No doubt the native Americans were treated badly by the new Americans. What
follows is a short definition of the "text book" answer to the question of
what is Thanksgiving, for all our TR buddies from other places. Happy
Thanksgiving to all.
Thanksgiving is an annual holiday celebrated in the United States on the
fourth
Thursday in November. It originated in three days of prayer and feasting by
the
Plymouth colonists in 1621, although an earlier thanksgiving was offered in
prayer alone by members of the Berkeley plantation near present-day Charles
City, Va., on Dec. 4, 1619. The first national Thanksgiving Day, proclaimed by
President George Washington, was celebrated on Nov. 26, 1789. In 1863,
President
Abraham Lincoln made it an annual holiday to be commemorated on the last
Thursday in November. For three years (1939-41), under President Franklin D.
Roosevelt, the day was celebrated one week earlier, but thereafter, by act of
Congress, it is celebrated on the fourth Thursday of November.
In Canada, Thanksgiving, first observed in November 1879, is officially
celebrated on the second Monday in October.
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