You probably know the story of the Mayflower ship, but do you know that these were only the beginnings of the celebration.If not, click here.
READ who, where, when and how this celebration became an official tradition
In 1817, New York
became the first of several states to officially adopt an annual
Thanksgiving holiday; each celebrated it on a different day, however,
and the American South remained largely unfamiliar with the tradition.
In 1827, the noted magazine editor and prolific writer Sarah Josepha
Hale—author, among countless other things, of the nursery rhyme “Mary Had a Little Lamb”—launched a campaign to establish Thanksgiving as a
national holiday. For 36 years, she published numerous editorials and
sent scores of letters to governors, senators, presidents and other
politicians.
Abraham Lincoln finally heeded her request in 1863, at the height of the Civil War,
in a proclamation entreating all Americans to ask God to “commend to
his tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners or
sufferers in the lamentable civil strife” and to “heal the wounds of the
nation.”
He scheduled Thanksgiving for the final Thursday in November,
and it was celebrated on that day every year until 1939, when Franklin D. Roosevelt moved the holiday up a week in an attempt to spur retail sales during the Great Depression.
Roosevelt’s plan, known derisively as Franksgiving, was met with
passionate opposition, and in 1941 the president reluctantly signed a
bill making Thanksgiving the fourth Thursday in November.
