As we all enjoy turkey and the trimmings this Thanksgiving, you may be interested to know that the first Thanksgiving celebration in America was a completely religious observance that didn’t include a feast.

It occurred in 1619 — more than a year before the Pilgrims arrived from Massachusetts. A group of 38 English settlers arrived in Virginia and set aside a day to give thanks to God for their safe passage. The three-day festival of food and friendship that was the origin of Thanksgiving as we know it today didn’t occur until 1621.

Not Just a Private Celebration, a Public Thanks to God

Ever since, Thanksgiving has been a time for Americans not just to celebrate privately in our homes but to give public thanks to God — and not just for our material blessings but for our freedom. Our earliest Thanksgivings were in times when that freedom was at its most vulnerable.

In 1789, George Washington issued a proclamation calling for a day of “public thanksgiving and prayer” — a day for Americans to acknowledge “the many signal favors of Almighty God, especially by affording them an opportunity peaceably to establish a form of government for their safety and happiness.”

But Washington didn’t just say that individual Americans should thank God. He proclaimed that nations — especially the one-year-old United States of America — have obligations to God as well. He wrote, “It is the duty of all Nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey His will, to be grateful for His benefits, and humbly to implore His protection and favor.”