Thanksgiving in America

Thanksgiving Day is a national holiday celebrated primarily in the United States and Canada. Thanksgiving is celebrated each year on the fourth Thursday of November in the United States and on the second Monday of October in Canada.  For year 2012 it happened on Nov-22nd in USA.

On December 26, 1941, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed a joint resolution of Congress changing the national Thanksgiving Day from the last Thursday in November to the fourth Thursday.

Art (Painting) depicting a 'Mayflower-pilgrim-father' praying before eating meal offered by Native (Red) Indians. Art depicts two Native (Red) Indians, barely clothed, sitting at right watching the pilgrims- "thanksgiving, praying" for their first meal. Praying before eating a festive meal is now a tradition in America.

History:  In USA it has been an annual tradition to observe a thanksgiving by presidential proclamation since 1863 and by state legislation since the Founding Fathers of the United States. Historically, Thanksgiving began as a tradition of celebrating the harvest of the year in rural communities but got extend to the weekend that falls closest to the day in urban & metro cities because of the economic potential when President Roosevelt (in 1939) saw the potential of a 4-day holiday weekend to boost economy since people go shopping taking advantage of the 4-day long holiday.

Thanksgiving holiday also happens to be the busiest season for travel by road, rail & air within the USA since children come home from boarding schools or college dorms/hostels to their parental homes to celebrate with family. Family cooking, family shopping & family get together  triggers a spurt in economic activity. Like Christmas (or Diwali in India for eg.,) Thanksgiving dinners & celebrations are usually within the immediate family(Christmas celebrations can be with extended-family, friends, colleagues even with ones community in the neighborhood.)

Thanksgiving Over the Years:  Though many competing claims exist, the most familiar story of the first Thanksgiving took place in Plymouth Colony, in present-day Massachusetts, in 1621. More than 200 years later, President Abraham Lincoln declared the final Thursday in November as a national day of thanksgiving. Congress finally made Thanksgiving Day an official national holiday in 1941 fixing 4^th Thursday as the national holiday and Massachusetts also agreed to changing date from last (final) Thursday of November to 4^th Thursday to make school/college closings observance uniform all over country.

Sarah Josepha Hale, the enormously influential magazine editor and author who waged a tireless campaign to make Thanksgiving a national holiday in the mid-19th century, was also the author of the classic nursery rhyme "Mary Had a Little Lamb."

In 2001, the U.S. Postal Service issued a commemorative Thanksgiving stamp. Designed by the artist Margaret Cusack in a style resembling traditional folk-art needlework, it depicted a cornucopia overflowing with fruits and vegetables, under the phrase "We Give Thanks."

Thanksgiving Postage Stamp

The United States issued a quaint and attractive postage stamp for Thanksgiving in October, 2001.

Road Travel: The American Automobile Association (AAA) estimated that 42.2 million Americans traveled 50 miles or more from home over the Thanksgiving holiday weekend in 2010. No accurate estimates of road travel are available for year 2011-2012. I will know later in the year estimated travel in America if AAA publishes some numbers for 2012.

Why Turkey? For Traditional Americans (those who follow catholic tradition that came to Americas from Pilgrim fathers) a Turkey lunch (or dinner) served on the table on Thanksgiving day is a must preferably with members of their family (Grandparents, Parents, Children)

The truth is The Mayflower (the first ship that brought the English to America) didn’t land in Plymouth Massachusetts (where you have fertile farmlands today.)

The Mayflower first landed at the tip of Cape Cod (a tranquil and some what isolated fishing area at the tip of the N-Eastern land of America) in what is now known as 'Provincetown'.

The original 'settlers' (they were labelled so because they left their homeland in england to settle in USA)' had originally hoped to make for the mouth of the Hudson River and find fertile farmland somewhere north of present-day New York City.

Some of the Mayflower sailors had traveled before to America but on their first trip with ‘Pilgrim Fathers (Catholic priests)’ bad weather forced them to retreat. Approaching winter and dwindling supplies on the ship made them to land and anchor wherever they could.

With such uncertainty some historians say the Mayflower people had no option except to shoot (and eat) flying turkey birds that first visited their ship from land! Other stories about Mayflower landing(s) {there was more than one Mayflower} say that they encountered native Indians on land when they landed. The Native (Red) Indians were cooking and eating Turkey birds (…they did not know farming or how to rear cattle) and when they saw the approaching tired, shivering fair skinned pilgrims coming to shores from a long voyage they welcomed them and shared their Turkey meal with them (although somewhat suspicious of the visitors from overseas.)

