Thanksgiving Day 2017: What You Need to Know About This Favorite American Holiday

By Vincent Alocada, Christian Post Contributor Tuesday, November 21, 2017

America is celebrating one of its biggest annual holidays this Thursday, Thanksgiving Day, but not so many people are aware how it came to be.

While some countries have their own versions of Thanksgiving Day, American Thanksgiving is always celebrated on the fourth Thursday of November, which happens to be November 23 this year. Despite the popularity of this celebration, not so many people know how American Thanksgiving came into existence.

Historians claim that the first American Thanksgiving was celebrated back in 1621 as a way of the Pilgrims to celebrate the bountiful harvest after getting by on rationed food when they arrived in Plymouth, Massachusetts during the harsh winter months the year prior. As the Native Americans taught the Pilgrims to plant new crops during the spring, they were able to produce a bountiful harvest and did not have to worry about their food for the then-upcoming winter months, hence, the celebration where the Pilgrims were joined by the Native Americans.

Although American Thanksgiving dates back to the early 1600s, it only became an official American holiday in 1863 upon the declaration of former U.S. president Abraham Lincoln. And, in the early 1900s, Thanksgiving Day became one of America's favorite holidays, something that is still true even today.

American Thanksgiving Day is not complete without a feast shared by families and friends. While a feast always includes a turkey and pumpkin pie, food historians claim that these two Thanksgiving staples were not really part of the first Thanksgiving Day food preparations. Rather, the roast turkey and pumpkin pie was only a way to Americanize the immigrants in the early 20^{th century and became symbolic of the celebrations since then.}

"In the early 20th century, things like turkey and cornbread and stuffing were something that was taught to new, who were then immigrants, as a way of Americanizing them," explained Tracey Deutsch, a food historian at the University of Minnesota, in an interview with CBS.

Nonetheless, not everybody in America celebrates Thanksgiving Day, especially the indigenous Americans who have been displaced by the immigrants. In fact, some groups hold a protest on the day as they claim it is a way of glorifying the group of people who eventually stole their land away from them.