A Thanksgiving History Lesson

As we break bread, carve the turkey and give thanks this year on Thanksgiving, here's a look at some facts and history of the holiday, as found on History.com.

Thanksgiving at Plymouth
In September 1620 a small ship called the Mayflower left Plymouth, England, carrying 102 passengers - an assortment of religious separatists seeking a new home where they could freely practice their faith and other individuals lured by the promise of prosperity and land ownership in the New World.

After a treacherous and uncomfortable crossing that lasted 66 days, they dropped anchor near the tip of Cape Cod, far north of their intended destination at the mouth of the Hudson River.

One month later, the Mayflower crossed Massachusetts Bay, where the Pilgrims, as they are now commonly known, began the work of establishing a village at Plymouth.

Following that first brutal winter only half of the Mayflower’s original passengers and crew lived to see their first New England spring.

In November 1621, after the Pilgrims’ first corn harvest proved successful, Governor William Bradford organized a celebratory feast and invited a group of the fledgling colony’s Native American allies, including Massasoit, the chief of the Wampanoag, a local tribe with which the settlers forged an alliance.

Now remembered as American’s “first Thanksgiving,” the festival lasted for three days. While no record exists of the historic banquet’s exact , the Pilgrim chronicler Edward Winslow wrote in his journal that Governor Bradford sent four men on a “fowling” mission in preparation for the event, and that the Wampanoag guests arrived bearing five deer.

Becoming an Official Holiday
Pilgrims held their second Thanksgiving celebration in 1623 to mark the end of a long drought that had threatened the year’s harvest and prompted Governor Bradford to call for a religious fast - something that also became common practice in other New England settlements.

During the American Revolution, the Continental Congress designated one or more days of thanksgiving a year, and in 1789 George Washington issued the first Thanksgiving proclamation by the national government of the United States.

In 1817 New York became the first of several states to officially adopt an annual Thanksgiving holiday; each celebrated it on a different day, however, and the American South remained largely unfamiliar with the tradition.

In 1827, the noted magazine editor and prolific writer Sarah Josepha Hale - author, among countless other things, of the nursery rhyme Mary Had a Little Lamb - launched a campaign to establish Thanksgiving as a national holiday - one that lasted for 36 years.

Abraham Lincoln finally heeded her request in 1863, at the height of the Civil War, in a proclamation, and scheduled Thanksgiving for the final Thursday in November, and it was celebrated on that day every year until 1939, when Franklin D. Roosevelt moved the up a week in an attempt to during the Great Depression.

Roosevelt’s plan, known derisively as Franksgiving, was met with passionate opposition, and in 1941 the president reluctantly signed a bill making Thanksgiving the fourth Thursday in November.

Traditions
In many American households the celebration has lost much of its original religious significance. Instead it now centers on cooking and sharing a bountiful meal with family and friends.

, a Thanksgiving staple so ubiquitous it has become all but synonymous with the holiday, might or might not have been on the Pilgrims' table, but today nearly 90 percent of Americans eat the bird on Thanksgiving, according to the National Turkey Federation.

Volunteering is also a common Thanksgiving Day activity, along with .

Parades have also become an integral part of the holiday in cities and towns across the United States. They include the Macy's Thanksgiving Parade.

Beginning in the mid-20th century and perhaps even earlier, the president of the United States has “pardoned” one or two Thanksgiving turkeys each year - this year President Obama pardoned two turkeys, named Liberty and Peace.

• How do you celebrate Thanksgiving? Weigh in the comments below, and be sure to share why you're grateful this Thanksgiving .

Controversies
For some scholars, the jury is still out on whether the feast at Plymouth really constituted the first Thanksgiving in the United States, and historians have recorded other ceremonies of thanks among European settlers in North America that predate the Pilgrims’ celebration.

In addition, some Native Americans and others take issue with how the Thanksgiving story is presented to the American public, and especially to schoolchildren.

Since 1970, protesters have gathered on the day designated as Thanksgiving at the top of Cole’s Hill, which overlooks Plymouth Rock, to commemorate a “National Day of Mourning.”

For more about Thanksgiving click here and here.

And be sure to check out our column for a look at celebrating the in Lindenhurst, plus a roundup of other pertinent information residents need to know this holiday season.