Days of humiliation and thanksgiving

Puritans rejected the traditional Christian liturgical calendar of holy days, including Easter and Christmas, as well as saints' days, but set aside special days to thank God, as well as days of prayer and fasting. Days of thanksgiving and days of humiliation were public observances in Protestant Christianity, particularly among Puritan communities in early modern England and colonial America. A day of humiliation or fasting was a publicly proclaimed day of fasting and prayer in response to an event thought to signal God's judgement. A day of thanksgiving was a day set aside for public worship in thanksgiving for events believed to signal God's mercy and favor. Such a day might be proclaimed by the civil authority or the church.