Wow Your Family With Some Thanksgiving Facts

Thanksgiving Day is celebrated on the fourth Thursday in November in the United States.  The pilgrims arrived in North America in December 1620.  They celebrated the first Thanksgiving Day in the fall of 1621 at Plymouth, Massachusetts.  The Wampanoag Indians were the people who taught the Pilgrims how to cultivate the land.  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.  President George Washington issued the first national Thanksgiving Day Proclamation in the year 1789 and again in 1795.  The state of New York officially made Thanksgiving Day an annual custom in 1817.  Sarah Josepha Hale, an editor with a magazine, started a Thanksgiving campaign in 1827 and as a result of her efforts, in 1863 Thanksgiving was observed as a day for national thanksgiving and prayer.  Abraham Lincoln issued a Thanksgiving Proclamation in October 1863 and officially set aside the last Thursday of November as the national day for Thanksgiving. Whereas, earlier the presidents used to make an annual proclamation to specify the day when Thanksgiving was to be held.  President Franklin D. Roosevelt restored the Thursday before the 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.  Congress passed an official proclamation in 1941 and declared that Thanksgiving will be observed as a legal holiday on the fourth Thursday of November every year.  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.