Prayers of thanks and special thanksgiving ceremonies are common among most religions after harvests and at other times of the year. The Thanksgiving holiday's history in North America is rooted in English traditions dating from the Protestant
Reformation. It also has aspects of a
harvest festival, even though the harvest in
New England occurs well before the late-November date on which the modern Thanksgiving holiday is celebrated in the United States. In the English tradition, days of thanksgiving and special thanksgiving religious services became important during the
English Reformation in the reign of
Henry VIII. Before 1536 there were 95 Church holidays, plus every Sunday, when people were required to
attend church and forego work. Though the 1536 reforms in the
Church of England reduced the number of holidays in the
liturgical calendar to 27, the
Puritan party in the Anglican Church wished to eliminate all Church holidays apart from the weekly
Lord's Day, including the
evangelical feasts of Christmas and Easter (cf.
Puritan Sabbatarianism).
In Canada According to some historians, the first celebration of Thanksgiving in North America occurred during the 1578 voyage of
Martin Frobisher from England in search of the
Northwest Passage. Other researchers, however, state that "there is no compelling narrative of the origins of the Canadian Thanksgiving day." Antecedents for Thanksgiving in Canada are also sometimes traced to the French settlers who came to
New France in the 17th century, who celebrated their successful harvests. The French settlers in the area typically had feasts at the end of the harvest season. They continued throughout the winter season, even sharing food with the
indigenous peoples of the area. As settlers arrived in Nova Scotia from New England after 1700, late autumn Thanksgiving celebrations became commonplace. New immigrants into the country—such as the Irish, Scottish, and Germans—also added their own traditions to the harvest celebrations. Most of the U.S. aspects of Thanksgiving (such as the turkey) were incorporated when
United Empire Loyalists began to
flee from the United States during and after the
American Revolution and settled in Canada. On 9 October 1879, Canada's Governor General, the
Marquis of Lorne, declared November 6 as "a day of General Thanksgiving to Almighty God for the bountiful harvest with which Canada has been blessed."
In the United States 's 1914 portrait,
The First Thanksgiving at Plymouth, now on display at
Pilgrim Hall Museum in
Plymouth, Massachusetts 's 1925 portrait,
Thanksgiving at Plymouth, now on display at the
National Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington, D.C. An annual thanksgiving holiday tradition in North American colonies is documented for the first time in 1619, in what is now called the Commonwealth of
Virginia. Thirty-eight English settlers aboard the ship
Margaret arrived by way of the James River at
Berkeley Hundred in
Charles City County, Virginia on December 4, 1619. The landing was immediately followed by a religious celebration, specifically dictated by the group's charter from the
London Company. The charter declared, "that the day of our ships arrival at the place assigned for plantation in the land of Virginia shall be yearly and perpetually kept holy as a day of thanksgiving to Almighty God." The more familiar but historically inaccurate explanation of the origins of the Thanksgiving holiday involves the
Pilgrims and
Puritans who emigrated from England in the 1620s and 1630s. They brought their previous tradition of
days of humiliation and thanksgiving (both of which involved
fasting) with them to
New England. A multi-day festival in 1621 in
Plymouth Colony was prompted by a good harvest, though it was not at the time described as a thanksgiving. The
Wampanoag, who had a mutual defense treaty with the colonists, responded in alarm to sounds of ceremonial gunfire, and were welcomed to join the feast. Along with the
last surviving Patuxet, the Wampanoag had helped them get through the previous winter by giving them food in that time of scarcity, in exchange for an alliance and protection against the rival
Narragansett tribe. Several celebrations were held in early New England history that have been identified as the "First Thanksgiving", including Pilgrim festivals in Plymouth in 1621 and 1623, and a Puritan holiday in
Boston in 1631. Now called
3 Oktoberfeest, Leiden's autumn thanksgiving celebration in 1617 was the occasion for sectarian disturbance that appears to have accelerated the Pilgrims' plans to emigrate to America. The 1621 Plymouth celebration was largely forgotten for hundreds of years and did not contribute to the development of the American holiday. It was retroactively termed "the first Thanksgiving" in a footnote added to an 1841 book by Alexander Young, and the Pilgrim story was then later incorporated into celebrations of the holiday. Later in New England, religious thanksgiving services were declared by civil leaders such as
Governor Bradford, who planned the Plymouth colony's thanksgiving celebration and feast in 1623. The practice of holding an annual harvest festival did not become a regular affair in New England until the late 1660s. Thanksgiving proclamations were made mostly by church leaders in New England up until 1682, and then by both state and church leaders until after the
American Revolution. During the revolutionary period, political influences affected the issuance of Thanksgiving proclamations. Various proclamations were made by
royal governors, and conversely by
patriot leaders, such as
John Hancock, General
George Washington, and the
Continental Congress, each giving thanks to God for events favorable to their causes. As the first President of the United States, George Washington proclaimed the first nationwide thanksgiving celebration in America marking November 26, 1789 as, "a day of public thanksgiving and prayer, to be observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many and signal favours of Almighty God", and calling on Americans to "unite in most humbly offering our prayers and supplications to the great Lord and Ruler of Nations and beseech him to pardon our national and other transgressions."
