Thanksgiving Facts
by Don Hite
52 Pilgrims attended the 'First Thanksgiving' in 1621 including: John Alden, William Bradford, Priscilla Mullins and Miles Standish Abraham Lincoln announced Thanksgiving to be national holiday in his proclamation on October 3, 1863. Before this the presidents used to make an annual proclamation to specify the day when Thanksgiving was to be held. According to Edward Winslow, a participant in the First Thanksgiving, the feast consisted of: Corn, Barley, Fowl including Wild Turkeys and Waterfowl and Venison and the celebration lasted for three days and included games and food. Approximately 50 Native Americans attended the 'First Thanksgiving' including: Massasoit and Squanto - the Pilgrim's Translator. Benjamin Franklin wanted the turkey to be the national bird of the United States. But it was Thomas Jefferson who opposed him. It is believed that Franklin then named the male turkey as 'tom' to spite Jefferson. By the fall of 1621 only half of the pilgrims, who had sailed on the Mayflower, survived. The survivors, thankful to be alive, decided to give a thanksgiving feast. Californians are the largest consumers of turkey in the United States. Congress passed an official proclamation in 1941 and declared that now onwards Thanksgiving will be observed as a legal holiday on the fourth Thursday of November every year. On December 11, 1620 the first Pilgrims (or Puritans, as they were initially known) landed at Plymouth Rock. President Franklin D. Roosevelt restored Thursday before last of November as Thanksgiving Day in the year 1939. He did so to make the Christmas shopping season longer and thus stimulate the economy of the state. President George Washington issued the first national Thanksgiving Day Proclamation in the year 1789 and again in 1795. Sarah Josepha Hale, an editor with a magazine, started a Thanksgiving campaign in 1827 and it was result of her efforts that in 1863 Thanksgiving was observed as a day for national thanksgiving and prayer. Thanksgiving Day is celebrated on the fourth Thursday in November in the United States and is celebrated on the second Monday in October in Canada. The annual Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade tradition began in the 1920's. The date of the First Thanksgiving is not precisely known though it occurred between September 21 and November 9, 1621. The first National celebration of Thanksgiving was declared in 1777 by the Continental Congress. However, this was not an annual event. The Pilgrim leader, Governor William Bradford, had organized the first Thanksgiving feast in the year 1621 and invited the neighboring Wampanoag Indians also to the feast. The state of New York officially made Thanksgiving Day an annual custom in 1817. The 'wishbone' of the turkey is used in a good luck ritual on Thanksgiving Day.
