Thanksgiving

This is a federal holiday celebrated on the fourth Thursday in November. It originated as a harvest festival, and Thanksgiving dinner remains the centrepiece. The dinner traditionally consists of foods and dishes indigenous to the Americas like turkey, potatoes, stuffing, squash, corn, green beans, cranberries and pumpkin pie. It is considered the start of the holiday season. The First Thanksgiving took place in October 1621 by the Pilgrims after their first harvest in the New World. This feast lasted three days and was attended by 90 Native Americans and 53 Pilgrims. It has been nationally celebrated nationally on and off since 1789, with a proclamation by President George Washington after a request by congress. President Thomas Jefferson chose not to observe the holiday, and its celebration was intermittent until President Lincoln in 1863 proclaimed a national day of “Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens” to be celebrated on the last Thursday in November. On 28th June 1870, President Ulysses S. Grant signed into law the Holidays Act that made Thanksgiving a yearly appointed federal holiday in Washington D.C. On 6th January 1885, an act by congress, made Thanksgiving, and other federal holidays, a paid holiday for all federal workers throughout the country. Under President Franklin D. Roosevelt, the date was moved to one week earlier, observed between 1939 and 1941, amid significant controversy. From 1942, by an act of congress, it was signed into law and received a permanent observation date so it’s no longer at the discretion of the President.

There are Parades held across the USA, the most famous being in New York called the Macy’s Parade. There is also three NFL games played, one hosted by the Detroit Lions and another by the Dallas Cowboys.