History of Thanksgiving
The history of Thanksgiving in the
United States begins with the pilgrims who came over from England and landed on
Plymouth Rock in Massachusetts in 1621.
The pilgrims shared a feast in the fall, probably October, of that year with the
Wampanoag Indians. Although this was the first Thanksgiving, Thanksgiving would
not become a federal holiday until 1941.
Various
Thanksgiving-type celebrations were held irregularly during the fall months for
nearly 150 years before it was suggested by the Continental Congress that the
country should have a national day of Thanks.
In
1817, New York was the first state to adopt Thanksgiving as an official holiday.
By the time the Civil War erupted in the 1860’s, every state had also made
Thanksgiving a state holiday. In 1863, President Abraham Lincoln declared a
national day of Thanksgiving on the last Thursday of November. In 1939,
President Franklin Roosevelt declared that the Thanksgiving would be on the
third Thursday in November. Congress approved that declaration two years later
in 1941.
