Thanksgiving why is it celebrated

Finally, historians have noted that Native Americans had a rich tradition of commemorating the fall harvest with feasting and merrymaking long before Europeans set foot on America's shores.

Get the history behind the holiday. But if you see something that doesn't look right, click here to contact us! Subscribe for fascinating stories connecting the past to the present. For many Americans, the Thanksgiving meal includes seasonal dishes such as roast turkey with stuffing, cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes and pumpkin pie. The holiday feast dates back to November , when the newly arrived Pilgrims and the Wampanoag Indians gathered at Plymouth It is based on the New England puritan Thanksgiving, which is a religious Thanksgiving, and the traditional harvest celebrations of Even the details of the famous feast between the Plymouth Colony settlers and the Wampanoag Indians in November of are sketchy.

The best account we have is a Learn how it has evolved from its religious roots as Spanish and English days of feasting and prayer to become the football-watching, parade-marching, gut-stuffing event it is today. Halloween is a holiday celebrated each year on October 31, and Halloween will occur on Sunday, October The tradition originated with the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain, when people would light bonfires and wear costumes to ward off ghosts.

In the eighth century, Nearly all of what historians have learned about the first Veterans Day is a U. In , on the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month, an armistice, or temporary cessation of hostilities, was declared between the Labor Day will occur on Monday, September 6. Labor Day pays tribute to the contributions and achievements of American workers and is traditionally observed on the first Monday in September.

It was created by the labor movement in the late 19th century and became a federal Live TV. This Day In History. Each year at Thanksgiving, the president of the United States receives a gift of two live turkeys.

At a White House ceremony, the president traditionally "pardons" the National Thanksgiving Turkeys so they can live on a farm. Traditional foods are a large part of Thanksgiving celebrations. Many families include the entire family in the food preparation. Traditional foods include turkey, stuffing, gravy, sweet potatoes, cornbread, mashed potatoes, and cranberry sauce.

Many people serve pie for dessert at the end of the meal. Popular pie flavors are pumpkin, pecan, sweet potato, and apple. Some families choose to serve vegetarian Thanksgiving dinners instead of a stuffed turkey. They might eat vegetarian turkey, which can be made out of tofu. Others eat squash, salads, or other fruit and vegetable dishes. Some families include breaking the turkey's wishbone as part of their celebration. The wishbone is found attached to the breast meat in the turkey's chest.

This resulted in two consecutive years of conflicting Thanksgiving Day celebrations, as some states refused to recognize the change. By , FDR gave in and signed a bill making the fourth Thursday in November the official date for Thanksgiving nationwide , regardless of whether it's the last Thursday of the month or not. Though the parade stretched just two blocks, New York City went all out for what newspapers were calling "a marathon of mirth.

Instead, there were live bears, elephants, camels, and monkeys from the Central Park Zoo. There were also floats with puppets, celebrities, bands, costumed Macy's employees, and of course, Santa Clause.

In , food corporation Swanson overestimated how much turkey would be consumed on Thanksgiving and had to get creative with the tons of leftover meat. Using 5, aluminum trays and an assembly line of hand-packers, they created a Thanksgiving-inspired meal with the aforementioned turkey, cornbread dressing, gravy, peas, and sweet potatoes. The dish was sold for a grand total of 98 cents, and in the first full year of production, they sold ten million of them, birthing the prepackaged frozen meal industry.

Though not in the way you might think. It wasn't so much that he thought the bird was delicious, but more so that he admired the animal's qualities.

Surprisingly, Franklin thought the turkey should be the United States' official bird rather than the bald eagle. Apparently, Franklin noted that the turkey was a "much more respectable bird. The feast between Pilgrims and the Wampanoag Native Americans lasted for three days, during which both parties contributed to the meal. Though there are few records of the actual menu, it is known that the Pilgrims hunted for local fowl swans included and the Wampanoag brought five deer. It's thought that lobster and seal were likely involved due to their availability in the area.

Records show that people have been cooking up pumpkin pies since the mid- s! Pumpkins were likely at the first Thanksgiving, although probably not in pie form. The dessert has been an important part of Thanksgiving meals since the s—one Connecticut town even postponed the holiday in in due to a molasses shortage that prevented people from making pies.