Thanksgiving is undoubtedly one of the most traditional of those celebrated in the United States, but you may not know when it is celebrated or you may confuse it with being a holiday similar to Christmas Eve for us. We do not want you to be unaware of a really beautiful tradition, even if it is foreign to us, so we are going to talk to you now about Thanksgiving Day – When is Thanksgiving Day celebrated 2022.
When is Thanksgiving Day 2022 celebrated?
With this establishment of the fourth Thursday of November for Thanksgiving, we have to say that in 2022, Thanksgiving is celebrated on November 26.
The most typical traditions of Thanksgiving
family dinner
The great thanksgiving tradition of gathering the whole family in a house to dine on the mythical turkey. The turkey is usually accompanied by a lighter first course that is usually a pumpkin cream (although it has cream and bacon, so it’s not too light either), side dishes like brussels sprouts or sweet potatoes and desserts like pumpkin pie or apple pie, and even carrot cake. All with seasonal ingredients.
The centerpieces
Continuing with the tradition of having dinner all around the table, there is also the tradition of preparing a very beautiful and elaborate centerpiece. It is usually done by hand, with various elements or, throughout the week before Thanksgiving, children usually make the centerpieces for tonight in crafts and even Contests are held in schools for the most beautiful centerpieces.
The soccer match
Surely you have seen it in some episode of a series or a movie, but you already know that another of the traditions of Thanksgiving is to see the football game before dinner. Many times, the family gets together to prepare dinner and while it is being prepared, they watch the game together.
Macy’s Parade
And finally, another of the traditions that we have and that is coming since 1927, is to see the parade at Macy’s. It is a parade sponsored and organized by the Macy’s department store and every Thanksgiving takes the little ones’ favorite television characters and some giant balloon animals out for a ride on large floats. The family usually gets together to watch it live, as it passes through the streets or to watch it at home on television, since it is always broadcast. It is very similar to what in Spain we would say on the day of the parade of Kings.
Thanksgiving Day | Source
Thanksgiving Day is currently celebrated on the fourth Thursday of the month of November, but before you get to know why it is celebrated on this day and not on another, you have to know its origin since together with Independence Day (July 4 ) It is perhaps the largest national holiday that occurs in the United States.
How does the party originate?
The origin of Thanksgiving o Thanksgiving refers to the celebration of brotherhood and gratitude that took place in the autumn of 1621 at the villa of Plymonthstate now known as Massachusetts.
In the fall of that year, 53 English settlers (of the 102 who had arrived a year earlier on the Mayflower) and 90 Indians from the Wampanoag tribe shared a banquet which lasted three days and was celebrated on the occasion of having finished the harvest season with an abundant harvest.
The first Thanksgiving dinner and Squanto
The settlers had invited the natives in order to thank them for teaching them to grow corn in the spring, and also teaching them how to hunt and ultimately how to survive after a first winter in the New World in which they had spent, cold, starved and half of them had died.
With the arrival of the Mayflower the colonists they were greeted by an indigenous man who spoke English and who introduced them to Squanto.
This Indian had been kidnapped on a previous naval exploration and had learned English during his captivity, returning to his homeland on another expedition.
He was a key character for the settlers to survive, since taught them how to survive and the value of corn cropsa plant that until now was unknown to Europeans and that they have been fed ever since.
Thanksgiving Day | how it developed
Having explained this part of American history and the origin of Thanksgiving, we have to say that the holiday of Thanksgiving was ingrained in the customs of the settlers and after independence.
Following the first Thanksgiving celebration, the Pilgrims held their second Thanksgiving celebration in 1623 to mark the end of a long drought that threatened the year’s harvest and prompted Governor Bradford to call for a religious fast.
George Washington establishes Thanksgiving
Days of fasting and thanksgiving were thus celebrated on an annual or occasional basis and became a common practice in other New England settlements.
During the American Revolution, the Continental Congress designated one or more days of thanksgiving each year, and in 1789 George Washington issued the first official Thanksgiving announcement by the national government of the United States.
In this announcement, he asked Americans to express their gratitude for the successful conclusion of the country’s war of independence and the successful ratification of the US Constitution. his successors John Adams and James Madison also designated thanksgiving days during their presidencies.
But that situation changed 1863. In the midst of the Civil War and Abraham Lincoln being president, it was established that the Thanksgiving would be a national holiday and would be celebrated in all states on the last Thursday of November.. Due to the circumstances of the war, this measure could not be implemented in the southern states until the following decade.
Thanksgiving and its celebration in the 20th century
In 1817, New York became the first of several states to officially adopt an annual Thanksgiving holiday; although each one celebrates it on a different day.
In 1827, the magazine editor Sarah Josepha Hale, among countless other things, launched a campaign to make Thanksgiving a national holiday. For 36 years, he published numerous editorials and sent dozens of letters to governors, senators, presidents, and other politicians.
Lincoln officially proclaims Thanksgiving
Abraham Lincoln finally heeded her request in 1863, at the height of the Civil War, in a proclamation beseeching all Americans to ask God to “commit to his tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners or sick in unfortunate civil strife” and to “heal the nation’s wounds.”
Roosevelt’s change
President Lincoln proclaimed Thanksgiving for the last Thursday in November, and it was celebrated on that day every year until 1939, when Franklin D. Roosevelt changed the holiday to a week in an attempt to stimulate retail sales during the Great Depression.
Thus the date changed again during the Great Depression when President Franklin Delano Roosevelt defended an advance in celebration of Thanksgiving. His argument was that sometimes the month of November had five Thursdays and this reduced the shopping season that culminates on Christmas Day. Since the country was going through a serious economic situation, it was convenient to extend the purchase period to stimulate the economy.
Roosevelt’s plan, known disparagingly as franksgivingmet with passionate opposition, and in 1941 the president signed a Thanksgiving bill to keep it on the fourth Thursday in November.
The proposal at the time was very controversial, which is why, finally, in December 1941, an agreement was reached in Congress and the Senate and it is established by law that Thanksgiving is celebrated in all the states of the Union on the fourth Thursday of the month of November.
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