Thanksgiving Celebration
Thanksgiving Celebration!
Let’s talk about a special occasion people from the USA and Canada Celebrate, although it takes place one month apart and have different histories. We would mainly focus on the celebration of American Thanksgiving.
This is a national holiday celebrated on the fourth Thursday of November. This celebration was all about giving thanks for good land, and good fortune as far as crops were concerned. It is considered the most important dinner of the year. Friends and family get together in this special day and the main course is Turkey. Although, there is no evidence of turkey having been served at the first Thanksgiving feast in 1621 at Plymouth Plantation. Pilgrim Edward Winslow wrote in a letter that a turkey hunt had occurred before the meal, and this might explain the tradition of serving turkey.
The use of the turkey in the US for Thanksgiving precedes Lincoln’s nationalization of the holiday to be held each November in 1863. Earlier years, colonies and states celebrated this holiday individually until the proclamation. Although, it was until 1941 when Franklin D. Roosevelt signed a bill making Thanksgiving the fourth Thursday in November.
An interesting fact is that Ronald Regan was the first president to formally grant a turkey a Presidential pardon in 1987. And later on John F. Kennedy also pardoned a turkey on November 19th, 1963 stating: “Let’s Keep going.” to keep the tradition going.
Parades have become an important part of the holiday celebration and since 1924, Macy’s Department in New York City has the largest and most famous Thanksgiving Day parade. Also, the tradition of football on Thanksgiving Day started in 1876 with a game between Yale and Princeton, shortly after the game had been invented. The first NFL games were played on Thanksgiving in 1920. It was the perfect time as most people have a day off work to celebrate this holiday. Parades and Football games were suspended from 1941 to 1944 because of World War II.
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