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The Thanksgiving Day celebrated
(Agencies)
Updated: 2004-11-26 14:36
The Spongebob Squarepants balloon makes its
way down Broadway for its first appearance in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day
parade, in New York, November 25, 2004. Thousands gathered to watch the
annual Thanksgiving day tradition. [Reuters]
Don Gahran of Queens, New York, wears a turkey
hat as he watches balloons go by in Times Square during the Macy's
Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York. The parade features 59 balloons and
27 floats[AFP]
An Uncle Sam balloon passes through Times
Square during the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York. The parade
features 59 balloons and 27 floats. [AFP]
Kermit the Frog floats above the newly
renovated Columbus Circle during the Macy's Parade in New York, Thursday,
Nov. 25, 2004. The Thanksgiving Day parade, featuring 59 balloons and 27
floats, stepped off just after 9 a.m. and began its procession toward
Herald Square in Manhattan. [AP]
Big Bird floats above the crowd during the
Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York, Thursday, Nov. 25, 2004.
[AP]
SpongeBob Squarepants makes his way along the
parade route during the Macy's Parade in New York Thursday, Nov. 25, 2004.
The Thanksgiving Day parade, featuring 59 balloons and 27 floats, stepped
off just after 9 a.m. and began its procession toward Herald Square in
Manhattan. [AP]
The Ronald McDonald balloon is pulled down
Broadway through Times Square during the 78th Annual Macy's Thanksgiving
Day Parade Thursday, Nov. 25, 2004 in New York. [AP]
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The Thanksgiving Day
Thanksgiving Day , legal holiday in the U.S., first
celebrated in early colonial times in New England. The actual origin, however,
is probably the harvest festivals that are traditional in many parts of the
world Festivals and Feasts. After the first harvest was completed by the
Plymouth colonists in 1621, Governor William Bradford proclaimed a day of
thanksgiving and prayer, shared by all the colonists and neighboring Native
Americans. The Pilgrims of Plymouth Rock held their Thanksgiving in 1621 as a
three day "thank you" celebration to the leaders of the Wampanoag Indian tribe
and their families for teaching them the survival skills they needed to make it
in the New World. It was their good fortune that the tradition of the Wampanoags
was to treat any visitor to their homes with a share of whatever food the family
had, even if supplies were low. It was also an amazing stroke of luck that one
of the Wampanoag, Tisquantum or Squanto, had become close friends with a British
explorer, John Weymouth, and had learned the Pilgrim's language in his travels
to England with Weymouth.
After the first New England Thanksgiving the custom spread throughout the
colonies, but each region chose its own date. In 1789 George Washington, the
first president of the United States, proclaimed November 26 a day of
Thanksgiving.
Thanksgiving day continued to be celebrated in the United States on different
days in different states until Mrs. Sarah Josepha Hale, editor of Godey's Lady's
Book, decided to do something about it. For more than 30 years she wrote letters
to the governors and presidents asking them to make Thanksgiving Day a national
holiday.
Finally, in 1863, President Lincoln issued a White House proclamation calling
on the "whole American people" wherever they lived to unite "with one heart and
one voice" in observing a special day of thanksgiving. Setting apart the last
Thursday of November for the purpose, the President urged prayers in the
churches and in the homes to "implore the interposition of the almighty had to
heal the wounds of the nations and to restore it...to full enjoyment of peace,
harmony, tranquility and union." He also states that they express heartfelt
thanks for the "blessing of fruitful fields and healthful skies."
In 1939 President Franklin D. Roosevelt advanced Thanksgiving Day one week.
However, since some states used the new date and others the old, it was changed
again 2 years later. Thanksgiving Day is now celebrated on the fourth Thursday
in November.
The first formal celebration of Thanksgiving in North America was held by an
English explorer, Martin Frobisher, who attempted to establish an English
settlement on Baffin Island, after failing to discover a northern passage to the
Orient in 1576. Canada established the second Monday in October as a national
holiday, "a day of general thanksgiving," in 1957.
In 1817 New York State adopted Thanksgiving Day as an annual custom. By the
middle of the 19th century many other states also celebrated a Thanksgiving Day.
In 1863 President Abraham Lincoln appointed a national day of thanksgiving.
Since then each president has issued a Thanksgiving Day proclamation, usually
designating the fourth Thursday of each November as the holiday.
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