“That some achieve great success, is proof to all that others can achieve it as well.” – Abraham Lincoln

Those were the words from a person who was once a farmer and then went on to become the President of the United States.

Born in Hodgenville, Kentucky on February 12, 1809, Abraham Lincoln grew up in Indiana until he turned 21 years old when he moved to Illinois. He went on to have many jobs during this time, such as a farmer, worked on a river flatboat, as a postman, shopkeeper, and eventually became a self-taught lawyer.At the age of 23, in 1832, he joined politics as an Illinois State Legislator, Congressman and eventually became the leader of the Whig Party. In 1849 he left politics to practice law.Lincoln returned in 1854 to lead the new Republican Party and gained national notoriety in 1858 during the debates against Democrat Stephen Douglas. Lincoln was elected as the 16th President of the United States of America in 1860.

During his Presidency he became known as Honest Abe and the Great Emancipator. While in office he led the Union to victory during the American Civil War, abolished slavery, imposed the income tax and the military draft. Abraham Lincoln was assassinated by John Wilkes Booth on April 14 1865, while watching a play at the Ford’s Theatre in Washington D.C.

History of the celebration of Lincoln’s Birthday

It was on February 12, 1866, almost a year after his assassination, that George Bancroft gave the first address to Congress commemorating Abraham Lincoln’s birthday, as he believed he was a man that should always be remembered by Americans for his great feats.A few years later, in 1873 a New York shopkeeper named Julius Francis began a long and repeated campaign to Congress to get Lincoln’s Birthday recognized as a public holiday. He got the first letter he sent to Congress for this purpose signed by 50 other New York residents. One year later, Francis organized the first public celebration of Abraham Lincoln’s birthday, something he did yearly until his death in 1881.

However, not all Americans were interested in a national celebration of Lincoln’s birthday, namely the people in the South, as they were against Lincoln’s controversial politics of reconstruction.Eventually, a few states passed legislation that officially recognized Lincoln’s birthday as a public holiday. Most notoriously, Illinois, also known as the “Land of Lincoln” made it into an official school holiday, and the states of New York, Connecticut and Missouri followed suit.

Even though Lincoln’s Birthday has not been made a public holiday, many Americans still take the time to honor him on his day, as he is one of the most admired United States Presidents.Since that event in 1922, observances continue to be organized by the Lincoln Birthday National Commemorative Committee and by the Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States (MOLLUS). A wreath is laid on behalf of the President of the United States, a custom also carried out at the grave sites of all deceased U.S. presidents on their birthdays. Lincoln’s tomb is in Springfield, Illinois.

Lincoln’s Birthday was never a U.S. Federal Government holiday. The third Monday in February remains only “Washington’s Birthday” in federal law.  Regardless of the official name and purpose, celebrations and commemorations on or about the third Monday often include honoring Lincoln.Traditionally Lincoln’s Birthday 2021 is seen as a time of celebration and honour. Although not observed in every state, various activities such as re-enactments, concerts and birthday parties are often organized for the day.

Organizations such as the Indiana Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Commission, Kentucky Lincoln Heritage Trail, and the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum often plan large-scale events. Republican Party members may also hold Lincoln’s Birthday 2021 fundraising dinners because he is known as the first president of the Republican Party.

1809 පෙබරවාරි 12 වන දින කෙන්ටකි හි හොඩ්ගන්විල් හි උපත ලැබූ ඒබ්‍රහම් ලින්කන්, වයස අවුරුදු 21 සපුරා ඉලිනොයිස් වෙත යන තෙක් ඉන්දියානා හි හැදී වැඩුණි. ගොවියෙකු, බෝට්ටුවක කම්කරුවෙකු ,තැපැල් ස්ථානාධිපතිවරයකු හා සාප්පු හිමියෙකු ලෙස සේවය කළ ඔහු අවසානයේ ස්වයං අධ්‍යාපනය ලැබූ නීතිඥයකු බවට පත්විය.වයස අවුරුදු 23 දී 1832 දී ඔහු ඉලිනොයිස් ප්‍රාන්ත ව්‍යවස්ථාදායකයේ කොන්ග්‍රස් සභිකයෙකු ලෙස දේශපාලනයට බැඳුණු අතර අවසානයේ විග් පක්ෂයේ නායකයා බවට පත්විය. 1849 දී ඔහු දේශපාලනය අතහැර නීති ක්ෂේත්‍රයට පිවිසීය.නව රිපබ්ලිකන් පක්ෂයට නායකත්වය දීම සඳහා ලින්කන් 1854 දී ආපසු පැමිණි අතර 1858 දී ඩිමොක්‍රටික් මන්ත්‍රී ස්ටීවන් ඩග්ලස්ට එරෙහි විවාදවලදී සුප්‍රකට චරිතයක් බවට පත් විය. 1860 දී ඇමරිකා එක්සත් ජනපදයේ 16 වන ජනාධිපතිවරයා ලෙස ලින්කන් තේරී පත් විය.ජනාධිපති ධුර කාලය තුළ ඔහු අවංක, මහා විමුක්තිදායකයා ලෙස ප්‍රසිද්ධ විය. ඔහුගේ ධූර කාලයේදී සන්දානය, ඇමරිකානු සිවිල් යුද සමයේ ජයග්‍රාහණය කරා මෙහෙයවීය, වහල්භාවය අහෝසි කළේය, ආදායම් බද්ද සහ මිලිටරි කෙටුම්පත පැනවීය.වොෂිංටන් ඩී.සී. හි ෆෝඩ් රඟහලේ නාට්‍යයක් නරඹමින් සිටියදී 1865 අප්‍රේල් 14 වන දින ජෝන් විල්ක්ස් බූත් විසින් ඒබ්‍රහම් ලින්කන්ව ඝාතනය කරන ලදී.

