Thanksgiving, a holiday celebrated in the United States and Canada, has its roots in the harvest festival tradition. It is celebrated on the fourth Thursday in November (November 27th this year), and has acquired some unusual traditions over the years…
One of the first U.S. Thanksgiving celebrations is an autumn harvest feast held by the English colonists and Wampanoag Indians at Plymouth. Though the tradition of harvest-time celebrations of thanks dates back centuries among Native American groups, the 1621 feast has become a symbol of cooperation between colonists and Native Americans.
President Abraham Lincoln proclaimed a national Thanksgiving Day in 1863, to be celebrated on the final Thursday in November, saying that the “blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies” and other bounties “should be solemnly, reverently and gratefully acknowledged as with one heart and voice by the whole American people.”
Thanksgiving has been observed annually in the U.S. ever since, but the date was changed to the fourth Thursday by President Roosevelt in 1939, who moved the Christmas shopping season, which traditionally began after Thanksgiving, forward by a week to give spending a boost and help pull the country out of the Depression.
The lavish Thanksgiving feast typically includes roast turkey with stuffing, cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, corn and pumpkin pie, and sometimes sweet dishes such as rainbow-colored Jell-O with marshmallows. Turkey is the only dish that the original settlers and Indians would have had on their table – they had no cranberries, potatoes, sugar or milk!
The President of the United States traditionally pardons a live turkey, allowing him to live out his days on a farm rather than end up on a dinner table. In more recent years, two turkeys have been pardoned, and the public has named them – last year’s were called May and Flower.
Since 2005, the two turkeys have been flown first class from Washington, D.C. to Los Angeles, where they become the Grand Marshals of Disneyland’s annual Thanksgiving Day parade.
Thanksgiving brings a diverse nation together, since it is celebrated by nearly all Americans, regardless of race or religion. Many Americans take this time to offer assistance to the needy, as well as giving thanks for their own good fortune.