Or should I say Happy Turkey Day??!! However, the USA are celebrating Thanksgiving, or Thanksgiving Day, today. It's a federal and national holiday in the US and annually celebrated on the fourth Thursday in November as a day of giving thanks for the blessing of the harvest and of the preceding year.

Together with Christmas and New Year, Thanksgiving is one of the major holidays of the year and also a part of the broader holiday season, since Thanksgiving Day signals the beginning of the Christmas season in the US.

History

The event most Americans commonly call the "First Thanksgiving" was celebrated by the Pilgrims after their very first harvest in the New World at Plymouth in present-day Massachusetts in 1621. 90 Native Americans and 53 Pilgrims celebrated for three days straight.  The New England colonists regularly celebrated "thanksgivings" aka days of prayer thanking God for blessings such as military victory, a good harvest or the end of a drought.

Thanksgiving has been an annual tradition since 1863, when (during the Civil War) President Lincoln proclaimed a national day of "Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens", to be celebrated on the final Thursday in November.  Abraham Lincoln's successors as president followed his example of annually declaring the final Thursday in November to be Thanksgiving.

But in 1939, President Roosevelt broke the tradition!! November had five Thursdays that year (instead of the more-common four), and Roosevelt declared the fourth Thursday as Thanksgiving, stating his plan to push the holiday to a week earlier on the penultimate Thursday in the month in order to expand the shopping season since advertising goods for Christmas before Thanksgiving was considered inappropriate at that time. Roosevelt also hoped this would help to bring the country out of The Great Depression, but Roosevelt's change was widely disregarded. Some states went with it, others not, while a minority celebrated on both days. Finally, the date was fixed to the fourth Thursday of November on December 26, 1941, when Roosevelt signed the respective bill, and therefore making the date of Thanksgiving a matter of federal law for the first time.

Pardoned Turkeys

Whiskey Tango Foxtrot!!! Turkey? Pardoned? What did I miss now ???!!
The US president gets presented a turkey each year by the National Turkey Federation since 1947. JFK was the first president who spared the turkey's life (lucky turkey was not big enough!) while Ronald Reagan was the first who granted a presidential pardon, which he jokingly presented to his 1987 turkey. George Bush Sr., Vice President under Reagan, made the turkey pardon a permanent annual tradition upon assuming the presidency in 1989, a tradition that has been carried on by every president since then. So, what happens now to the pardoned turkeys, you're asking? They are usually sent to a farm to be pampered for the rest of their lives (Time ranges of a few months typically, since most domestic turkeys have been bred to grow so much that they die within two years of birth).

Today

Since Thanksgiving is a federal holiday, all United States government offices are closed and most business and government employees are given Thanksgiving and the day after as paid holidays; in addition Thanksgiving is also either a four-day or five-day weekend vacation for schools and colleges. Consequently, the Thanksgiving holiday weekend is one of the busiest travel periods of the year, as families and friends usually return to their hometowns to reunite with friends, family and their loved ones. Thanksgiving Eve, the night before Thanksgiving, is one of the busiest nights of the year for bars and clubs and often refered to by the derogatory name Blackout Wednesday. The day after Thanksgiving is popularly known as Black Friday and often the largest shopping day of the year; it's known for extreme opening hours  and promotional sales to kick off the holiday shopping season. The Monday after Thanksgiving is called Cyber Monday, based on a trend that retailers began to recognize in 2003/2004. Many consumers, who were too busy to shop over the Thanksgiving weekend or didn't find what they were looking for, shopped for bargains online that Monday from home or work.

Thanksgiving dinner

Families and friends usually gather for a large Thanksgiving dinner, traditionally featuring turkey (baked or roasted) <da:thumb id="415650383"/>, which caused the term Turkey Day. Mashed Potatoes, stuffing, cranberry sauce, corn, various fall veggies and pumpkin pie (or muffins/cupcakes) are commonly associated with Thanksgiving dinner and recipes are shared from one generation to the next.  Many families have the tradition to start the dinner by saying grace, a prayer before (or after) a meal, as a way of giving thanks to God.

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