Debate over first celebrations in 1619 Devotees in Florida,
New England,
Texas and
Virginia have maintained contradictory claims to having held the first Thanksgiving celebration in what became the United States. The question is complicated by the concept of Thanksgiving as either a holiday celebration or a religious service. James Baker maintains, "The American holiday's true origin was the New England
Calvinist Thanksgiving. Never coupled with a Sabbath meeting, the Puritan observances were special days set aside during the week for thanksgiving and praise in response to God's providence." Baker calls the debate a "tempest in a beanpot" and "marvelous nonsense" based on regional claims. Momentum for inclusion of Plymouth in the founding myths of the United States was due to the influence of the
Old Colony Club, who feared that Plymouth was being overshadowed by events in other colonies, including the American Revolution. In 1963, President
John F. Kennedy acknowledged both the Virginia and
Massachusetts claims. Kennedy issued Proclamation 3560 on November 5, 1963, stating, "Over three centuries ago, our forefathers in Virginia and in Massachusetts, far from home in a lonely wilderness, set aside a time of thanksgiving. On the appointed day, they gave reverent thanks for their safety, for the health of their children, for the fertility of their fields, for the love which bound them together, and for the faith which united them with their God." Other claims include an earlier religious service by Spanish explorers at
San Elizario in
Texas in 1598. Historians Robyn Gioia and
Michael Gannon of the
University of Florida argue that the earliest Thanksgiving service in what is now the United States was celebrated by the
Spanish community on September 8, 1565, in current
Saint Augustine, Florida.The thanksgiving at St. Augustine was celebrated 56 years before the Puritan Pilgrim thanksgiving at Plymouth Plantation (Massachusetts), but it did not become the origin of a national annual tradition.[https://www.nps.gov/casa/learn/historyculture/the-first-thanksgiving.htm
Fixing a date Canada The earlier Thanksgiving celebrations in Canada has been attributed to the earlier onset of winter in the North, thus ending the harvest season earlier. Thanksgiving in Canada did not have a fixed date until the late 19th century. Prior to
Canadian Confederation, many of the individual colonial governors of the Canadian provinces had declared their own days of Thanksgiving. The first official Canadian Thanksgiving occurred on April 15, 1872, when the nation was celebrating the
Prince of Wales' recovery from a serious illness. However, when the
First World War ended, the
Armistice Day holiday was usually held during the same week. To prevent the two holidays from clashing with one another, in 1957 the
Canadian Parliament proclaimed Thanksgiving to be observed on its present date on the second Monday of October. Influenced by New Englander
Sarah Josepha Hale, who wrote letters to politicians for approximately 40 years advocating an official holiday, Lincoln set national Thanksgiving by proclamation for the final Thursday in November in celebration of the bounties that had continued to fall on the Union and for the military successes in the war, also calling on the American people, "with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience ... fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty hand to heal the wounds of the nation...." Because of the ongoing
Civil War, a nationwide Thanksgiving celebration was not realized until
Reconstruction in the 1870s. On October 31, 1939, President
Franklin D. Roosevelt signed a
presidential proclamation changing the holiday to the next to last Thursday in November in an effort to boost the economy. The earlier date created an extra seven days for
Christmas shopping since at that time retailers never began promoting the Christmas season until after Thanksgiving. But making the proclamation so close to the change wreaked havoc on the holiday schedules of many people, schools, and businesses, and most Americans were not in favor of the change. Some of those who opposed the change dubbed the holiday "
Franksgiving" that year. Some state governors went along with the change while others stuck with the original November 30 date for the holiday, and three states – Colorado, Mississippi, and Texas – observed both dates. The double Thanksgiving continued for two more years, and then on December 26, 1941, Roosevelt signed a
joint resolution of Congress changing the official national Thanksgiving Day to the fourth Thursday in November starting in 1942 (there are usually four but sometimes five Thursdays in November, depending on the year). Since 1971, when the American
Uniform Monday Holiday Act took effect, the American observance of
Columbus Day has coincided with the Canadian observance of Thanksgiving. ==Observance==