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Thanksgiving Day
The first Thanksgiving in America was celebrated less than a year after the Plymouth colonists settled in the New World. The corn harvest brought celebration and Governor William Bradford decreed that a three day feast be held.
Thanksgiving Day is a day set aside in the United States and Canada for giving thanks. People give thanks with feasting and prayer for the blessings that they have received during the year. The first Thanksgivings were harvest festivials, or days for thanking God for plentiful crops. For this reason, the holiday is associated with fall - a time of harvesting the crops.
In the United States, Thanksgiving is usually a day celebrated with big dinners and family reunions. Thanksgiving is also a time for religious reflection, church services and prayer. The last Thursday in November was proclaimed the National Thanksgiving holiday by Abraham Lincoln in 1863. He proclaimed it "a day of thanksgiving and praise to the beneficent Father." Thanksgiving was celebrated on that date for 75 years until President Roosevelt set the day one week earlier in 1939. He wanted to lengthen the shopping period between Thanksgiving and Christmas to help businesses. Congress finally ruled in 1941 that the fourth Thursday in November would be the legal National Thanksgiving Day holiday.
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