The first Thanksgiving was
celebrated by the Pilgrims of the Plymouth Colony, in 1621. The
Pilgrims set aside a day to celebrate and give thanks to God for
their first harvest following a winter of deprivation and
starvation. The Pilgrim Governor William Bradford proclaimed a
day of thanksgiving to be shared by all the colonists and the
neighboring Native Americans, who had been such a great help to
the Pilgrims. The celebration lasted for three days and included
ninety Indians from the Wampanoag Tribe.
Thanksgiving has been observed annually in
the United States since 1863, when President Abraham Lincoln
proclaimed a national Thanksgiving Day, to be celebrated on the
final Thursday in November 1863. On November 26, 1941, President
Franklin Roosevelt signed a bill into law establishing that
Thanksgiving would occur annually on the fourth Thursday of
November.
We sincerely hope that you
are able to spend this Thanksgiving Day giving thanks for the
blessings in your life and enjoying the company of family and
friends!
