“Holiday” has become just a secularized term for a day when many break from their routines. However, Thanksgiving is one holiday that truly is a holy day — or at least it was to the Pilgrims who held the first one. To them, Thanksgiving was utterly religious.
That Thanksgiving was a religious expression to the Pilgrims is hardly surprising. After all, they came to the New World for religious purposes (“Having undertaken, for the glory of God, and advancement of the Christian faith” as the Mayflower Compact stated): freedom of religion — not freedom from religion, as so many today seek to recast it.
The Pilgrims suffered greatly on their ocean voyage over and had to turn back twice. Then, they landed at the wrong place. Next, they faced a mutiny as they waited to come ashore; the response to this impending revolt was the Mayflower Compact, America’s first act of independent governance. They suffered no less once ashore, with barely half surviving the first year: 52 of the 102 who had set sail on the Mayflower.
However, despite their suffering, like Job, they did not forsake God. And like Job, those who survived saw themselves blessed; for their survival they gave thanks — hence, thanksgiving.
The Pilgrims had no doubt as to whom they were giving thanks: God. Their action of thanks was to them as obvious as their longed-for connection. The two were inseparable, just as they themselves sought to be to God.
Happy Thanksgiving! Here at CBL, we are so thankful for all of you.
— Center for Baptist Leadership (@BaptistLeaders) November 27, 2025
And did you know that Thanksgiving is a deeply Christian holiday?
In 1623, William Bradford, the governor of the Plymouth Colony, made the first formal Thanksgiving declaration. In his declaration, Bradford… pic.twitter.com/l75g1ifSIj