History of Thanksgiving

Although Thanksgiving celebrations have dated back to 1621 to the first European settlements in America, it was not until 1863 that President Lincoln officially declared and proclaimed that the last Thursday in November would be an American National Holiday. Since the Thanksgiving Holiday is a day of family, feasting, football and floats here are a few “nibbles” to think about:

George Washington, leader of the revolutionary forces in the American Revolutionary War, proclaimed a Thanksgiving in December 1777 as a victory celebration honoring the defeat of the British at Saratoga.

In the middle of the American Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln, prompted by a series of editorials written by Sarah Josepha Hale, poetess of “Mary Had A Little Lamb”, asking for a permanent American day of thanks as a holiday, he proclaimed a national Thanksgiving Day, to be celebrated on the final Thursday in November 1863: (excerpt from; Proclamation of President Abraham Lincoln, October 3, 1863.)

“… It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently and gratefully acknowledged as with one heart and voice by the whole American people. I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next, as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens. And I recommend to them that while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliverances and blessings, they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to his tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty Hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to restore it as soon as may be consistent with the Divine purposes to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquility and Union. In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand, and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed. Done at the city of Washington, this third day of October, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty- three, and of the independence of the United States the eighty-eighth."

The National Football League has played games on Thanksgiving every year since its creation; the tradition is referred to as the Thanksgiving Classic. The Detroit Lions have hosted a game every Thanksgiving Day since 1934, with the exception of 1939–1944 (due to World War II).

Since 1924, in New York City, the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade featuring floats, large balloons is held annually every Thanksgiving Day from the Upper West Side of Manhattan to Macy's flagship store in Herald Square, and televised nationally by NBC.

All of us at Hygun Group want to wish you a very Happy Thanksgiving with your families and to watch out for the TRYPTOPHAN while watching those floats and football games. We are THANKFUL for all of you as family, friends, and clients.