Source: Wikipedia Thanksgiving Day is a harvest festival celebrated primarily in Canada and the United States. Traditionally, it is a time to give thanks for the harvest and express gratitude in general. While perhaps religious in origin, Thanksgiving is now primarily identified as a secular holiday. The date and location of the first Thanksgiving celebration is a topic of modest contention. The traditional “first Thanksgiving” is the celebration that occurred at the site of Plymouth Plantation, in 1621. The Plymouth celebration occurred early in the history of what would become one of the original thirteen colonies that became the United States. The celebration became an important part of the American myth by the 1800s. This Thanksgiving, modeled after celebrations that were commonplace in contemporary Europe, is generally regarded as America’s first. Elementary school teacher Robyn Gioia has argued that the earliest attested “thanksgiving” celebration in what is now the United States was celebrated by the Spanish on September 8, 1565 in what is now Saint Augustine, Florida. Today, Thanksgiving is celebrated on the second Monday of October in Canada and on the fourth Thursday of November in the United States. Thanksgiving dinner is held on this day, usually as a gathering of family members and friends. Here is a list of some of the best and most famous quotes related to Thanksgiving: “The Pilgrims made seven times more graves than huts. No Americans have been more impoverished than these who, nevertheless, set aside a day of thanksgiving.” -H.U. Westermayer “The unthankful heart… discovers no mercies; but let the thankful heart sweep through the day and, as the magnet finds the iron, so it will find, in every hour, some heavenly blessings!” -Henry Ward Beecher “Thanksgiving dinners take eighteen hours to prepare. They are consumed in twelve minutes. Half-times take twelve minutes. This is not coincidence.” -Erma Bombeck O Lord that lends me life, Lend me a heart replete with thankfulness. ~William Shakespeare Turkey: A large bird whose flesh, when eaten on certain religious anniversaries has the peculiar property of attesting piety and gratitude. ~Ambrose Bierce, The Devil’s Dictionary “Thanksgiving, after all, is a word of action.” – W.J. Cameron “If the only prayer you said in your whole life was, “thank you,” that would suffice.” -Meister Eckhart “For flowers that bloom about our feet; For tender grass, so fresh, so sweet; For song of bird, and hum of bee; For all things fair we hear or see, Father in heaven, we thank Thee!” -Ralph Waldo Emerson “If you want to turn your life around, try thankfulness. It will change your life mightily.” -Gerald Good “Praise God even when you don’t understand what He is doing.” -Henry Jacobsen “As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them.” -John Fitzgerald Kennedy “An optimist is a person who starts a new diet on Thanksgiving Day.” -Irv Kupcinet “Thanksgiving was never meant to be shut up in a single day.” -Robert Caspar Lintner “Thanksgiving Day comes, by statute, once a year; to the honest man it comes as frequently as the heart of gratitude will allow. ” -Edward Sandford Martin “Our rural ancestors, with little blest, Patient of labour when the end was rest, Indulged the day that housed their annual grain, With feasts, and off’rings, and a thankful strain.” -Alexander Pope “Thanksgiving Day is a jewel, to set in the hearts of honest men; but be careful that you do not take the day, and leave out the gratitude.” -E.P. Powell Have a great Thanksgiving!
