1. 1. THE ORIGINS OF THANKSGIVINGThanksgiving is a national holiday in the United States. It is celebrated each year on the fourthThursday in November. On this day, families get together, and many people say thanks for theirgood fortune. In many homes, people serve a big dinner of roast turkey.Thanksgiving is traditionally a harvest festival.The pilgrims were English people who escaped from England for religiuos persecution. They firstmoved to Holland but some years later, they left Holland and traveled to the United States. Pilgrimstraveled by ship. The ships name was the Mayflower. The trip was very long and dangerous; ittook 65 days and many people died.The first winter in the New World was devastating to the Pilgrims. It was very cold and the snowmade very difficult to build their settlement. More Pilgrims died. They didnt know how to survive insuch conditions.One day, an Indian walked into the Pilgrims settlement. The Pilgrims were frightened but theIndian said "Welcome" in English. The Indian was Samoset and he lived in a peaceful tribe.Samoset and other Indians helped the Pilgrims to survive. They taught Pilgrims how to plant cropslike corn and to hunt animals.The harvest in October was very successful and the Pilgrims had enough food to put away for thewinter. There was corn, fruits and vegetables, fish and meat . The Pilgrims had survived! Theyproclaimed a day of thanksgiving to celebrate with the Native Americans. The celebration lasted for3 days.In 1863 President Abraham Lincoln appointed a national day of thanksgiving.