Thanksgiving Day in America is a public holiday, celebrated yearly on the fourth Thursday In November.
The origins of Thanksgiving Day can be traced back to the Plymouth Feast of 1621 when the Pilgrims, having landed in 1620 and established a settlement in Plymouth, Massachusetts, gave thanks and praise for a good harvest. The Pilgrims and Puritans carried the tradition of ‘days of thanksgiving’ with them to New England. The Plymouth Feast lasted for three days and local Native Indians from the Wampanoag tribe also attended.
Thanksgiving was celebrated again in 1623 by the Pilgrims to mark the end of a long drought which threatened that year’s harvest. However, the practice of holding annual Thanksgiving Days did not become regular in New England until the late 1660s.
For the next two hundred years, colonies and states held their own form of Thanksgiving days and celebrations. The first nationwide Thanksgiving celebration was declared by President George Washington for 26th November 1789. Many states in America began to adopt annual Thanksgiving holidays but each state celebrated on different days.
In 1827, Sarah Josepha Hale, a noted author and magazine editor, began a campaign to have Thanksgiving Day as a national holiday. It took her 36 years of campaigning until 1863, in the midst of the American Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln proclaimed the final Thursday in November as Thanksgiving Day and a national holiday. In 1941, an amendment was passed by the USA government that declared Thanksgiving Day as the fourth Thursday in November!
For many American households, the Thanksgiving celebration has lost its religious significance. Thanksgiving Day now centres on sharing a meal with family and friends, albeit a large meal! Turkey along with traditional foods such as stuffing, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce and pumpkin pie are just some of the items eaten. It is a time for families and friends to spend the day together but also for communities to help the less fortunate. Food drives are made annually and many people volunteer to help serve meals to poorer members of the community.
Thanksgiving Day is known to many people around the world for its annual Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York City which is televised. The parade, which started in 1924, has themed floats, scenes from Broadway plays, large balloon cartoon characters and high school marching bands. Many cities in America have Thanksgiving Day parades which are televised by local stations.
Since 1947, the National Turkey Federation has presented the President of the United States with one live turkey and two dressed turkeys. Several Presidents since have “pardoned” the turkey but it only became a permanent annual tradition in 1989 under George W Bush.
