did thanksgiving originate in the U.S. or brought over from Europe?
915332
Although there is record of earlier thanksgiving celebrations (most notably in 1619 at Berkeley Plantation, Virginia), Americans trace their traditional Thanksgiving holiday to one celebrated in 1621. This celebration was held at the Plymouth Colony, now in the state of Massachusetts. The English Pilgrims who had founded the colony marked the occasion by feasting with Native American guests—members of the Wampanoag tribe—who brought gifts of food as a gesture of goodwill. Although this event was an important part of American colonial history, there is no evidence that any of the participants thought of the feast as a thanksgiving celebration. Two years later, during a period of drought, a day of fasting and prayer was changed to one of thanksgiving because rains came during the prayers. Gradually the custom prevailed among New Englanders to annually celebrate Thanksgiving after the harvest.\n\nColonial governments and, later, state governments took up the Puritan custom of designating thanksgiving days to commemorate various public events. Gradually the tradition of holding annual thanksgiving holidays spread throughout New England and into other states. During the American Revolution (1775-1783) the Continental Congress proclaimed a national day of thanksgiving following the American victory at the Battle of Saratoga in 1777. U.S. president George Washington proclaimed another day of thanksgiving in 1789 in honor of the ratification of the Constitution of the United States. In 1817 New York State adopted Thanksgiving Day as an annual custom, and many other states soon did the same. Most of the state celebrations were held in November, but not always on the same day.\n\nIn the mid-19th century Sarah Josepha Hale, editor of Godey’s Ladies Book, led a movement to establish Thanksgiving as a national holiday. In 1863, during the American Civil War (1861-1865), President Abraham Lincoln proclaimed the last Thursday in November to be Thanksgiving Day in order to bolster the Union’s morale. After the war, Congress established Thanksgiving as a national holiday, but widespread national observance caught on only gradually. Many Southerners saw the new holiday as an attempt to impose Northern customs on them. However, in the late 19th century Thanksgiving’s emphasis on home and family appealed to many people throughout the United States. As a distinctly American holiday, Thanksgiving was also considered an introduction to American values for the millions of immigrants then entering the country.
734571
I know turkey was only a small part--they also ate a lot of seafood; lobster, shellfish, clams, eel, cod.  Also venison, duck and lots of veggies that grew in the wild, pottage of grains. And of course......CORN.  But not on the cob.  \n\nNo potatoes though--they only grew in S. America at this time.  No sweet desserts either, sugar was a luxury.  And cranberries weren't introduced to the Pilgrims until a while later.\n\nHope this helped.
885494
Thanksgiving, or Thanksgiving Day, is an annual one-day holiday to give thanks to the native Americans at the close of the harvest season. In the United States, Thanksgiving is celebrated on the fourth Thursday of November amd in Canada, it is celebrated on the second Monday in October. In the United Kingdom, Thanksgiving is another name for the Harvest festival, held in churches across the country on a relevant Sunday to mark the end of the local harvest, though it is not thought of as a major event (compared to Christmas or Easter) as it is in other parts of the world. This tradition was taken to North America by early settlers, where it became much more important.\n\nOf course, now for most Americans it's just a big football watching, day off of work and start to the Christmas shopping season day.
902097
OK I'll bit as you have asked this with different wording but I think I figured it out. If you mean what started Thanksgiving it was by the Indians and the Pilgrims getting together to give thanks and share food. If you mean who was the first President to make it a Holdiay then it would be\nTitle: President Abraham Lincoln's Proclamation for a National Day of Fasting \n\nWe have been the recipients of the choicest bounties of heaven. We have been preserved, the many years, in peace and prosperity. We have grown in numbers, wealth and power, as no other nation has ever grown. But we have forgotten God. We have forgotten the gracious hand which preserved us in peace and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us; and we have vainly imagined, in the deceitfulness of our hearts that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own. \nIntoxicated with unbroken success, we have become too self-sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace, too proud to pray to God that made us! It behooves us, then to humble ourselves before the offended Power, to confess our national sins, and to pray for clemency and forgiveness. \n\n-- April 30, 1863, President Abraham Lincoln's Proclamation for a National Day of Fasting, Humiliation and Prayer. \nsee http://www.sermons.org/thanksgiving2.htm... for the rest.
118548
celebration of Thanksgiving is a memory of the time when the british voyager had a good harmony with the american natives. it was also a thanks giving to God for the british and native american friendsip
968759
In Mexico, no. Thanksgiving is strictly an American holiday, though its roots go back to ancient harvest festivals celebrated around the world.\n\nMexican-Americans, as is the case with other American ethnic groups, quite often celebrate Thanksgiving. \n\nAs to the question of whether Mexican-Americans consume so-called "traditional" Thanksgiving foods, to be quite honest, everybody's Thanksgiving table is different. There is no right or wrong item to be found on everybody's table. The actual menu isn't important. \n\nI imagine some Mexican-American families do the turkey and dressing thing, while others have a more ethnic menu, according to their own tastes. And regardless of whether the whole turkey and dressing protocol is followed, there are surely always some family recipes that make it to the feast.
743350
As far as I know, Thanksgiving is North American holiday.
