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While this tradition of Thanksgiving dates back over 400 years, the holiday did not become official until the mid-1800s, and the date was not solidified until almost 100 years after that.
According to historians at Plimoth Patuxet, the 1621 event was not called "the First Thanksgiving" until the 1830s, more than two centuries after the original event. [7] [5] In 1841, a publishing of Winslow's account by Reverend Alexander Young noted that it was "the First Thanksgiving, the harvest festival of New England".
Thanksgiving is a federal holiday in the United States celebrated on the fourth Thursday of November (which became the uniform date country-wide in 1941). [2] [3] Outside the United States, it is sometimes called American Thanksgiving to distinguish it from the Canadian holiday of the same name and related celebrations in other regions.
When did Thanksgiving become a national holiday? More than 160 years after the 1621 feast, President George Washington declared Nov. 26, 1789, as a day of prayer and thanksgiving.
An annual thanksgiving holiday tradition in North American colonies is documented for the first time in 1619, in what is now called the Commonwealth of Virginia. Thirty-eight English settlers aboard the ship Margaret arrived by way of the James River at Berkeley Hundred in Charles City County, Virginia on December 4, 1619.
Myth: The “first Thanksgiving” started the tradition that founded the holiday. Truth: The harvest celebration of 1621 was not called Thanksgiving and was not repeated every year.
The early history of Thanksgiving can be traced back to the autumn of 1621 in Massachusetts, but historians note there are several misconceptions about what it looked like.
The First Thanksgiving 1621. In 1621, the Pilgrims celebrated their first Thanksgiving Day together to thank God for the blessings of good harvest and survival. This Thanksgiving came to represent the peace that existed at that time between the Wampanoags and the Pilgrims, although only about half of the Mayflower company survived the first year.