven”, having “grown in numbers, wealth, and power as no other nation [had] ever grown.”

This year, amongst the tomfoolery, shenanigans, and hullabaloo of your Thanksgiving celebration, please remember to embrace Washington’s and Lincoln’s spirit of thankfulness. Remember to thank your friends for being steady shipmates through the rough waters of adolescence. Remember to thank your parents for dedicating significant time and resources to your education, prior and present well-being, and to your often lofty future aspirations. (As irritating as they may be, pass along a thank you to your siblings too. There has to be something they’ve done for you lately!)

To close, from all of Student Council (the cabinet and class officers), we would like to say thanks. Thanks for being engaged in service, participating in Spirit Week, championing the Honor Code, being brilliant thespians, dominating on our fields and courts, and decorating the school with dazzling works of art. We are thankful for all that you do and all that you are as members of the Cincinnati Country Day School community. Have a safe and relaxing Thanksgiving break and we’ll see you when you return on November 26.