841994
In Canada Thanksgiving is celebrated on the second Monday in October. Unlike the American tradition of remembering Pilgrims and settling in the New World, Canadians give thanks for a successful harvest. The harvest season falls earlier in Canada compared to the United States due to the simple fact that Canada is further north. \n\nThe history of Thanksgiving in Canada goes back to an English explorer, Martin Frobisher, who had been trying to find a northern passage to the Orient. He did not succeed but he did establish a settlement in Northern America. In the year 1578, he held a formal ceremony, in what is now called Newfoundland, to give thanks for surviving the long journey. This is considered the first Canadian Thanksgiving. Other settlers arrived and continued these ceremonies. He was later knighted and had an inlet of the Atlantic Ocean in northern Canada named after him - Frobisher Bay. \n\nAt the same time, French settlers, having crossed the ocean and arrived in Canada with explorer Samuel de Champlain, also held huge feasts of thanks. They even formed 'The Order of Good Cheer' and gladly shared their food with their Indian neighbours.\n\nAfter the Seven Year's War ended in 1763, the citizens of Halifax held a special day of Thanksgiving.\n\nDuring the American Revolution, Americans who remained loyal to England moved to Canada where they brought the customs and practices of the American Thanksgiving to Canada. There are many similarities between the two Thanksgivings such as the cornucopia and the pumpkin pie.\n\nEventually in 1879, Parliament declared November 6th a day of Thanksgiving and a national holiday. Over the years many dates were used for Thanksgiving, the most popular was the 3rd Monday in October. After World War I, both Armistice Day and Thanksgiving were celebrated on the Monday of the week in which November 11th occurred. Ten years later, in 1931, the two days became separate holidays and Armistice Day was renamed Remembrance Day.\n\nFinally, on January 31st, 1957, Parliament proclaimed...\n\n"A Day of General Thanksgiving to Almighty God for the bountiful harvest with which Canada has been blessed  ... to be observed on the 2nd Monday in October.\n\nHope this helps.
743936
This year, US Thanksgiving is on Nov. 23.
221251
no one "discovered" america. people just came here a really long time ago. i think the vikings came. and there was also columbus.
513198
Many of the people who came to America from Europe in the 1700-1800's were people seeking religios freedom that they didn't have in Europe at that time. Much of that religios ferver has been passes through the years to the current Americans.
893920
I agree with you 100%.  It is Thanksgiving Day.  That's what it's always been, and should always be.  It's not just about eating a turkey, it's about thanks for all that we have.  Personally, I don't even like turkey; I prefer ham.  But I still wouldn't call it Ham Day.  lol
964174
The roots of this holiday go as far back as 1621 when the Pilgrims who arrived in the New World from England celebrated a particularly bountiful harvest following a very harsh winter earlier in the year.  \n\nThanksgiving was originally intended to be just that – a day of giving thanks for all that we have been blessed with:  homes to shelter us, food to sustain us, friends and family to support us, and the freedom to worship and live in any way that we might choose.   I could tell you that this warm and fuzzy sentimental tradition is still carried out today, but I would be lying.  Thanksgiving has become all about the food, and it is viewed as the final hurdle we must cross in order to unabashedly start reveling in the Christmas season. \n\nThe Pilgrims were members of the English Separatist Church, and sailed to Holland in order to flee from religious persecution.  They did experience more religious freedom while there, but became disillusioned with the Dutch way of life, viewing their way of living as ungodly.  Eventually, the Pilgrims managed to strike up a deal with a London stock company, who helped to finance this pilgrimage to America.  Oddly enough, only about one-third of those aboard the ship (for those of you who don’t know it was called the Mayflower) were actually religious Puritans.  The remainder of the men on board were hired by the stock company to protect their interests.  \n\nSo as the story goes, the Pilgrims landed on Plymouth Rock on December 11, 1620.  The Pilgrims were unprepared for the harsh New England winter that lay ahead of them, and by the following fall 46 of the original 102 who sailed on the Mayflower had perished.  However, the harvest of 1621 was bountiful, and the Pilgrims decided to celebrate with a feast, including the Indians who had helped them to survive through that first year.  The feast lasted for three days, and did not include the traditional items we think of when we think of Thanksgiving dinner today.  The meal included wild duck and geese, venison, boiled pumpkin, fish, berries, clams, lobster, dried fruit, and watercress.  \n\nThanksgiving was celebrated off and on over the next few hundred years until it was finally established as a legal holiday by Congress to be celebrated on the fourth Thursday of November every year in 1941.
181
It is believed that the pilgrims and indians shared wild turkey and venison on the original Thanksgiving. \n\nTurkey's "Americanness" was established by Benjamin Franklin, who had advocated for the turkey, not the bald eagle, becoming the national bird.
826988
OK I'll bit as you have asked this with different wording but I think I figured it out. If you mean what started Thanksgiving it was by the Indians and the Pilgrims getting together to give thanks and share food. If you mean who was the first President to make it a Holdiay then it would be\nTitle:  President Abraham Lincoln's Proclamation for a National Day of Fasting \n\n   We have been the recipients of the choicest bounties of heaven. We have been preserved, the many years, in peace and prosperity. We have grown in numbers, wealth and power, as no other nation has ever grown. But we have forgotten God. We have forgotten the gracious hand which preserved us in peace and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us; and we have vainly imagined, in the deceitfulness of our hearts that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own. \n   Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become too self-sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace, too proud to pray to God that made us! It behooves us, then to humble ourselves before the offended Power, to confess our national sins, and to pray for clemency and forgiveness. \n\n   -- April 30, 1863, President Abraham Lincoln's Proclamation for a National Day of Fasting, Humiliation and Prayer. \nsee http://www.sermons.org/thanksgiving2.html  for the rest.
886319
it would be nice if you would also ask what country everybody is from. Well I come from Germany and Easter we had Fish \nThanksgiving we just had a roast, x-mas we had a goose,and New years we had a rabbit. No I did not grow up on a farm ,these just were our family's believe. \nNow I'm in Canada and we have Easter Turkey and ham.Thanksgiving turkey, x-mas turkey and New year's we have Fish (Salmon)
731415
no thanksgiving at all in my country, in spite of we are christians. That is an use from anglosaxons countries.