Thanksgiving Day in America and Canada is a celebration that is linked to the European tradition after the harvest time. A popular image shown during the occasion is the good old cornucopia jam-packed with fruits and vegetables. It’s known as the Horn of Plenty which symbolizes the abundance of harvest in ancient Greece. In Turkey, Thanksgiving Day is associated with ear corn, pumpkins and huge food presentation.
Both America and Canada celebrate the Thanksgiving Day at the end of the harvest. Canada commemorate the Thanksgiving Day in every second Monday in the month of October while in America it is in the fourth Thursday of every November.
The first national celebration of Thanksgiving Day Proclamation was pronounced and issued by George Washington in 1789 and again in 1795.
President Abraham Lincoln was the first president that sets Thanksgiving Day into the last Thursday of November in 1863. And in 1941, US Congress proclaimed that the fourth Thursday of November as a legal holiday.
The origin of Thanksgiving Day
Thanksgiving Day began in the fall of 1621 in Plymouth Plantation, Plymouth Massachusetts. Europeans together with the group called Wampanoag of Indians join the thanksgiving to God for the blessings of their first harvest in the New World. During the thanksgiving festival, Puritans who wanted to attend the celebration arrived in Plymouth with the Mayflower ship. However, only half of them were able to arrive to the place because some didn’t make it through the voyage due to sickness and the perils of the ocean.
The exact date of the Thanksgiving Day celebration
In 1621, Plymouth Governor William Bradford declared the thanksgiving celebration sometime after the harvest. The first celebration of thanksgiving lasted for 3 days but with no fixed date of the year. It is believed that the days were between the last part of September and the beginning of November.
Activities in Thanksgiving Day in the US
- Take a weekend travel to Plymouth Plantation to celebrate and enjoy the American Thanksgiving day.
- Celebrate with the Native American Indian Pow Wow. It is celebrated worldwide.
- Join in Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade starting from the 77th Street and Central Park West and stopping 7th Avenue, pass Macy’s Herald Square.
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