There’s a reason we don’t eat lamb for Thanksgiving dinner.

The woman whose petitions to U.S. presidents helped establish the official American holiday was also the author of “Mary Had a Little Lamb.”

Sarah Josepha Hale was a 19th-century American writer who believed the country desperately needed an official holiday to collectively give thanks. There are countless contributors to the idea of Thanksgiving, but her pen pushed the concept to the forefront of presidential priorities as she wrote letters to Abraham Lincoln petitioning for the holiday.

It was while the Civil War raged on that her pleas became most fervent. Instead of waiting for peace to begin the feast, Hale recognized the greatest need for giving thanks in the midst of bloody hardship.

Lincoln understood the holiday’s potential to heal the country’s wounds. With two years of fighting ahead of them, Lincoln declared that the last Thursday in November would be nationally celebrated as Thanksgiving, beginning in 1863.

Two decades later, President Franklin Roosevelt also saw the holiday as an opportunity for hope instead of a celebration of deliverance. Struggling to end the Great Depression 1939, Roosevelt moved Thanksgiving up a week to jumpstart the holiday shopping season and boost the economy.

Some chose to ignore what became known as the “Franksgiving” and stuck with celebrating the last Thursday of the month, but Roosevelt’s hope in the holiday spirit revealed the potential power of giving thanks.

These circumstances of war and economic want don’t instinctively inspire thankfulness. We have been taught to say “thank you” because we have received something.

It is ingrained in us to give thanks in seasons of plenty and seasons of peace. But I like Hale’s approach more. The most important times to give thanks are during seasons of hardship, seasons of war and seasons of economic crisis.

We must not wait for deliverance from trials to give thanks. We should be thankful in the midst of trials — if not thankful for the trials themselves.

When Congress declared the fourth Thursday of November the official Thanksgiving holiday in 1941, it intended for it to be celebrated regardless of circumstances.

Giving thanks has proven therapeutic during our country’s toughest terms. Gratitude can shift our focus today just as our former presidents hoped it would: from an unpopular war to the safety and freedom such efforts help ensure, from poor stock prices to the wealth of loved ones who surround us.

In that respect, Thanksgiving’s timing couldn’t be better. And there is no citizenship that can inspire thanksgiving like ours.

Even in our worst economic slumps, America is the most blessed nation in the world. Even in our times of want, we have plenty. Even in our times of war, we dwell in peaceful homes an ocean away from the most horrific conflicts.

Regardless of the circumstances you, your family or your country face this holiday, may this Thanksgiving remind you of blessings and inspire you to share them.

Whitney Coleman is a journalism senior. Her column appears every other Friday.