Was turkey always dish of the day? We bring you key facts about the history of America’s favourite holiday...
1 THANKSGIVING’S BEGINNINGS ARE STILL DEBATED
Tradition has it that the first Thanksgiving – a celebration of good harvest – took place in 1621, when English Pilgrims at Plymouth Plantation in Massachusetts shared a meal with their Native American neighbours. However, the late historian Michael Gannon argued that the first Thanksgiving celebration in North America actually took place half a century earlier, in Florida. On 8 September 1565, following a religious service, Spaniards shared a communal meal with local indigenous people.
2 THANKSGIVING HASN’T ALWAYS BEEN A PUBLIC HOLIDAY
According to the US National Archives, on 28 September 1789 the first Federal Congress passed a resolution asking that the president of the United States recommend to the nation a day of thanksgiving. A few days later, George Washington issued a proclamation naming Thursday 26 November 1789 as a “Day of Public Thanksgiving” – the first time Thanksgiving was celebrated under the new constitution.
The dates of Thanksgiving celebrations varied as subsequent presidents came and went, and it wasn’t until Abraham Lincoln’s 1863 Proclamation – issued in the midst of the Civil War – that Thanksgiving was regularly commemorated each year on the last Thursday of November.
3 IN 1939 AND 1940 THANKSGIVING WAS CELEBRATED TWICE
In 1939, with the last Thursday in November falling on the last day of the month, President Franklin D Roosevelt became concerned that the shortened Christmas shopping season might have a negative effect on the economy. Roosevelt therefore issued a presidential proclamation moving Thanksgiving to the second to last Thursday of November.
Twenty-three states, plus the District of Columbia, issued similar proclamations, but the remaining states either chose to stick with the original date or adopt both. There was a similarly mixed picture the following year, when Roosevelt declared that Thanksgiving would be held on 21 November, as opposed to the ‘late’ date of 28 November.
To
