Thanksgiving Day in the United States

Thanksgiving Day in the United States

Thanksgiving is a holiday which is set aside each year for giving thanks to God for blessings received during the year. On this day, people give thanks with feasting and prayer. The holiday is celebrated in the United States and Canada. The first Thanksgiving celebrations in New England were harvest festivals, or days for thanking God for plentiful crops. For this reason, the holiday still takes place late in the fall, after crops have been gathered.

I have written these for those of us who don’t know the background knowledge of our festivals, but they keep on celebrating it just for fun. I observe people celebrating and shopping and cooking Turkey for Thanksgiving Day, but they don’t know what the real motives are and how to give thanks. All this observation struck my mind to write about this momentous day and the motive behind it. I belong to Ahmadiyya Muslim Community and I would like you to know how we thank God.

Muslims thank God, several times daily. We have five obligatory prayers daily that we need to observe plus we are encouraged to keep on reciting several small prayers all day whenever we can get some free time. In addition to this there are many other ways we thank God throughout the year. We have a whole month of Ramadan in which we observe fast and perform extra prayers called Tarawi. We have two Eids, namely: Eidul Fitr and Eidul Adha. We thank God on both these holidays by sacrificing for those who are less privileged. Each year Muslims are required to give a percentage of one’s assets for the poor and this is called Zakat. All this sacrifice is handed over to the poor and needy people who cannot earn money due to some unfortunate circumstances. On Eidul Adha we slaughter animals in the name of God and distribute one third of it to the poor.

Second, gratitude is not because of God’s blessings only. Sometimes in life we face difficulties and it doesn’t imply that we stop thanking Him. We should be thanking him for all the other gifts He provided us without us asking Him. For example, He gave us power to think, see, hear, walk and work etc. He gave us parents, spouses, kids and friends. He gave us skills and hands to work and minds to excel. He gave us intellect to invent fast and powerful machines like computers, cars, airplanes, trains etc. How could we accomplish it without His help and blessings? He taught us everything and gave us courage to go for it.

Lastly, I would like to express my gratitude to my readers that I appreciate that you thank God on this day and remember Him with the depth of your hearts. It is what our God loves the most when His worshippers thank Him for His blessings. Keep up with it and never forget to thank Him so that He starts loving you and start showering more and more of His blessings. Ameen