On the fourth Thursday in November, Americans celebrate a Thanksgiving tradition, that originated with the Pilgrims. As early as 1621, the puritan colonists of Plymouth, Massachusetts set aside a day of thanks for a bountiful harvest. Throughout the colonial period and into the nineteenth century, official days of feasting and fasting commemorated periods of good and poor fortune. Although early Thanksgiving days were spontaneous celebrations, by the mid-nineteenth century an annual fall Thanksgiving meal was customary throughout much of the nation. On October 3, 1863, in the wake of victory at Gettysburg, President Abraham Lincoln decided to issue a Thanksgiving Proclamation that declared the last Thursday in November national Thanksgiving Day. It was in 1941 that Congress fixed the Thanksgiving holiday as the fourth Thursday in November.
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