Turkey On the Table: According to the U.S. Census Bureau, Minnesota is the top turkey-producing state in America, with a planned production total of 46.5 million in 2011. Six states—Minnesota, North Carolina, Arkansas, Missouri, Virginia, and Indiana—account for nearly two-thirds of the 248 million turkeys that will be raised in the U.S. this year.The National Turkey Federation estimated that 46 million turkeys—one fifth of the annual total of 235 million consumed in the United States—were eaten at Thanksgiving.In a survey conducted by the National Turkey Federation, nearly 88 percent of Americans said they eat turkey at Thanksgiving. The average weight of turkeys purchased for Thanksgiving is 15 pounds, which means some 690 million pounds of turkey were consumed in the U.S. during Thanksgiving in 2007.

Presidential pardening of the Turkey!

The presidential turkey pardon is an interesting White House tradition that has captured the attention of the public in recent years. Living, healthy Thanksgiving turkeys have been presented to Presidents at White House since the Lincoln administration. The turkey pardon ceremony has been said to date back to 1947, when President Harry Truman received a turkey as a gift from the National Turkey Federation. The Truman Library has been unable to find any evidence of this.

It wasn't until the first Thanksgiving of President George H.W. Bush, in 1989, that a turkey was officially pardoned for the first time. Each year since that time a President at WH has formally pardoned a turkey and spared it from ending up on the Thanksgiving table. Pardoning 'one turkey' is just symbolic; US President also happily relishes a 'turkey-meal' on Thanksgiving day! (I find this practice akin to- 'felling a tree for whatever reason but planting a new/fresh tree at another convenient place.')

Since 2005, the turkeys 'pardoned by the President' have been flown to Disneyland, where they serve as grand marshals of the theme park's annual Thanksgiving Day parade and live out the rest of their lives at Frontierland.

President JFK pardon's the White House Turkey.

Shopping Season:

With Thanksgiving the holiday shopping begins in America. Although till recently Black Friday (the name given to the day following Thanksgiving day) is when the Christmas shopping begins with outstanding bargains for Christmas purchases at many leading department stores… since last year shopping has started from Thursday evening (8pm in some stores, 9pm at others) to beat the mad rush on Friday mornings when stores open. Till last year Black Friday (called that because stores make large volume of sales offsetting slack sales earlier in season hopefully turning earnings-reports from ‘red to black’) on this day, most major retailers open extremely early and offer promotional sales to kick off the holiday shopping season. This is similar to Boxing Day sales in Britain. Black Friday is not an official holiday, but many non-retail employers also observe this day as a holiday along with Thanksgiving, giving their employees the day off, thereby increasing the number of potential shoppers. It has routinely been the busiest shopping day of the year since 2005 although news reports, which at that time were inaccurate have described it as the busiest shopping day of the year for a much longer period of time."Black Friday" indicates the point at which retailers begin to turn a profit, turning earnings reports from ‘red to black.’

For many years, it was common for retailers to open store on Black Friday at 6:00 a.m., but in the late 2000s many had crept to 5:00 or even 4:00. This was taken to a new extreme in 2011, when several retailers (including Target, Kohls, Macy's, Best Buy, opened at midnight for the first time. In 2012, Walmart led several other retailers in announcing it would open its stores at 8:00 p.m. on Thanksgiving Day prompting calls for a walkout among some workers.

Macy’s Parade on 34th Street

The Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade is the largest celebration of its kind. Over 3.5 million people watch the parade along the parade route in Manhattan and over TV and another 50 million watch at home on television from all over the nation.

For many there is no substitute for seeing the floats, enormous balloons and marching bands in person.

THE 86th Anniversary Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade started off at 9AM with usual glitz & glamor in the morning today at 34th Street, Manhattan in front of MACY's Department Stores New York City.

This year's parade is more spectacular than prior years with inclusion of 34th Street shows from Rockettess (from radio city music hall) to Mexican & American Indian talented dancers.

I will be uploading videos soon. Watch this Space for some of the spectacular dances from 34th street Macy's Parade!

Macy's model(s) displaying latest teen fashions on first shopping day at NYC.

PS: One can watch spectacular show from Radio City Music Hall 'Rockettes' at Macy's 86th Thanksgiving parade of Nov-22-2012 on 36th street @

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nHTt2Yy2rgI&feature=player_embedded

To view a prior 'Rockettes' Christmas 85th season kick off show of Nov-15th (video curtesy TODAY website) go to link@

http://video.today.msnbc.msn.com/today/49837347#49837347