1866 පෙබරවාරි 12 වන දින, ජෝර්ජ් බැන්ක්‍රොෆ්ට්, ලින්කන්ගේ උපන්දිනය සැමරීම සඳහා කොන්ග්‍රසයට පළමු අදහස ලබා දුන්නේ, ලින්කන් යනු ඇමරිකානුවන් විසින් සැමවිටම සිහිපත් කළ යුතු මිනිසෙකු යැයි විශ්වාස කළ බැවිනි.ඉන් වසර කිහිපයකට පසු, 1873 දී නිව් යෝර්ක්හි සාප්පු හිමියෙකු වූ ජුලියස් ෆ්‍රැන්සිස්, ලින්කන්ගේ උපන්දිනය රජයේ නිවාඩු දිනයක් ලෙස පිළිගැනීමට කොන්ග්‍රසයට නැවත නැවතත් බල කරමින් ව්‍යාපාරයක් ආරම්භ කළේය.කෙසේ වෙතත්, සියලු ඇමරිකානුවන් ලින්කන්ගේ උපන්දිනය ජාතික සැමරුමක් බවට පත් කිරීම සඳහා උනන්දු නොවූ අතර විශේෂයෙන්ම දකුණේ ජනතාව, ලින්කන්ගේ මතභේදාත්මක ප්‍රතිසංස්කරණ දේශපාලනයට විරුද්ධ මත දැරූහ.අවසානයේදී, ප්‍රාන්ත කිහිපයක් විසින් ලින්කන්ගේ උපන්දිනය රජයේ නිවාඩු දිනයක් ලෙස නිල වශයෙන් පිළිගත් නීති සම්මත කරන ලදී. පසුකාලීනව, “ලින්කන් දේශය” ලෙසද හැඳින්වෙන ඉලිනොයිස් එය නිල පාසල් නිවාඩු දිනයක් බවට පත් කළ අතර නිව්යෝර්ක්, කනෙක්ටිකට් සහ මිසූරි ප්‍රාන්තයන් ද එය අනුගමනය කළහ.ලින්කන්ගේ උපන්දිනය රජයේ නිවාඩු දිනයක් බවට පත් කර නොතිබුණද, බොහෝ ඇමරිකානුවන් ඔහුගේ දවසේදී ඔහුට ගෞරව දැක්වීමට කාලය ගත කරයි, මන්ද ඔහු එක්සත් ජනපදයේ වඩාත්ම අගය කරන ජනාධිපතිවරයෙකි.2021 දී ලින්කන්ගේ උපන්දිනය සැමරීම හා ඔහුට කෘතගුණ දැක්වීම වෙනුවෙන් වෙන්වූ අද දින, ඇමරිකාවේ සෑම ප්‍රාන්තයකම දක්නට නොලැබුණද, ප්‍රසංග සහ උපන්දින සාද වැනි විවිධ ක්‍රියාකාරකම් ඇසුරෙන් ලොව පුරා ජනතාව විසින් සමරනු ලැබේ.

වරක් ගොවියෙකුව සිට පසුව ජනාධිපතිවරයෙකු වූ ඒබ්‍රහම් ලින්කන් නම් සොඳුරු ආඥාදායකයාගේ වදන් පෙලකින් සටහන අවසන් කරමු.

“සමහරු විශාල සාර්ථකත්වයක් අත්කර ගැනීම අනෙක් අයටත් එය සාක්ෂාත් කරගත හැකි බවට සාක්ෂියකි.” – ඒබ්‍රහම් ලින්කන්

“பெரும் வெற்றியைப் பெரும் அச் சிலரை போல ஏனையோரும் அதை அடைய முடியும் என்பதற்கு அதுவே சான்றாகும்.” – ஆபிரகாம் லிங்கன்

ஒரு காலத்தில் விவசாயியாக இருந்து பின்னர் அமெரிக்காவின் ஜனாதிபதியான ஒரு நபரின் வார்த்தைகள் அவை.

