Thanksgiving: everything you need to know about the holiday

Thanksgiving Day is a public holiday in the United States and is celebrated on the fourth Thursday in November. In 2022, it falls on November 24. This is one of the most popular holidays in the country. RIA News.

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By tradition, on this day the Americans praised God for a rich harvest, now the holiday has lost its religious roots and turned into a family celebration.

The idea of ​​celebrating the end of the harvest dates back to the deepest antiquity. In North America, this holiday was transformed into a prayer of thanksgiving for a rich harvest, accompanied by abundant food. According to some reports, the first thanksgiving prayers of European immigrants took place at 1607 in Jamestown, as well as in the colony of Maine. However, in most cases, the history of the holiday is associated with the settlers who arrived in America from England at the end of 1620. In the autumn of 1621, the governor of the Plymouth Colony, formed by them, invited the Indians living in the neighborhood to celebrate with the settlers a three-day holiday in honor of the first harvest harvested after the fast of winter in the New World, which the colonists survived largely thanks to the help of the natives.

It was the first Thanksgiving, but the colonists not only did not call him that way, but did not plan to make it a tradition - there was no holiday next year, it was re-held only in 1623, after the settlers were worried about drought for a long time. got it.

For a long time the holiday was unofficial. European migrants staged celebrations of the autumn harvest at the local level. Each state itself determined the date of the celebration.

The first official Thanksgiving Day was declared in 1777 by the Continental Congress and passed 18 in December 1777.

In 1789, the first US President George Washington declared the holiday a national event. The date of the “Day of Thanksgiving and Public Prayer” (A day of public thanksgiving and prayer) became 26 November, Thursday. However, in subsequent years, Thanksgiving continued to be carried out irregularly. It was only a national holiday in 1863, when President Abraham Lincoln announced that from now on, the last Thursday of November will be celebrated as Thanksgiving Day. However, already in 1865, the holiday was celebrated on the first Thursday of November, as US President Andrew Johnson proclaimed. In 1869, President Ulysses Grant chose Third Thursday for Thanksgiving. In the remaining years, Thanksgiving Day was celebrated on the last Thursday of November.

In 1939 ‑ 1941, to extend the Christmas shopping season, US President Franklin Roosevelt postponed the holiday to the penultimate Thursday of November. The transfer caused a split among the states - 16 states refused to change the tradition and continued to celebrate the holiday in the old way. After two years of confusion and complaints, December 26 1941, Roosevelt signed a law establishing Thanksgiving Day on the fourth Thursday of November.

Over the years, the holiday has developed a number of traditions that Americans carefully observe. Thanksgiving is celebrated in the home of the elders of the family in the circle of relatives. Relatives and friends come from all over the country to sit at a common table laden with traditional treats.

The obligatory attribute of the feast is turkey (in various versions of its preparation), sweet potato yams, cranberry sauce, rusk stuffed cubes with spices, sweet potatoes, pumpkin pie - which, according to historians, was on the tables of the colonists back in the 17th century.

The traditional festive drink is apple cider. It is served hot and seasoned with spices.

Another tradition of the holiday is the turkey pardon ceremony, which is held in the White House on the eve of the holiday. In accordance with this tradition, at least one turkey should avoid the fate of being on a festive table.

The tradition of honoring Thanksgiving turkey, according to the most common version, was laid in 1947, when the National Federation of Turkey Meat Producers (National Turkey Federation) for the first time donated a bird to US President Harry Truman. However, it was only in 1963 that President John F. Kennedy left the bird received as a gift.

The first official ceremony to pardon a turkey was held by US President George HW Bush in 1989. Every year since then, the turkey and its “stand-in” (the stand-in is chosen in case something suddenly happens to the first bird before the ceremony) are spared the prospect of being roasted.

Another attribute of the holiday are traditional costume parades. The first such parade took place in 1924 in Detroit. The most famous parade is held annually in New York. It is organized by the largest chain of department stores Macy's (Macy's). The main attraction of the parade are huge inflatable toys (characters from cartoons, fairy tales and TV shows), which are carried from Central Park to the entrance to the department store (between Seventh Avenue and Broadway). From 1952, the parade is broadcast on television.

After Thanksgiving, all the stores in the country are opening traditional Christmas sales, since 1960's, this day is also known as Black Friday.

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