Hymns for Thanksgiving Day

Thanksgiving Day is an unusual holiday in the BCP — not part of the liturgical calendar, but with more theological significance than the other “National Days” (as my favorite hymnal terms them).

I previously wrote a 1500-word article for North American Anglican entitled “Hymns ‘of’ Thanksgiving and ‘for’ Thanksgiving.” Since people can read it there, let me summarize a few ideas here.

First, despite the origins of the holiday with the 17th century Pilgrims, the US ECUSA prayer book ignored the holiday until it got its own collect and readings in the 1928 BCP — and was also mentioned in the 1979 and 2019 prayer books. In the 1928, it has a substitute for the Venite that is derived from Psalm 147; this has four chants in Hymnal 1940 (684-687) although I think using the Venite plainchant (612) would be more realistic.

In the article, I identified eight hymns from the three current American hymnals — Hymnal 1940, Hymnal 1982 and Magnify the Lord (aka Book of Common Praise 2017) —as well as the US (1916) and English antecedents (TEH, A&M). From this, I recommended three hymns as suitable for a November harvest-themed festival:

• “Come, ye thankful people, come” sung to St. George’s Windsor (H40: 137; H82: 290; MTL: 203) was universally popular since its 1861 publication in Hymns Ancient and Modern.
• “We plow the fields and scatter” sung to Claudius (H40: 138; H82: 291; MTL: 204) also dates to 1861.
• “For the beauty of the earth” (H40: 296; H82: 416; MTL: 206,207) originated with The English Hymnal (1906), but there is little agreement on the tune.

All three of these appear in more than 400 hymnals, and thus may be known to Christians from other backgrounds. But for an ecumenical hymn that will be widely known, I’d recommend the Catherine Winkworth translations of two German hymns:

• “Now thank we all our God” by Martin Rinkart (1586-1649), was written about the Thirty Years’ War but is an excellent hymn of gratitude for the entire church year.
• “Praise to the Lord, the Almighty, the King of creation” by Joachim Neander (1650-1680) is also suitable year round, but more as a general hymn of praise.

The runners up are the Presbyterian “Praise to God, immortal praise,” the Dutch “We gather together to ask the Lord’s blessing,” and the Anglican “Praise God, from whom all blessings flow.”

Together, these eight hymns cover both concepts of Thanksgiving — the November U.S. holiday or general gratitude to our divine creator.