A Brief History of Thanksgiving

While prayers of thanks for a successful harvest have occurred in various civilizations for hundreds, maybe thousands of years, the English tradition became formalized in the Reformation during the reign of Henry VIII in 1536.

In the New World, though poorly documented, Thanksgiving was first celebrated by the Puritans in 1621. As President, George Washington declared a national Thanksgiving holiday in the U.S. on November 26, 1789. This year, 2014, the U.S. Thanksgiving Holiday will be on Nov. 27th.

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone