to most Americans the pilgrims of Plymouth Massachusetts are the ICONic inspiration for today's Thanksgiving feast after the winter of 1620 killed almost half of their people the colonists formed a relationship with the neighboring tribe who taught them about fishing planting and hunting by autumn 1621 the colonists had collected enough food to feed the community Through the coming winter the wogs joined the colonists for a 3-day feast in honor of their Bounty the feast probably did not include our modern Thanksgiving staple turkey more likely the colonists and wogs dined on roast Goose along with corn codfish
and lobster this 1621 Harvest meal is now commonly thought of as the first Thanksgiving yet for later generations of colonists New England days of Thanksgiving had little to do with the 1621 Harvest Festival theirs was a religious holiday descended from Puritan days of fasting prayer and giving thanks to God every Autumn the governor of each colony would declare days of Thanksgiving for Bountiful harvests Victorious battles or drought ending rains in 1777 the Continental Congress decreed that all 13 of America's colonies celebrate a national day of Thanksgiving that year in celebration of their victory over the
British at Saratoga by the midn 19th century many states celebrated the holiday however the date could vary by weeks or even months a determined magazine editor named Sarah josephia hail set about establishing a national Thanksgiving day she passionately believ that such a day would help unite a nation headed towards Civil War hail began a one-woman letter writing campaign urging politicians to establish an annual day of Thanksgiving her efforts were finally rewarded by Abraham lincol who saw the unifying potential of the holiday in 1863 4 months after the victory at Gettysburg he declared the last Thursday
of November to be Thanksgiving Day by the 20th century Thanksgiving was a welcome day of leisure from a Six-Day work week in the 1920s the National Football League was formed in an effort to boost attendance the fledgling Detroit Lions devised the concept of a Thanksgiving Day game parades also became a turkey day tradition and department stores quickly saw their value as a kickoff to the Christmas shopping season the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade began in 1924 and year after year millions of New Yorkers Brave the cold to watch the festivities most of all Thanksgiving is about
family with Modern Life moving faster than ever Thanksgiving gives us a day to take a collective breath reconnect with loved ones and remember just how much we have to be thankful for a turkey
