Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving!  Thanksgiving is one of America’s oldest holidays, first celebrated 230 years ago.  The first Continental Congress issued a proclamation of national thanksgiving in 1777.  As Americans pause today to visit families, eat large amounts of food, and prepare for their holiday shopping, here are a few facts about Thanksgiving to impress your distant relatives with.

• President George Washington issued two proclamations of Thanksgiving during his term in office, and six total were made between 1789 and 1815.  Thanksgiving was not celebrated after 1815 until 1863, when President Abraham Lincoln revived the practice.

• Lincoln’s proclamation urged Americans to “fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty Hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to restore it as soon as may be consistent with the Divine purposes to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquillity and Union.”
• Every president since Lincoln has issued a national proclamation of Thanksgiving during each year of his term.
• Thanksgiving was originally celebrated on the last Thursday in November.  It was moved to the penultimate Thursday in November in 1939 by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, in order to lengthen the holiday shopping season, benefit retailers, and boost the economy.
• 23 states went along with Roosevelt, but 22 states kept Thanksgiving on the last day of the month.  Texas took off both Thursdays.  Congress decided the matter for good in 1941, setting the holiday on the fourth Thursday of November, which is usually the last Thursday of the month but sometimes, as this year, is the second-to-last.
• The American Thanksgiving myth of the dinner between the Pilgrims and the W