Celebrate: Thanksgiving 2007 - Interesting Facts

What many regard as the nation's first Thanksgiving took place in December 1621 as the religious separatist Pilgrims held a three-day feast to celebrate a bountiful harvest.

The day did not become a national holiday until 1863 when, at the end of a long and bloody civil war, Abraham Lincoln asked all Americans to set aside the last Thursday in November as a day of thanksgiving.

Later, during the Great Depression in 1939, President Franklin Roosevelt proclaimed that Thanksgiving should be celebrated on the next to last Thursday of the month to encourage earlier holiday shopping, never on the occasional fifth Thursday. However, it was not mandatory and not all states complied.

Finally, Congress ruled that after 1941 the 4th Thursday in November would be a federal holiday proclaimed by the President each year. (Source: usinfo.state.gov, census.gov)


Click here for the Census Bureau's Thanksgiving 2007 Interesting Facts page




Visit my web site for additional resources and services: LawrenceYerkes.com
  
and visit BestHomes-NJ.com for the latest New Jersey Real Estate property listings (residential, commercial, multi-family, farm, land)

Copyright 2007 by Timon, Inc. All Rights Reserved.