The history of Thanksgiving dates all the way back to November 1621 when the Pilgrims and the Native Americans decided to come together and have a big feast. To the Native Americans, it served as a thank you to the Pilgrims for helping them survive in their new world. For more than two centuries, days of Thanksgiving were celebrated by individual colonies and states. It didn’t become a national holiday until 1803 when Abraham Lincoln declared it so, according to History.com.
In 2022, Thanksgiving Day is to be celebrated on Thursday, Nov. 24 and has become one of the most important holidays that Americans celebrate. Many people celebrate Thanksgiving because it is a special day to reflect back on all the things that Americans are thankful for. For example, they can be thankful for many things such as family, friends, teachers, pets, neighbors, or if you’re like me, your books.
As someone who celebrates Thanksgiving, I like to do a few things. Firstly, my family and I often like to have a big feast that consists of turkey, potatoes, stuffing, corn, and sweet potatoes. While eating dinner, we love to watch television so we usually either watch two things. Either “A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving,” or one of my parent’s favorite movies, “Planes, Trains, and Automobiles”. Then, once we are stuffed, we all take turns stating what we are thankful for.
Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays but not everybody in the world celebrates it. For example, in Israel, many Jewish people celebrate Hanukkah instead of Thanksgiving. Of course, not all of them celebrate it, some celebrate Thanksgiving as well. I think it just depends on where you live and your family background.
Anyways, during the eight days of Hanukkah, they will light one candle on the Chanukiah representing each day. On the eighth and final day, they will do a variety of different things like eating potato pancakes and jelly donuts, singing songs, presenting plays, giving each other gifts, or playing with a very decorative spinning toy called a dreidel, according to Time and Date.com.
