Thanksgiving: Day and Traditions

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Thanksgiving 2025

Thanksgiving Day, observed in 2024 on Thursday, November 28, honors a 1621 feast between the Plymouth colonists from England and the Wampanoag people.

“The reason that we have so many myths associated with Thanksgiving is that it is an invented tradition. It doesn’t originate in any one event. It is based on the New England puritan Thanksgiving, which is a religious Thanksgiving, and the traditional harvest celebrations of England and New England and maybe other ideas like commemorating […]

First Thanksgiving Meal

What was really on the menu at the famous banquet, and which of today’s time‑honored favorites didn’t earn a place at the table until later in the holiday’s 400‑year history?

Thanksgiving Facts

Thanksgiving Over the Years Though many competing claims exist, the most familiar story of the first Thanksgiving took place in Plymouth Colony, in present‑day Massachusetts, in 1621. More than 200 years later, President Abraham Lincoln declared the final Thursday in November as a national day of thanksgiving. Congress finally made Thanksgiving Day an official national […]

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Thanksgiving Turkey

Deep frying turkeys is a southern trend that is now spreading across the United States.

First Thanksgiving Meal

Find out which traditional recipes weren’t served at the first Thanksgiving celebration

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Thanksgiving Day Parade Tech

At the Macy’s Studio in Hoboken, NJ, technicians work year round to construct floats and balloons for the Thanksgiving Day Parade.

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Thanksgiving Becomes a Holiday

Early Puritans observed Thanksgiving days of prayer, but Sarah Josepha Hale’s crusade for a national day of thanks is what ultimately gave us Thanksgiving.

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