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Thanksgiving Day
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Thanksgiving Day
Thanksgiving was first celebrated in 1621, when Plymouth governor William Bradford invited neighboring Native Americans to join the Pilgrims for a three-day festival in gratitude for the successful harvest that followed a hard winter.
The feast they sat down to had very little in common with today's celebration, however. It is quite likely that their feast consisted of fish, venison, corn and other vegetables. Today's traditonal dinner of turkey, mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, cranberry sauce and pumpkin pie is mainly the result of a strong advertising campaign by turkey producers.
Thanksgiving was proclaimed a national holiday by president Abraham Lincoln in 1863. Many Americans consider this to be only an American holiday although it is also celebrated in Canada and harvest festivals are held throughout the world.
