Thanksgiving will be here this Thursday . When we celebrate Thanksgiving we remind ourselves and others what we are thankful for in our lives. Everyone gets together with their families to celebrate and be thankful for the lives of others and their own, their friends, their homes, their good health, food and many other things. It’s such a common holiday, but where did it come from?

We’ve had this holiday in the United States for nearly 4 centuries. It is celebrated by many every year on the fourth Thursday of November ever since it was announced a national holiday in 1863 by President Abraham Lincoln. The very first Thanksgiving feast was held on November 26th in Plymouth. In the year 1621 the Wampanoag tribe, Native American allies of the pilgrims, were invited to the feast to celebrate their first fall harvest. This day was called “Turkey Day”. Some of the food they ate was turkey, berries, fruit and several kinds of fish.

It started with the Mayflower, a ship that took 102 English colonists across the Atlantic Ocean to Cape Cod, Massachusetts in September of 1620. The trip was over 2 months long. After arriving, their first winter in the “New World” was harsh from having no time to prepare for the cold conditions.During that time, 45 of the 102 pilgrims died from disease and sickness. In March, the English settlers met a Native American named Squanto, who helped them survive despite the state they were in. He taught them which plants were poisonous, how to cultivate corn and catch fish. He also taught them ways to communicate with the Native Americans, which helped them to create an alliance with the Wampanoag. When the English settlers had successfully harvested their corn and other crops in November, they had a three day celebration. That is how we got modern day Thanksgiving.

Now, traditional Thanksgiving meals could include apple cider, turkey, ham, stuffing, mashed potatoes, corn, rolls, yams, green beans or carrots, egg nog and plum pudding. Others traditions are festivals and parades such as the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade held downtown in New York.