On Oct. 3, 1863, with the United States deep in the Civil War, and about six weeks before he would deliver the Gettysburg Address, President Abraham Lincoln issued a proclamation inviting “fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next, as a day of Thanksgiving.” In doing so, he established what would become the annual Thanksgiving holiday.

Each year, on Thanksgiving Day, the Washington Examiner has made it a tradition to publish Lincoln’s proclamation — though, this year, it is more filled with meaning. Though not quite in the midst of a civil war, 2020 has been a challenging time, with the nation divided politically and suffering through a once-in-a-century pandemic that has brought economic and social disruption on a scale that has not been experienced by most living people. Even the annual Thanksgiving tradition this year is being uprooted, with many state and local leaders and health officials urging people to cancel travel plans and observe it only with their households. Like Lincoln in proclaiming the first Thanksgiving, we are grateful for the blessings that we have been given, pray for those who have suffered or lost loved ones, and look to better times ahead.