Days of humiliation and thanksgiving
Puritans rejected the usual Christian calendar with Easter, Christmas, and saints’ days. Instead they kept two kinds of public days: days of humiliation and days of thanksgiving.
A day of humiliation (fasting) was proclaimed when people believed something showed God’s judgment—drought, flood, fire, war, plague, or before starting a hard task. On these days, people fasted and prayed for forgiveness and guidance. Everyone aged 16 to 60 was expected to attend church and related activities. Sermons focused on sin, and people were urged to examine themselves and repent. Puritans also believed one person’s sin could bring God’s wrath on the whole town, so the whole community had to participate. Towns even watched who could move in, keeping out people with bad reputations to avoid bringing trouble on everyone.
A day of thanksgiving was proclaimed when signs showed God’s mercy—rain and a good harvest, new supplies, recovery from illness, or general success. On these days, people still attended church, but prayed with gratitude, sang psalms, and shared a feast. Puritan thanksgiving feasts were solemn and demanding, not like modern celebrations. These days were seen as expressions of gratitude and as hopeful signs of God’s Kingdom, and they also encouraged charity and helping those in need.
The idea of days of humiliation and thanksgiving comes from the Bible and from English history. The Old Testament has many thanksgiving stories, and early Christians also gave thanks. England had national days of prayer as early as 1009, and, in Elizabethan times, occasional fasts for plagues and the Armada crises. Puritans especially favored fasting days.
When English Puritans and other settlers came to North America, they brought these customs to New England. By the mid-1600s, thanksgiving was celebrated annually in November. The Plymouth and Massachusetts Bay settlements helped shape a national idea of Thanksgiving in the United States, and later presidents like George Washington and Abraham Lincoln issued proclamations for a national day of Thanksgiving in November. This laid the groundwork for the modern holiday of giving thanks to God for blessings.
Canada also embraced Thanksgiving. In 1859 Canadians were asked to spend the day in public and solemn thanksgiving for God’s mercies. In 1879, November 6 was declared a day of General Thanksgiving for the bountiful harvest. In 1957, Parliament established the modern date: the second Monday in October.
This page was last edited on 3 February 2026, at 04:31 (CET).