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| Photo: Annapolis.Com |
Source/Credit: Various | US Gov. Facts
By Ahmadiyya Times | November 24, 2011
Thanksgiving Day, observed on the fourth Thursday in November, finds its roots way back in the fall of 1621, when Pilgrims held a three-day feast.
The pilgrims were simply celebrating a bountiful harvest that year but many regard this event as the nation's first Thanksgiving.
Historians have also recorded ceremonies of thanks among other groups of European settlers in North America, including British colonists in Virginia in 1619.
The legacy of thanks and the feast have survived the centuries.
The event gained the national holiday status in 1863 when President Abraham Lincoln proclaimed the last Thursday of November as a national day of thanksgiving.
President Franklin D. Roosevelt later clarified that Thanksgiving celebrations should occur on the fourth Thursday of the month, never on the occasional fifth Thursday, to encourage earlier holiday shopping.
The Thanksgiving feast usually includes some of the foods served at the first feast: roast turkey, cranberry sauce, corn, and pumpkin.
In 2011, approximately 248 million turkeys have been expected to be raised in the United States. That's up 2 percent from the number raised during 2010. The turkeys produced in 2010 together weighed 7.11 billion pounds and were valued at $4.37 billion.
Minnesota is expected to raise some 46.5 million turkeys in 2011 according to the preliminary estimates. The Gopher State was tops in turkey production, followed by North Carolina (30.0 million), Arkansas (30.0 million), Missouri (18.0 million), Virginia (17.5 million) and Indiana (16.0 million). These six states together account for about two-thirds of U.S. turkeys produced in 2011.
-- Thanksgiving Day: What do you know about it?
-- Ahmadiyya Times / Various sources
-- Imran Jattala
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