Historically, the first Thanksgiving was celebrated in 1621 at Plymouth Plantation, one of the original thirteen colonies that later became the United States of America; and is in today's State of Massachusetts. Thanksgiving Day is celebrated on the fourth Thursday of November in the United States and the second Monday of October in Canada; and marked as a gathering of family and friends over dinner table to rejoice, make merry and be thankful for the blessings of the year ending.
The modern Thanksgiving feast began in the 1850s, when poet Sarah Josepha Hale, who wrote the poem “Mary Had A Little Lamb,” began a campaign for recognition of a national day of Thanksgiving. In 1863, Abraham Lincoln declared that the final Thursday in November would be a day of Thanksgiving and later in 1941, at the request of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, Congress declared it a national holiday.
It is also one of the most traveled holiday periods in America as family members travel from all over to be together for the festivities. As a tradition, the president usually pardons a turkey from the butcher's knife to mark the day; and this year, President Barack Obama pardoned a turkey named 'Courage'! Once again, happy 'turkey day' America!'
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