Proclamation No. 641




MALACAÑAN PALACE MANILA BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE PHILIPPINES [ Proclamation No. 641, November 18, 1940 ] DESIGNATING THURSDAY, THE TWENTY-FIRST DAY OF NOVEMBER, 1940, AS A DAY OF NATIONAL THANKSGIVING For the information of the people of the Philippines, there is published hereunder an excerpt from a proclamation of the President of the United States setting aside Thursday, November the twenty-first, nineteen hundred and forty, as a day of general thanksgiving: “I, Franklin D. Roosevelt, President of the United States of America, do hereby designate Thursday, the 21st day of November, 1940, to be observed nationally as a day of thanksgiving. “In a year which has seen calamity and sorrow fall upon many peoples elsewhere in the world may we give thanks for our preservation. “On the same day, in the same hour, let us pray: “Almighty God, who has given us this good land for our heritage; we humbly beseech Thee that we may always prove ourselves a people mindful of Thy favor and glad to do Thy will. Bless our land with honorable industry, sound learning, and pure manners. “Save us from violence, discord, and confusion; from pride and arrogance, and from every evil way. Defend our liberties, and fashion into one united people the multitudes brought hither out of many kindreds and tongues. “Endow with the spirit of wisdom those to whom in Thy name we entrust the authority of government that there may be justice and peace at home, and that through obedience to Thy law, we may show forth Thy praise among the nations of the earth. In the time of prosperity, fill our hearts with thankfulness, and in the day of trouble suffer not our trust in Thee to fail; Amen.” It is proper that the day be also observed in the Philippines as in the United States so that we can offer to Almighty God our gratitude for the great favors and blessings He has bestowed upon us. We have been spared the ravages of wars that are raging in other parts of the world; we have just completed another fruitful year of the Commonwealth; we have not experienced any internal trouble or social unrest of any magnitude; and we have been able to cope successfully with the health problems that confront us. Therefore, I, MANUEL L. QUEZON, President of the Philippines, do hereby proclaim Thursday, November the twenty-first, nineteen hundred and forty, as a day of thanksgiving in the Philippines and do enjoin our people to offer their prayers to Almighty God so that we may be able to continue peacefully in our work during this arduous time of nation-building, to deserve His blessings and grace, and to be worthy of His guidance and protection in the days to come. IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the Commonwealth of the Philippines to be affixed.1aшphi1 Done at the City of Manila, this eighteenth day of November, in the year of Our Lord, nineteen hundred and forty and of the Commonwealth of the Philippines, the sixth. MANUEL L. QUEZON President of the Philippines By the President: JORGE B. VARGAS Secretary to the President The Lawphil Project - Arellano Law Foundation