Thanksgiving Day: A look at the history of an American tradition
MANILA, Philippines — A national holiday celebrated on the fourth Thursday of November, Thanksgiving Day has been an annual tradition in the United States since 1863.
It started when a presidential proclamation was issued and through state legislation since the Founding Fathers of the United States. The national observance was strengthened further by federal legislation in 1941.
Canada has its own celebration of Thanksgiving Day, but it takes place on the second Monday of October. The rest of the world, which celebrates Thanksgiving Day, mostly follow the United States’ “fourth Thursday of November” tradition.
Thanksgiving, in general, has its historical roots in religious and cultural traditions. A day of giving thanks initially for the blessing of a good year of harvest and now also for all blessings that has come in the preceding year, Thanksgiving Day traces its roots back to the 1621 feast and thanksgiving that was prompted by a good harvest in Plymouth in present-day Massachusetts.
During that time, pilgrims and Puritans who began emigrating from England in the 1620s and 1630s carried the tradition of Days of Fasting and Days of Thanksgiving with them to New England. Several days of Thanksgiving were held in early New England history that have been identified as the "First Thanksgiving," including Pilgrim holidays in Plymouth in 1621 and 1623, and a Puritan holiday in Boston in 1631.
But the practice of holding an annual harvest festival did not become a regular affair in New England until the late 1660s. Several Thanksgiving proclamations were made by state and church leaders until George Washington, as President of the United States, proclaimed the first nationwide Thanksgiving celebration in America, marking November 26, 1789 as “a day of public thanksgiving and prayer to be observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many and signal favors of Almighty God.”
Aside from the U.S., Thanksgiving is now also observed in other countries with a sizable American community, including the Philippines.
Potatoes USA Philippines, in cooperation with the Foreign Agricultural Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), leads the pack by hosting an annual Thanksgiving Dinner for distributors of U.S. potatoes and other U.S. products, colleagues and friends. An exquisite dinner would be prepared by a featured celebrity chef among Potatoes USA’s chef consultants in Manila.
The highlight of the Thanksgiving Dinner would always be a Roast U.S. Turkey. After all, what’s a Thanksgiving Dinner without a Roast Turkey? But since a turkey cannot fit into a regular oven in the Philippines, families and groups who want to celebrate Thanksgiving with Roast Turkey as its main event often just order from restaurants who offer turkey promotions for the occasion. This way, there is less cost, less hassle.
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