Thanksgiving History Versus Myth

Series Summary

Thanksgiving commemorates the end of harvest season on the fourth Thursday of November. The roots of this North American holiday (Canada observes their Thanksgiving on the second Monday of October) go back to Pilgrim settlers in the new world, who--as you will discover in this free video series--were not quite as conservative as the storybooks would have us believe. In the 1600's, colonists in Plymouth, Massachusetts invited Native Americans who had helped them hunt and farm to a gathering of food and prayer. These initial celebrations went on for three boisterous days. Other settlements soon followed suit. In 1789, president George Washington proclaimed a national holiday for Thanksgiving. But this holiday required a renewed presidential proclamation each year to continue, which did not happen between 1815 and Lincoln's presidency, when he renewed the proclamation in response to public outcry.

In this free holiday history video series, our expert will tell you about the origins as well as the continued trials and tribulations of this popular holiday. Did you know that FDR changed the date to the middle of November during the early 1940's to extend the holiday shopping season? As if it wasn't long enough already! Learn about such traditions as the presidential pardon for one turkey a year from our expert on American history. Matt Cail also discusses the origins of such traditions as the Macy's parade and the football rivalries that have become part of our Thanksgiving experience.

Video Transcript

"Hello, I'm Matt Cail and on behalf of Expert Village I'm here today to tell you all about the history of Thanksgiving. What we currently celebrate as Thanksgiving has gone through a lot of changes since it was first celebrated in the early 1600's, or was it? How we actually remember history can be very different than how the real events occurred. What will become a small little battle in history will become a war within a hundred years and how people will remember it and how many people allegedly fought and died on each side. Something similar here can happen with observances and holidays. Something with Thanksgiving is oh you know there's turkey and there's family and friends traveling all around. There are football games on there are parades. If you go back to the origins of Thanksgiving, a lot of this had little or nothing to do with the original observance and holiday or feast as actually it was back then. We're going to be covering and trying to separate out more of the reality vs the myth, the fact from fiction, when it comes to Thanksgiving, America's big November feast and holiday."