Every year Americans celebrate the feast of Thanksgiving on the last Thursday in November. Most people know the basic story about the Pilgrims landing in America on their ship the Mayflower in November of 1621. They also know about how after a few hard months the Native Americans and Squanto helped the Pilgrims learn how to survive in the new world and, as a form of thanks, a feast was held that lasted three days. At the feast the Pilgrims and Native Americans alike ate the food that they now knew how to grow. It wasn’t until nearly two years later in 1623 that the Pilgrims had another Thanksgiving. The difference was that this time it was to be held to symbolize the end of a terrible drought that had threatened the harvest and forced a religious fast to be put into place.

While the feast of 1621 is considered the first Thanksgiving it was not until much later that people actually started recognizing the holiday. In 1789 the president at the time, George Washington, issued the first Thanksgiving from the national government. During this Washington hoped to encourage Americans to show their thanks for the joyful conclusions of the country’s war of independence and the successful ratification of the U.S. Constitution. Although George Washington was the first to do this, if it wasn’t for Sarah Joseph Hale, the author of ‘Mary Had A Little Lamb’, and her efforts to make it a more widely recognized event over the course of 36 years, Washington never would’ve made the movement to participate in Thanksgiving.

Even though John Adams and John Madison both held celebrations of Thanksgiving during their presidencies it wasn’t until 1817 that states actually started adopting it as an actual holiday. New York was the first state to take part in this action followed by many other states but, since each state was establishing the holiday on their own, the celebration took place on many different days. It wasn’t until 1863 when Abraham Lincoln was president that it was established that everyone should celebrate Thanksgiving on the last Thursday of November. This stuck throughout the years and nobody had any trouble until the Great Depression in 1939 that Franklin D. Roosevelt moved it to be one week earlier in an attempt to spur retail sales. While the thought was good it was fairly unsuccessful so in 1941 Roosevelt signed a bill by congress moving it back to the fourth Thursday.

Even after all the ups and downs Thanksgiving is still celebrated by America. The most important part is to give thanks for all that we have been given and earned. Giving thanks is the central idea and families often list things they are thankful for while crowded around a table that has a turkey in the center of it. Some people have even gone a step farther and participate in a variety of parades to honor the holiday.

Even though Thanksgiving is just an American holiday it is a very important one that reminds us of what we have been given and all that the people did for us from the pilgrims to our parents.