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Holiday celebrated on the fourth Thursday in November (U.S.)

Thanksgiving is a national holiday in the United States, celebrated on the fourth Thursday of November. It originated as a harvest festival. Thanksgiving has been celebrated nationally on and off since 1789, with a proclamation by George Washington after a request by Congress. Thomas Jefferson chose not to observe the holiday, and its celebration was intermittent until the presidency of Abraham Lincoln, when Thanksgiving became a federal holiday in 1863, during the American War Between the States. Lincoln proclaimed a national day of "Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens", to be celebrated on the last Thursday in November. Under President Franklin D. Roosevelt, the date was changed to the fourth Thursday in November. Together with Christmas and the New Year, Thanksgiving is a part of the broader fall–winter holiday season in the U.S.

Articles

The Great Thanksgiving Hoax, by Richard J. Maybury, The Free Market, Nov 1985
Describes what really happened to the Mayflower pilgrims (and also at Jamestown) by relying on governor William Bradford's History of Plymouth Plantation
Each year at this time, schoolchildren all over America are taught the official Thanksgiving story ... The official story has the Pilgrims ... establishing the Plymouth colony in the winter of 1620-21. This first winter is hard, and half the colonists die ... The problem ... is that the harvest of 1621 was not bountiful, nor were the colonists hard-working or tenacious ... [T]he real meaning of Thanksgiving, deleted from the official story, is: Socialism does not work; the one and only source of abundance is free markets, and we thank God we live in a country where we can have them.
Related Topics: Free Market, Socialism
The Grinch Who Moved Thanksgiving, by Bill Kauffman, 26 Nov 2003
Recounts the history of the Thanksgiving holiday, from Washington's proclamation in 1789 to Lincoln's in 1863 (at the behest of Sarah Josepha Hale) and FDR's changes between 1939 and 1942
George Washington issued the first National Thanksgiving Proclamation on November 26, 1789 ... The antebellum New England novelist and editor Sara Josepha Hale is to Thanksgiving what Stevie Wonder is to Martin Luther King Day. The indefatigable Hale propagandized ceaselessly for the glory of late November Thursdays, pumpkin pie, roasted turkey, "savory stuffing" – everything but the Detroit Lions. It took 35 years and a civil war, but Mrs. Hale's efforts paid off when President Lincoln declared the last Thursday in November a national day of Thanksgiving and a legal holiday.
Related Topic: Franklin D. Roosevelt
Thanksgiving the first Libertarian holiday, by Matthew A. Givens, The Crimson White, 19 Nov 2003
Explains how and why the Pilgrims of Plymouth colony turned from the socialist requirements of the Mayflower Compact to a capitalistic approach
Thanksgiving is approaching ... and with it come visions of children's plays with Indians and Pilgrims ... [F]ar from being the simple and uninspiring story of a group of people learning how to farm, [it] is actually a celebration of what has made America itself great. It is the story of people working together by working for themselves first, and in so doing, improving the standard of living for everyone. These are the American ideas we hold dear. As you sit down to your table laden with turkey, dressing and pumpkin pie, remember the true story of Thanksgiving, and what it means to all.
Related Topics: Capitalism, Socialism

Videos


The Teachings of Thanksgiving - SOUTH PARK, South Park, 26 Nov 2020
A montage of clips from "South Park" episodes, including "Starvin' Marvin", "Helen Keller! The Musical", "A History Channel Thanksgiving" and "Black Friday"
Related Topic: South Park

The introductory paragraph uses material from the Wikipedia article "Thanksgiving (United States)" as of 27 Nov 2018, which is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share-Alike License 3.0.