The president and vice president of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops have stressed that Thanksgiving Day is a time for the nation to pause and "give God thanks for the abundant blessings he has bestowed upon us", in the annual holiday message.
"It is a grateful tradition people of many faiths have honoured since even before our country's founding," said Cardinal Daniel N. DiNardo of Galveston-Houston, president, and Archbishop Jose H. Gomez of Los Angeles, vice president.
Thanksgiving has been celebrated as a federal holiday on the last Thursday in November every year since 1863, when, during the Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln proclaimed a national day of "thanksgiving and praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the heavens."
"In modern times, Thanksgiving has become a day when dispersed families come together again around the dinner table," the two prelates said in a message to the country.
They asked for prayers for those who were traveling to be with family for the holiday "that God may guide them safely to their loved ones."
"Thanksgiving is also a day of service as volunteers prepare a meal for those less fortunate. Let us pray for everyone separated from the abundance of our country that God may comfort them and opportunities may open for them to fully participate in the hope of America," they said. "Let us also especially remember the elderly and those who are in need, as well as anyone who may be spending the day alone. May they experience the closeness of God."
"On Thanksgiving, millions of Americans, from big cities to rural countryside, will bow their heads to say grace. They will be successful and struggling, citizen and newcomer, sisters and brothers to us all," Cardinal DiNardo and Archbishop Gomez added. "Diverse as we are, we are united in the debt we owe to God and our desire to give him thanks. Have a Happy Thanksgiving!"
Thanksgiving is a US holiday that occurs on the last Thursday of November each year. It is a day when Americans remember the First Thanksgiving celebrated by the Pilgrims with the Native Americans in 1621 when they held a harvest feast to give thanks to God for their bountiful harvest and for the help they received in the New World from the Native Americans who taught them how to catch eels and to grow corn in the unfamiliar territory.
They also gave thanks for surviving their first year after the colony was almost wiped out by diseases brought on to land from the ships that transported them from Europe to North America.
PICTURE - US President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama observe the tradition of serving Thanksgiving dinner to those less fortunate, at the Armed Forces Retirement Home in Washington DC.
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