|
Thanksgiving Day is the
fourth Thursday in
November.
Many Americans enjoy
a local Thanksgiving
parade, or the annual
Macy’s department store
parade, televised live
from New York City.
Others watch televised
American football, while
all give thanks together
for their food, shelter
and other good things.
The holiday dates
back to 1621, the year
after the Puritans
arrived in Plymouth,
Massachusetts,
determined to practice
their dissenting
religion without
interference. After a
rough winter, in which
about half of them died,
they turned for help to
neighboring Indians, who
taught them how to plant
corn and other crops.
Two Wampanoag men,
Samoset and Squanto (or
Tisquantum), taught the
Pilgrims how to
cultivate the new land.
The next fall's
bountiful harvest
inspired the Pilgrims to
give thanks by holding a
feast.
At harvest time, the
Pilgrims invited the
men, along with
Massasoit, the local
Wampanoag leader, and
all three men's families
to share the harvest
celebration with them.
Those three families
turned out to include
more than 90 people, and
because the Pilgrims
were not prepared to
feed so many, the
Wampanoag themselves
provided most of the
food for the festival.
Thanksgiving
festivals continued
throughout colonial and
early American times,
but for much of that
period, the holiday
wasn't celebrated every
year. In 1777, the
Continental Congress
declared the first
national American
Thanksgiving following
the providential victory
at Saratoga. National
Thanksgivings were
proclaimed annually by
Congress from 1777 to
1783.
After a five year
hiatus, the practice was
revived by President
Washington in 1789, the
year of his
inauguration. He issued
another proclamation in
1795. In 1827, Boston
Ladies' Magazine editor
Sarah Josepha Hale began
a campaign to have
Thanksgiving Day
permanently proclaimed
as a national holiday.
On October 3, 1863,
in the middle of the
Civil War, President
Abraham Lincoln
appointed a national day
of Thanksgiving to be
observed on the last
Thursday in November.
Every president after
Lincoln issued an annual
proclamation to set the
date of Thanksgiving.
This continued until
1941 when a joint
congressional resolution
officially set the date
as the fourth Thursday
in November.
Today the holiday
traditionally revolves
around sharing a hearty
meal featuring such
favorites as turkey,
stuffing, sweet
potatoes, cranberry
sauce, and pumpkin pie.
Before the meal begins,
families or friends
usually pause to give
thanks for their
blessings, including the
joy of being united for
the occasion.
|