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Thanksgiving
After making landfall considerably north of its intended destination in "northern" Virginia, the Mayflower anchored at Plymouth Rock off Cape Cod in November 1620. Half the ship's crew and Pilgrim passengers died from pneumonia and extreme privation that first winter. The other half survived thanks to Squanto, an English-speaking member of the local Wampanaog tribe, who helped the Pilgrims through their first year in the "New World". After a bountiful harvest the following fall, Governor William Bradford declared that a feast would be held to give thanks for the harvest and invited Squanto, his family members and the Wampanoag chief, Massasoit, to take part.The thanksgiving feast held in 1621 lasted 3 days, however it was not repeated until 1623 when a severe drought, which led the Pilgrims to invoke divine intervention, was ended by providential rains. In a breathtaking example of biting the hand that feeds, a Thanksgiving sermon delivered by Mather the Elder that year offered thanks for sending smallpox to clear the land of the indigenous American people.
In the next 200 years, thanksgiving feasts were held intermittently throughout the New England
area although many, including Thomas Jefferson, were opposed to celebrating what was viewed as a strictly local religious observance as a national holiday. The custom caught on, however, and in 1863 Abraham Lincoln proclaimed the fourth Thursday in November as a national day of thanksgiving. Each president thereafter annually proclaimed a Thanksgiving Day holiday, usually designating the fourth Thursday in November until 1941 when Congress officially made the fourth Thursday in November a national Thanksgiving Day holiday. November 25!
Feliz
Dia de Accion de Gracias
les
desea:
Rafael
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