The
first American Thanksgiving was celebrated in 1621,
to commemorate the harvest reaped by the Plymouth Colony after
a harsh winter. In that year Governor William Bradford proclaimed
a day of thanksgiving. The colonists celebrated it as a traditional
English harvest feast, to which they invited the local Wampanoag
Indians. Days of thanksgiving were celebrated throughout
the colonies after fall harvests. All thirteen colonies did
not, however, celebrate Thanksgiving at the same time
until October 1977. George Washington was the first President
to declare the holiday, in 1789.
By the mid 1800s, many states observed a
Thanksgiving holiday. Meanwhile, the poet and editor,
Sarah J. Hale had begun lobbying for a national Thanksgiving
holiday. During the Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln,
looking for ways to unite the nation, discussed the subject
with Hale. In 1863 he gave his Thanksgiving Proclamation,
declaring the last Thursday in November a day of thanksgiving.
In 1939, 1940, and 1941 Franklin D. Roosevelt,
seeking to lengthen the Christmas shopping season, proclaimed
Thanksgiving the third Thursday in November. Controversy followed
and Congress passed a joint resolution in 1941 decreeing that
Thanksgiving should fall on the fourth Thursday of November,
where it remains. |
