Thanksgiving Day T
hanksgiving Day is an annual national holiday celebrated in the United States to celebrate the harvest from the past year. It is celebrated on the fourth Thursday of November thus, the actual date tends to change every year. The holiday is based on the three-day harvest feast that happened in 1621 between the Pilgrims and the Wampanoag Native Americans. This was considered the first thanksgiving. During the feast, the natives brought deer while the pilgrims brought wild fowls but turkey was later made the meal during this festive holiday. The first time Thanksgiving was celebrated nationally was in 1789 when President George Washington declared it a thanksgiving celebration in honor of the creation of the first United States Constitution. Thanksgiving became an annual tradition among many communities that celebrated it at different months and days. President Abraham Lincoln was the one that made it a federal national holiday. It was in the midst of the civil war when he declared that Thanksgiving would
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be celebrated each November. He was expressing gratitude to God and thanks to the army for emerging successfully from the battle of Gettysburg. He called upon the people to observe the last Thursday of November as a day of thanksgiving and praise making it a national holiday. However, the holiday was briefly moved from the last Thursday of November to the third Thursday of the month during Presidents Franklin D. Roosevelt’s term back in 1939. He wanted to create more shopping days before Christmas to give the economy a boost. This decision was not agreed upon by many hence most people continued celebrating it the last Thursday. In 1941, the president and Congress made the final decision and officially moved the holiday to the last Thursday of November. HOW IS IT OBSERVED Most people travel to go spend time with their families and bountiful meal comprising of turkey, cranberries, bread stuffing, and pumpkin pie are mainly taken as a tradition. Sharing with the less fortunate – Most people go out to the streets and donate food to the homeless.
THE POWER IS NOW MAGAZINE | NOVEMBER 2021
