Posted on 11/25/2004 6:09:45 PM PST by SteveH
Thanksgiving for Avoiding an Explosive Situation
THANKSGIVING WAS CELEBRATED in England prior to the pilgrims coming to America. The first annual day of thanksgiving instituted in England was for the discovery of the Gunpowder Plot. On November 5, 1605, Guy Fawkes was captured standing guard over 36 barrels of gunpowder hidden in a vault under the House of Lords. He and his accomplices planned to blow up Parliament on its opening day, with the king, the royal family, the House of Lords, and the Commons in attendance. The leadership of England would be destroyed in one massive explosion. In this way the Catholic conspirators hoped to rid England of the disease of Protestantism! That the conspirators were discovered before any harm was done was certainly cause for thanksgiving. The traitors were arrested and executed, and parliament ordered November 5 to be kept as a "public thanksgiving to Almighty God." This was to be an annual day of thanksgiving, "that unfeigned thankfulness may never be forgotten, and that all ages to come may yield praises to God's divine majesty for the same." Guy Fawkes Day continues to be celebrated in England.
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(Excerpt) Read more at gospelcom.net ...
[See also Gunpowder Plot and the historical origin of Thanksgiving.]
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