Thanksgiving Day is a national holiday celebrated all around the world in many different ways. According to David J. Silverman, a writer and editor for Britannica, Thanksgiving Day started as the Plymouth’s Thanksgiving, and they invited the Wampanoag to eat a feast and give thanks with them. This started out as a way to bring the two groups together and show that they could get together without any incidents happening and they could have peace between them.
After that day in 1621, many other people started getting together to eat a feast and say their thanks because they had seen how good it worked out for the Plymouth and the Wampanoag. According to History.com, in 1775 the Boston Patriots decided that they were going to celebrate a “Day of public Thanksgiving” because they wanted to bring together the American colonies.
When Americans think of classic Thanksgiving Day traditions, football is commonly associated with it. This is because of the first Thanksgiving College football game in 1876. According to History.com the first football game on Thanksgiving was Yale against Princeton and over the years the crowd for the football game grew in size. “By the mid-1880s, their annual contest was a major social event,” said History.com in regards to how the crowds grew over the years that the football game had been going on.
According to the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, on October 3rd, 1863, during the Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln issued Thanksgiving Day a national holiday. This was a major step for Americans at the time because they were going through the Civil War and that took a toll on many people.
The Macy’s Day Parade is also another huge tradition that happens on Thanksgiving Day every year. According to Ben C, a writer for Bucket List Events, the first Macy’s Day Parade was held on Thanksgiving Day in 1924, and it was held in Manhattan. Ever since that day, the Macy’s Day Parade has happened on Thanksgiving every year since.
Looking at how different people and cultures celebrate Thanksgiving, there are many different traditions that they do ever year on Thanksgiving. According to Britannica, Thanksgiving day is a national holiday in the United States and most people celebrate the holiday by having a Thanksgiving meal and gathering with close family and friends. However, this is celebrated in diverse ways around the world.
According to Sarah Pruitt who is a writer and editor for Breaking History: Vanished, there are multiple religions and nations that celebrate Thanksgiving differently around the world.
One of the nations that celebrate Thanksgiving differently is Canada. According to Pruitt, Canada celebrates Thanksgiving pretty similarly to the United States, the only difference is that they hold a ceremony called Nunavut every year. “Thanksgiving traditions in Canada look very similar to American ones, including eating turkey and watching football (the Canadian Football League holds an annual Thanksgiving Day Classic) with family,” said Pruitt in regards to how the Canadians celebrate the holiday.
Another nation that celebrates Thanksgiving differently is Germany. According to Pruitt, in Germany they celebrate Thanksgiving, or Erntedankfest, on the first Sunday in October. In their celebration they mainly say their thanks to their good fortune that they experienced in the congregations that year. In Germany people also get together and bring Masthühnchen (fattened-up chickens) or Kapaun (castrated roosters).
