Home>News Center>Life
         
 

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]


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.



Rebel Dutch photographer to stimulate debate
'2046' makers deny "Oscars" snub
Styled street scheduled to connect royal gardens
  Today's Top News     Top Life News
 

Eight students killed in a Henan high school

 

   
 

Cancer vaccine approved for clinical trials

 

   
 

China to improve HIV/AIDS monitoring

 

   
 

Court rules on property rights

 

   
 

N.Korea, US to discuss six-way talks in Dec

 

   
 

Dollar struggles, hits record low vs euro

 

   
  Can the roaring youth save Taiwan film?
   
  Beijing city slammed over Microsoft deal
   
  China's 49 places of ultimate attractions
   
  Hearing against Nanjing Massacre apologist begins
   
  Taiwan: Classical Chinese works trivial for students
   
  Bush seeks money for abstinence education
   
 
  Go to Another Section  
 
 
  Story Tools  
   
  Feature  
  HK veteran songwriter James Wong passed away at 64  
Advertisement