பிப்ரவரி 12, 1809 இல் Hodgenville, Kentuckyயில் பிறந்த ஆபிரகாம் லிங்கன் Illinois க்கு குடிபெயர்ந்தபோது அவருக்கு 21 வயதாகும் அது வரை Indiana வில் வளர்ந்தார். தனது 23 வயதில், 1832 இல், அரசியலில் சேர்ந்தார். 1849 ஆம் ஆண்டில் அவர் சட்டத்தரணியாக பணிபுரிய அரசியலை விட்டு வெளியேறினார். புதிய குடியரசுக் கட்சியை வழிநடத்த லிங்கன் 1854 இல் திரும்பினார் மற்றும் 1858 இல் ஜனநாயகக் கட்சி ஸ்டீபன் டக்ளஸுக்கு எதிரான விவாதங்களின் போது தேசியப் புகழைப் பெற்றார். லிங்கன் 1860 இல் அமெரிக்காவின் 16 வது ஜனாதிபதியாக தேர்ந்தெடுக்கப்பட்டார்.

அவரது ஜனாதிபதி காலத்தில் அமெரிக்க உள்நாட்டுப் போரின்போது யூனியனை வெற்றிக்கு அழைத்துச் சென்றார், அடிமைத்தனத்தை ஒழித்தார், வருமான வரி மற்றும் இராணுவ வரைவை விதித்தார்.ஏப்ரல் 14, 1865 அன்று வாஷிங்டன் டி.சி.யில் உள்ள ஃபோர்டு தியேட்டரில் ஒரு நாடகத்தைப் பார்த்துக் கொண்டிருந்தபோது, ​​ஆபிரகாம் லிங்கனை ஜான் வில்கேஸ் பூத் படுகொலை செய்தார்.

பிப்ரவரி 12, 1866 அன்று, அவர் கொலை செய்யப்பட்ட ஒரு வருடத்திற்கு பின்னர், ஜார்ஜ் பான்கிராப்ட் ஆபிரகாம் லிங்கனின் பிறந்தநாளை நினைவுகூரும் விதமாக காங்கிரசுக்கு முதல் உரையை வழங்கினார், ஏனெனில் அவர் ஒரு பெரிய மனிதர் என்று அமெரிக்கர்கள் எப்போதும் நினைவில் வைத்திருக்க வேண்டும் என்று அவர் நம்பினார்.சில ஆண்டுகளுக்குப் பிறகு, 1873 ஆம் ஆண்டில் நியூயோர்க் கடைக்காரர் ஜூலியஸ் பிரான்சிஸ் லிங்கனின் பிறந்தநாளை பொது விடுமுறையாக அங்கீகரிக்க காங்கிரசுக்கு நீண்ட மற்றும் தொடர்ச்சியான பிரச்சாரத்தைத் தொடங்கினார்.

ஒரு வருடம் கழித்து, பிரான்சிஸ் ஆபிரகாம் லிங்கனின் பிறந்தநாளின் முதல் பொது கொண்டாட்டத்தை ஏற்பாடு செய்தார், இதனை 1881 இல் அவர் இறக்கும் வரை ஆண்டுதோறும் செய்தார். இருப்பினும், அனைத்து அமெரிக்கர்களும் லிங்கனின் பிறந்தநாளின் தேசிய கொண்டாட்டத்தில் ஆர்வம் காட்டவில்லை, குறிப்பாக லிங்கனின் சர்ச்சைக்குரிய புனரமைப்பு அரசியலுக்கு எதிராக இருந்ததால்.லிங்கனின் பிறந்த நாள் ஒரு பொது விடுமுறையாக மாற்றப்படவில்லை என்றாலும், பல அமெரிக்கர்கள் அவரது பிறந்த நாளில் அவரை கௌரவிக்க நேரத்தை ஒதுக்குகின்றனர், ஏனெனில் அவர் மிகவும் புகழ்பெற்ற அமெரிக்க ஜனாதிபதிகளில் ஒருவர்.

பாரம்பரியமாக லிங்கனின் பிறந்த நாள் 2021 கொண்டாட்டம் மரியாதைக்குரிய காலமாக கருதப்படுகிறது. ஒவ்வொரு மாநிலத்திலும் கவனிக்கப்படவில்லை என்றாலும், மறுச் செயல்பாடுகள், இசை நிகழ்ச்சிகள் மற்றும் பிறந்தநாள் விழாக்கள் போன்ற பல்வேறு நடவடிக்கைகள் பெரும்பாலும் அன்றைய தினம் ஏற்பாடு செய்யப்படுகின்றன.

Penned by: Rtr. Sithum Gammanage

Edited, Translated and published by: RACSLIIT Editorial team 2020/21