Grant signed into law the Holidays Act that made Thanksgiving a yearly appointed federal holiday in Washington D.C. Lincoln declared it for the last Thursday in November. fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty hand to heal the wounds of the nation.". President Thomas Jefferson chose not to observe the holiday, and its celebration was intermittent until President Abraham Lincoln, in 1863, proclaimed a national day of "Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens", calling on the American people to also, "with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience. Thanksgiving has been celebrated nationally on and off since 1789, with a proclamation by President George Washington after a request by Congress. Less widely known is an earlier Thanksgiving celebration in Virginia in 1619 by English settlers who had just landed at Berkeley Hundred aboard the ship Margaret. This feast lasted three days and was attended by 90 Wampanoag Native American people and 53 Pilgrims (survivors of the Mayflower). The event that Americans commonly call the "First Thanksgiving" was celebrated by the Pilgrims after their first harvest in the New World in October 1621. These were observed through church services, accompanied with feasts and other communal gatherings. New England and Virginia colonists originally celebrated days of fasting, as well as days of thanksgiving, thanking God for blessings such as harvests, ship landings, military victories, or the end of a drought. In American culture Thanksgiving is regarded as the beginning of the fall–winter holiday season, which includes Christmas and the New Year. Other Thanksgiving customs include charitable organizations offering Thanksgiving dinner for the poor, attending religious services, watching parades, and viewing football games. The dinner traditionally consists of foods and dishes indigenous to the Americas, namely turkey, potatoes (usually mashed or sweet), stuffing, squash, corn (maize), green beans, cranberries (typically in sauce form), and pumpkin pie. It originated as a day of thanksgiving and harvest festival, with the theme of the holiday revolving around giving thanks and the centerpiece of Thanksgiving celebrations remaining a Thanksgiving dinner. It is sometimes called American Thanksgiving (outside the United States) to distinguish it from the Canadian holiday of the same name and related celebrations in other regions.
Thanksgiving is a federal holiday in the United States, celebrated on the fourth Thursday of November. Thank you for respecting these terms of use.Thanksgiving at Plymouth, oil on canvas by Jennie Augusta Brownscombe, 1925 National Museum of Women in the Arts If you want to share this resource with colleagues, please purchase additional licenses from TpT. In other words, you may distribute it to your own students but may not put it on the Internet where it could be publicly found and downloaded.
Teachers may distribute this product in email, through google classroom or over the Internet to their students (and parents) as long as the site is password protected. It may be used by the original purchaser for single class use only. This resource was created by Rachel Lynette for Minds in Bloom INC., all rights reserved.
Students can use the highlight tool to select their answers and explain their reasoning in answer boxes. To use, click the white, OPEN AS EASEL ACTIVITY button to the right.
Great for discussion starters, class polls and journal prompts. Here is a set of 20 Would you Rather Questions about Thanksgiving.