Thanksgiving – one of the most famous celebrations in America – is a national holiday on the fourth Thursday of November. It is an occasion for family to gather for reunions and festivities in the home around bountiful dinners. This year, Thanksgiving will be observed tomorrow.

A brief story of Thanksgiving
Today’s Thanksgiving celebration originated in a thanksgiving day held in December 1621 by the New England settlers - known as the Pilgrims -to give thanks to the Lord for successful harvests and plentiful crops. In 1620, When New England colonists landed in the Plymouth bay, now Massachusetts, they agreed to set up a government and ratified the first important documents in the history of democratic government in America, the Mayflower Compact to make “fair and equal laws” for their new settlement in the world, now called the United State. As it was so,they had to build homes in the wilderness and geared their lives to new circumstances. They learnt how to raise crops, plant their corn, peas, wheat and barley alongside their Indian neighbors. Thanks to the abundance of harvests, the pilgrims decided to have a big party of thanksgiving and proclaimed it a day of thanksgiving that was to be shared by all colonists and the neighboring Native American Indians led by William Bradford, their Governor. It was in 1863 that President Abraham Lincoln proclaimed it a national day to be celebrated on the last Thursday in November. Since then each president has issued a Thanksgiving Day proclamation.

Did you know the purpose of eating Turkey on thanksgiving?
Eating turkey during Thanksgiving Day has become atradition for American people. Families spend the holiday together and eat typical dishes that include bread stuffing, pumpkin pie, sweet potatoes, cranberry sauce, and aboveall turkey. This thanksgiving menu today is actually tied to the first thanksgiving of the pilgrims of Plymouth.There were definitely plentiful wild turkeys in the Plymouth area, as noted by William Bradford in his journal. However,the account of the colonist Edward Winslow in his journal of the Pilgrims at Plymouth mentioned that turkey has not been included in the first Harvest’s feast of thanksgiving. He just mentioned the Pilgrims gathering “wild fowl” for the meal.The idea of turning turkey intopopular dish to serve on special occasions such as on thanksgiving came in the 19th century, when Bradford’s journals were found and reprinted in 1856 in which He related how colonists had hunted wild turkeys during the autumn of 1621 and since turkey has become a solely American bird and a symbol of the United States’ prowess, of its national mythology shortly after thanksgiving has been solemnly declared as a national American Holiday in 1863. Moreover, unlike chickens and cows those do not serve much utilitarian purpose like producing eggs and milk, turkeys are essentially raised for their meet. As well as they are big enough and prominent to feed all the members of a large family.

Sources: ShareAmerica / Britannica