National Family Week is a time to recognize the importance of spending time with loved ones. For over 45 years, the week of Thanksgiving has been designated as the time to celebrate families. This year, President Joe Biden has proclaimed the week of November 21 to the 27 National Family Week.
Sam Wiley, a basketball coach, teacher, and school administrator in Indiana observed the students and saw those who came from strong, supportive families differed from those who did not live in a traditional family unit. He wanted to shine a light on the paramount role family plays in society.
This holiday has been recognized by every President in the United States of America since Richard Nixon in the early 1970s. During his proclamation for National Family Week, Nixon stated, “The family is the basic unit of our society, the heart of our free democracy. It provides love, acceptance, guidance, support, and instruction to the individual. Community values and goals that give America strength also take root in the home.”
He added that it is important for “families keep safe our cultural heritage and reinforce our spiritual foundation,” especially “In times of change and challenge.” Nixon felt family units should “be preserved.” He felt any assistance given to families in need “should be supportive and purposeful in strengthening the family’s stability, self-sufficiency, and permanence.”
The first week of October has been Canada’s designated time to celebrate National Family Week since 1985. Families Canada has coordinated the National Family Week program with event organizers since 2007. This year they celebrated National Family Week from October 4 to the 10. Their theme for 2021 was “Connected Families, Connected Communities.”
National Family Week is celebrated at different times all around the world.
Biden’s father had an expression, “Family was the beginning, the middle, and the end,” according to The President’s National Family Week proclamation. Since the start of his presidential campaign, Biden has stated that his goal was to build the Nation’s “economy from the bottom up and the middle out and give America’s hard-working families some much needed breathing room.”
So whether your family consists of loved ones related or those who are not; now is the time be to be thankful for the love shared between one another.
Written by Sheena Robertson
Sources:
The White House: A Proclamation on National Family Week, 2021
National Family Week: About
Families Canada: National Family Week
Top and Featured Image Courtesy of Stanley Zimny (Thank You for 59 Million views)’s Flickr Page – Creative Commons License
Inset Image Courtesy of Several seconds’ Flickr Page – Creative Commons License
