Do you know the real meaning of Thanksgiving?

[Mackenzie]

Actuall, the Pilgrims are not the reason we have Thanksgiving.

They did not have the 1st Thanksgiving, not even on this continent.

The REAL reason we celebrate Thanksgiving is because in the 1800s, Sarah Hale, magazine editor, went on a 40 year letter writing campaign to establish it as a holiday... she felt the Industrial Revolutio was eroding American values and we needed a celebration focused on hearth & home.

Lincoln gave it to her in the 1860s... and Congress finally passed it in the 1930s.

And the history books latched onto a romanticized story about Pilgrims and THEIR first Thanksgiving, and somehow that was mistaken as THE first Thanksgiving.

They only had one dinner... and there wasn't another one for over 120 years. And it was over 200 years before it became a holiday.

Or if you really want to go back further than that, the roots of the holiday is in harvest festivals.