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The Thanksgiving Holiday in the United States


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The Thanksgiving Holiday in the USA is celebrated on the last Thursday in November. The holiday generally is the kick off for the Christmas season and includes a feast of food with families and friends.

A brief history:

The American Thanksgiving holiday began as a feast of thanksgiving in the early days of the American colonies almost four hundred years ago.

In 1620, a boat filled with more than one hundred people sailed across the Atlantic Ocean to settle in the New World. This religious group had begun to question the beliefs of the Church of England and they wanted to separate from it. The Pilgrims settled in what is now the state of Massachusetts. Their first winter in the New World was difficult. They had arrived too late to grow many crops, and without fresh food, half the colony died from disease. The following spring the Iroquois Indians taught them how to grow corn (maize), a new food for the colonists. They showed them other crops to grow in the unfamiliar soil and how to hunt and fish.

In the autumn of 1621, bountiful crops of corn, barley, beans and pumpkins were harvested. The colonists had much to be thankful for, so a feast was planned. They invited the local Indian chief and 90 Indians. The Indians brought deer to roast with the turkeys and other wild game offered by the colonists. The colonists had learned how to cook cranberries and different kinds of corn and squash dishes from the Indians. To this first Thanksgiving, the Indians had even brought popcorn.

In following years, many of the original colonists celebrated the autumn harvest with a feast of thanks. After the United States became an independent country, Congress recommended one yearly day of thanksgiving for the whole nation to celebrate. George Washington suggested the date November 26 as Thanksgiving Day. Then in 1863, at the end of a long and bloody civil war, Abraham Lincoln asked all Americans to set aside the last Thursday in November as a day of thanksgiving.

Thanksgiving falls on the fourth Thursday of November, a different date every year. The President must proclaim that date as the official celebration.

In 1939 President Franklin D. Roosevelt set it one week earlier. He wanted to help business by lengthening the shopping period before Christmas. Congress ruled that after 1941 the 4th Thursday in November would be a federal holiday proclaimed by the President each year.

http://www.crewsnest.vispa.com/thanksgivingusa.htm

Traditional food includes turkey and bread stuffing, vegetables and of course a lot of deserts including pumpkin pie.

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving day for us. It is always a good time for one and all. We will be heading over to my sisters house tomorrow to give thanks and to enjoy a tasteful feast of food and spirits. :D

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Thanks all. It was a wonderful day.

My older sister who broke off relations with the family 20 some years ago was invited with her family. We had seen them at my mothers wake and funeral this past Spring but considering the occassion we had not been able to break through the layer of ice she created when deciding to leave the family. Looking to make the best of it one of my younger sisters hosted Thanksgiving and invited her and her family.

It was a wonderful time having the entire family (sans Mom and Dad) together again and fences were mended. We are having them (my long lost sister and family) along with my other 3 sisters and family over for Christmas Eve. :)

A side to Tankus: I don't understand why you had to politicize a perfectly fine thread of mine having nothing to do with Blair or politics. In the future, if you cannot offer a positive contribution to a friendly and non political thread I start please refrain from posting to it at all. ;)

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