Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving Wishes (22nd November 2012)
From 101lifeStyle.com

Thanksgiving In United States: Thanksgiving Day has been celebrated in the United States on the 4rth Thursday in November, officially since 1863. Counted as a federal and popular holiday, Thanksgiving is one of the major holidays and is part of the broader holiday season (Christmas and New Year).

The modern Thanksgiving holiday traces its origins from a 1621 celebration at the Plymouth Plantation, where the Plymouth settlers held a harvest feast after a successful growing season. This was continued in later years, first as an impromptu religious observance, and later as a civil tradition. The pilgrims, who sailed aboard the Mayflower, reached this land and set ground at Plymouth Rock on December 11, 1620. Their first winter was devastating. At the beginning of the following fall, they had lost 46 of the original 102 who sailed on the Mayflower. But the harvest of 1621 was a bountiful one and the remaining colonists decided to celebrate with a feast -- including 91 native Indians who had helped the Pilgrims survive their first year. It is believed that the Pilgrims would not have made it through the year without the help of the natives. The feast was more of a traditional English harvest festival than a true "thanksgiving" observance. It lasted three days and the feast consisted of fish (cod, eels, and bass) and shellfish (clams, lobster, and mussels), wild fowl (ducks, geese, swans, and turkey), venison, berries and fruit, vegetables (peas, pumpkin, beetroot and possibly, wild or cultivated onion), harvest grains (barley and wheat), and the Three Sisters: beans, dried Indian maize or corn, and squash. The Pilgrims held an even greater Thanksgiving celebration in 1623, after a switch from communal farming to privatized farming, a fast, and a refreshing 14-day rain resulted in a larger harvest. Irregular thanksgivings continued after favorable events and days of fasting after unfavorable ones. In the Plymouth tradition, a thanksgiving day was primarily a church observance, rather than a feast day. But thanksgiving days did have a civil observance linked to the religious one, as in 1623. Gradually, an annual Thanksgiving after the harvest developed in the mid-17th century. This did not occur on any set day or necessarily on the same day in different colonies in America.

As President, on October 3, 1789, George Washington made a proclamation and created the first Thanksgiving Day designated by the national government of the United States of America. George Washington again proclaimed a Thanksgiving in 1795. President John Adams declared Thanksgivings in 1798 and 1799. In the middle of the American Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln, prompted by a series of editorials written by Sarah Josepha Hale, proclaimed a national Thanksgiving Day, to be celebrated on the final Thursday in November 1863 and since 1863, Thanksgiving has been observed annually in the United States.

Since 1947, the National Turkey Federation has presented the President of the United States with one live turkey and two dressed turkeys, in a ceremony known as the National Thanksgiving Turkey Presentation. United States associates the holiday with the meal held in 1621 by the Wampanoag and the Pilgrims who settled in Plymouth, Massachussets. This tradition continues in modern times in the form of Thanksgiving dinner, where Turkey plays the central role. Although other kinds of foods are traditionally served, Baked or roasted Turkey is the main feature of the Thanksgiving Feast table. Mashed Potatoes, several stuffings, cranberry sauce, sweet corn dishes, various preparations with Fall vegetables, especially squashes, and pumpkin pies are also associated with the Thanksgiving dinner.

Since 1924, in New York City, the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade is held annually every Thanksgiving Day. The parade features parade floats with specific themes, scenes from Broadway plays, large balloons of cartoon characters and TV personalities, and high school marching bands. The float that traditionally ends the Macy's Parade is the Santa Claus float, the arrival of which is an unofficial sign of the beginning of the Christmas season.

American football is an important part of many Thanksgiving celebrations in the United States. Professional football games are often held on Thanksgiving Day. The National Football League has played games on Thanksgiving every year since its creation; the tradition is referred to as the Thanksgiving Classic.

The day after Thanksgiving is a day off for some companies and many schools. It is popularly known as Black Friday.

Thanksgiving Day In Canada