Thanksgiving Day is a national holiday celebrated primarily in the United States and Canada
as a day of giving thanks for the blessing of the harvest and of the
preceding year. Several other places around the world observe similar
celebrations. It is celebrated on the fourth Thursday of November in the
United States and on the second Monday of October in Canada.
Thanksgiving has its historical roots in religious and cultural
traditions, and has long been celebrated in a secular manner as well.
Prayers of thanks and special thanksgiving ceremonies are common among almost all religions after harvests and at other times.[2] The Thanksgiving holiday's history in North America is rooted in English traditions dating from the Protestant Reformation.
In the United States, the modern Thanksgiving holiday tradition is
commonlytraced to a 1621
celebration at Plymouth in present-day Massachusetts. The 1621 Plymouth feast and thanksgiving was prompted by a good harvest [and also safe pilgrimage across the Atlantic Ocean]. 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.
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