What are we celebrating on Thanksgiving?

"Signing the Mayflower Compact 1620", a painting by Jean Leon Gerome Ferris 1899

Many people have asked me, "What are we celebrating on Thanksgiving? Is it eating turkey? Or watching sporting events? Or spending time with family and friends?"
No!
What we are celebrating is Freedom. American Freedom under God.
The 'Puritans' (they called themselves "Saints") established a constitutional government, a government based on Judeo-Christian principles. English Common Law (what our system of jurisprudence is based on) holds precedence in the highest esteem. The precedent that the forty-one men (sorry ladies) who signed the constitution (this was an agreement freely entered into by free men) firmly established that these men began the first constitutional government ever upon the continent of North America.
 

A transcription of the Mayflower Compact by the expedition's leader, William Bradford

Modern version of the Mayflower Compact

"In the name of God, Amen. We, whose names are underwritten, the loyal subjects of our dread Sovereign Lord King James, by the Grace of God, of Great Britain, France, and Ireland, King, defender of the Faith, etc.
Having undertaken, for the Glory of God, and advancements of the Christian faith and honor of our King and Country, a voyage to plant the first colony in the Northern parts of Virginia, do by these presents, solemnly and mutually, in the presence of God, and one another, covenant and combine ourselves together into a civil body politic; for our better ordering, and preservation and furtherance of the ends aforesaid; and by virtue hereof to enact, constitute, and frame, such just and equal laws, ordinances, acts, constitutions, and offices, from time to time, as shall be thought most meet and convenient for the general good of the colony; unto which we promise all due submission and obedience.
In witness whereof we have hereunto subscribed our names at Cape Cod the 11th of November, in the year of the reign of our Sovereign Lord King James, of England, France, and Ireland, the eighteenth, and of Scotland the fifty-fourth, 1620.^"

The 'dread sovereign' referred to in the document uses the archaic definition of dread, meaning awe and reverence (for the King). Also, as noted above, the document was signed under the Old Style Julian calendar, since England did not adopt the Gregorian calendar until 1752. The Gregorian date would be November 21.
All other governments since formed in North America, consciously or unconsciously, have also been founded on the same  Judeo-Christian principles as the first one--The Mayflower Compact.

Think about that when you are eating turkey and stuffing tomorrow.

Free America!

Patriots: Organize, Prepare, Train!
 "If there must be trouble, let it be in my day, that my child may have peace." - Thomas Paine