Posts Tagged ‘Holidays’
History of the Holidays: the Backstory of Holidays
HISTORY OF THE HOLIDAYS Welcome to this year’s edition of the History of the Holidays. I’m Bill Petro, your friendly neighborhood historian. From now through the Spring or vernal equinox, we celebrate most of the major secular and sacred holidays. This series recounts the backstory, the history behind the major American holidays, some of the…
Read MoreHistory of 2014: Best of billpetro.com
“I still remember 2014 like it was yesterday.” Gentle Readers, Happy New Year and thanks for visiting my blog at billpetro.com. In 2014 the blog was visited 76,000 times as people viewed the 109 articles I posted during the year. The busiest day was Oct 2 with 3,822 views. Most visitors were referred from reddit, Facebook, StumbleUpon, ClassJump,…
Read MoreHistory of the 12 Days of Christmas: they follow Christmas?
THE HISTORY OF THE TWELVE DAYS OF CHRISTMAS The Twelve Days of Christmas are the dozen days in the liturgical calendar of the Western Church between the celebration of the birth of the Christ Child (Christmas, December 25) and the coming of the Magi to visit at his house in Bethlehem (Epiphany, January 6). The…
Read MoreAbraham Lincoln’s Thanksgiving Proclamation – 1863
ABRAHAM LINCOLN’S THANKSGIVING PROCLAMATION – 1863 Following the initial Presidential Thanksgiving proclamations of George Washington, John Adams, and James Madison, there were no further Presidential proclamations for this day until Abraham Lincoln, the 16th President of the United States proclaimed a national Thanksgiving Day during the Civil War, but it was not initially in November.…
Read MoreGeorge Washington’s Thanksgiving Proclamation – 1789
GEORGE WASHINGTON’S THANKSGIVING PROCLAMATION – 1789 The first President of the United States began a Presidential tradition of making a Thanksgiving proclamation, following those issued previously by the Continental Congress between 1777 to 1784: “Whereas it is the duty of all nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey His will, to be…
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