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Today is Thanksgiving, the American holiday whose history is steeped in the American tradition of honoring God and fighting for liberty and justice for all. As George Washington once said in his speech that clarified his definite refusal to be a military dictator, “With a heart full of love and gratitude, I now” greet you; “I most devoutly wish that your later days may be as prosperous and happy as your former ones have been glorious and honorable.”

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The history of Thanksgiving is one of padres, pilgrims, and patriots. From Columbus to Lincoln, and everyone in between, the history of turkey day is quintessentially American. 

The first thing Christopher Columbus did upon landing in the New World was to kneel down and offer prayers of thanksgiving, including the Te Deum. Then, in 1565, the first Thanksgiving meal was celebrated in what would become the United States, by the Spanish settlers led by Pedro Menéndez de Avilés who founded St. Augustine’s in what is now Florida. Before their celebratory meal, according to Tampa Bay 10, they offered Mass, and it is fitting that the Greek word for Holy Communion is Eucharistos (Eucharist) or “thanksgiving.”

The meal usually consider the first American Thanksgiving was celebrated more than 50 years later by the Pilgrims and their fellow settlers who had come to America seeking a new life without religious persecution. Many of the settlers, including almost 80% of the women, died during that first harsh New England winter. But in 1621, with a successful harvest and the friendship of native chief Massasoit and his men, the Pilgrims gathered to thank God and eat a festive meal with the natives.

There were days of Thanksgiving established in the colonies, including during the Revolution, after that, but it was in 1789 when the father of his country, George Washington, called for the first official national Thanksgiving day. He asked Americans to unite on Thursday, Nov. 26, to honor “that great and glorious Being, who is the beneficent Author of all the good that was, that is, or that will be — That we may then all unite in rendering unto him our sincere and humble thanks.” Americans have only one king, and He reigns above, and Washington knew Whom to thank for the establishment of the new nation.

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Finally, in 1863, after a letter requesting the holiday from elderly magazine editor Sarah Josepha Hale, President Abraham Lincoln and his Secretary of State William Seward proclaimed the Thanksgiving holiday as we know it today, establishing a day to give “Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens.” 

Seward and Lincoln’s proclamation was later sold to benefit the Union troops fighting to reunite America and end slavery, meaning that the history of this quintessential American holiday includes ties to Americans of all racial and cultural backgrounds, from the Indians and Pilgrims to the freed slaves and Union soldiers, and has always been tied not only to religious thanks but to America’s love of and fight for freedom and equality.

Marcus Tullius Cicero, the Roman orator and philosopher so greatly admired by America’s Founding Fathers, once said, “Gratitude is not only the greatest of virtues, but the parent of all others.” Lucius Annaeus Seneca, another favorite of the Founders, agreed with him: “Nothing is more honorable than a grateful heart.” 

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Related: This Thanksgiving, Remember Americans Without Homes or Family Dinners

Today, in the tradition of all our great forefathers, let us thank God for being Americans, say a prayer for those who are homeless or cannot be with their families today (including military, hurricane victims, and the J6ers and other political prisoners), and remember that nothing is more honorable or patriotic than a grateful heart.