Today is the national 'Thanksgiving Day 2009' in the United States of America; Icheoku says, congratulations! As we savour all the basted golden-brown turkeys, alongside all the stuffing and associated drinks, please let us be grateful for what we have. It may not necessarily be all the gold in Fort Knox but a healthy life is worth celebrating too; it is more important than all the billions owned on a sick, death-bed. A harvest festival celebrated mainly in Canada and the United States, Thanksgiving Day is a day we give thanks to God for all the bounties of our earth harvest, from his given richly endowed fertile land; and also express our gratitude for all other life's gifts and blessings. 
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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