Thanksgiving Day, currently celebrated on the fourth Thursday in November in the United States, is a joyous festival when families and friends get together for a special meal. Similar celebrations are also observed in Canada, Liberia, Norfolk Island, Puerto Rico and several other countries. Today, Thanksgiving is a preliminarily secular holiday but it has deep religious and cultural roots, longstanding traditions and a sometimes dim history.
The history of this holiday in North America descends from traditions of Days of Fasting and Days of Thanksgiving which were carried by Pilgrims and Puritans who started emigrating from England in the 1620s and 1630s. In the United States, the origins of the modern Thanksgiving Day are usually traced to the harvest celebration that the Pilgrims held in Plymouth, Massachusetts in 1621. There are also claims that the first Thanksgiving Day was held in the city of El Paso, Texas in 1598; in the Virginia Colony in 1619; and in Saint Augustine, Florida in 1565. These early Thanksgivings took the form of special church ceremonies, rather than a feast and the practice of holding annual harvest festivals did not become regular in the United States until the late 1660s.
Thanksgiving Day was held on various dates throughout history, the date also varied from state to state. In the beginning of the 19th century the final Thursday in November became the conventional date in most U.S. states. In 1863 president Abraham Lincoln proclaimed a national Thanksgiving Day to be held on Thursday, November 26, Thanksgiving Day had become an official holiday and was first celebrated on the same day by all states. Lincoln proclaimed the date to be the final Thursday in November in an attempt to foster a sense of American unity between the Northern and Southern states. However, because of ongoing Civil War the tradition of a nationwide Thanksgiving celebration did not totally take effect until Reconstruction was completed in the 1870s.
President Franklin D. Roosevelt broke with the tradition of celebrating Thanksgiving on the final Thursday in November. The country was in the midst of The Great Depression and Roosevelt hoped that the earlier Thanksgiving could give the U.S. economy a boost by providing merchants a longer period to sell goods before Christmas. On December 26, 1941 by federal legislation the unified date was fixed as the fourth Thursday in November.
At present Thanksgiving is one of the major holidays of the year in the U.S. Some of the modern Thanksgiving traditions are inherited from the first celebrations of this holiday, others were cultivated in later times. The holiday has lost much of its original religious significance but like then, it is celebrated with a huge feast. The Thanksgiving dinner, with a roasted or baked turkey as a center item, is an integral part of this day. Turkey has become a symbol of the holiday. Other traditional Thanksgiving meals include pumpkin pie, potatoes, gravy, stuffing, cranberry sauce and various vegetables. Thanksgiving was established as a religious holiday of giving thanks to God and this tradition is continued today in various forms. In many families Thanksgiving dinner is preceded by a special prayer of thanks. For irreligious people Thanksgiving Day is a good time to express gratitude to relatives, friends and dear ones for their love & support. A four-day weekend, feasting with friends and family, parades, festivals and football complete the concept of Thanksgiving day as one of the most delightful and fascinating holidays.
“I have become very fond about this day; Coming from Germany to study at UC Santa Barbara, Thanksgiving is was initially a new Holiday for me. I was invited by Judy — my former landlady — to celebrate with her family and many international UCSB students. She served roasted Turkey, sweet potatoes, stuffing and vegetables on a beautiful decorated table. My favorite part was her New York style cheesecake with ice cream. After the dinner and conversation we played games in the yard and drank more California-made Cabernet wine.” recalls Dirk Wagner, CEO of TutorZ.com.
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