Official Thanksgiving Day
Saturday October 3, 2009
In Plymouth, Massachusetts, after the fall harvest of 1621, Governor William Bradford asked for a day of prayer and thanksgiving. On October 3, 1863, Abraham Lincoln designated the last Thursday in November a national holiday, Thanksgiving Day. The celebration was later changed by Congress to be held on the fourth Thursday of November. This article reveals fascinating Thanksgiving Myths and Realities.
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The Thanksgiving at Plymouth was actually a harvest festival. It was also two years after a thanksgiving service was held on December 4, 1619 at the Berkeley 500 in Virginia.
“Wee ordaine that the day of our ships arrivall at the place assigned for plantacon in the land of Virginia shall be yearly and perpetually keept holy as a day of Thanksgiving to Almighty God.”
The massacre in 1622 put an end to that.
It is also believed that the original Jamestown settlers held a service when they first arrived in Virginia in 1607, though whether at Jamestown or Newport is unknown. However, they never planned to commemorate it anually. Neither did the pilgrims.