Thanksgiving day is celebrated by millions of Americans around the United States. This year, it will be celebrated on Thursday, November 22. On September 6, 1620, the Mayflower departed from Plymouth, England, with 102 passengers known as the Pilgrims. They explored the shores of Cape Cod, far from their destination at the Hudson River. A month later, the Mayflower ship crossed Massachusetts Bay, and there they began working on establishing a village at Plymouth.
In the year of 1623, there was a terrible drought, and the Pilgrims prayed for rain to come. They celebrated a day of Thanksgiving after the rain came, but it was more of a prayer than a day of parties.
Between 1789 to 1863, American presidents tried to proclaim that November 26 should be celebrated as a national day of Thanksgiving, but it failed to become a tradition. Every president after George Washington tried tried to make Thanksgiving an annual tradition.
In 1863, President Abraham Lincoln, declared that Thanksgiving should be celebrated on the last Thursday of November for a ‘‘day of Thanksgiving and Praise’.’ Lincoln ordered government departments to close on Thanksgiving, and it has been celebrated by the nation ever since.
When Franklin D. Roosevelt was president, he moved Thanksgiving one week earlier, because sometimes the last Thursday of November was the fourth, and sometimes the fifth. Thanksgiving has been the fourth Thursday in November ever since this change.
For more information visit these cites:
https://www.history.com/news/abraham-lincoln-and-the-mother-of-thanksgiving
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