Thanksgiving History and Traditions

Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the lands! Serve the Lord with gladness! Come into God's presence with singing! Know that the Lord is God! It is he that made us, and we are his;we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture. Enter his gates with thanksgiving, and his courts with praise! Give thanks to him, bless his name! For the Lord is good; his steadfast love endures for ever, and his faithfulness to all generations.

For each new morning with its light, For rest and shelter of the night, For health and food, For love and friends, For everything Thy goodness sends. Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882)

Our Father in Heaven,We give thanks for the pleasure Of gathering together for this occasion. We give thanks for this food Prepared by loving hands. We give thanks for life, The freedom to enjoy it all And all other blessings. As we partake of this food, We pray for health and strength To carry on and try to live as You would have us. This we ask in the name of Christ, Our Heavenly Father. Harry Jewell

For some people, a holiday where football is the focus is their most prized of all.

Eleven years after Lincoln declared Thanksgiving a holiday the first

intercollegiate footbal...

By Thanksgiving 1944 Americans were harvesting their Victory Gardens in

anticipation of a bountiful holiday. New-reels projected the image of a

wartime country where canned goo...

Surprisingly, there is no real evidence of turkey being served at the

first Thanksgiving feasts in the early 17th century. Apparently, "turkey" was the generic name to describe all fowl. Venison pops up in

many historical accounts of the holiday as well as corn, boiled

pumpkin, berries, and, possibly shellfish. Most still incorporate

pumpkins in the traditional pie and berries in the form of cranberry

sauce with their modern holiday meal.

Hanging multi-colored corn with husks attached on our doors is a custom

that reminds us how important corn was to the survival of early

colonists. That’s a big reason to g...

Just about every American turns on the television to see the enormous

floating balloons in The Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. Since 1927,

New Yorkers flock to the streets to see grand characters fly through

the air and many gather the night before to watch the process of

inflating the balloons.

1934:

Ironically, this Thanksgiving Day Parade started as a Christmas Caravan! Chicago's State Street Council was looking for a way to boost the city's morale during the Great Depression, and proposed a Christmas ...

1924: Macy's employees decided to entertain the city with a Thanksgiving Day Parade that wound throughout the streets of Manhattan. It was such a success that it became an annual tradition!1942 - 1944:

The only br...