Thanksgiving (or Thanksgiving Day) is a holiday that is celebrated both in Canada and in the U.S.A. It has been a holiday in many places in Canada since 1957 and in all of the American states since 1863. In Canada it is celebrated on the second Monday in October, while in the U.S. it is celebrated on the fourth Thursday in November. No one is sure exactly when the first Thanksgiving was celebrated, but many Americans think it was in 1621 – in a small town called Plymouth. It was
celebrated by a small group of people from England called ‘Pilgrims’. It was celebrated because one of the Native American people (people who first lived in North America) taught them how to catch fish and how to grow corn. This man’s name was Squanto. The Pilgrims were very thankful for this help. Without it, many more Pilgrims might have died from hunger. The first Thanksgiving celebration lasted for three days and it included fifty English men, women and children and about ninety Native Americans. Afterwards, Thanksgiving became more and more popular in the United States until it finally became a national holiday. In both Canada and the U.S., turkey is the main part of the traditional Thanksgiving meal. Other foods commonly eaten include stuffing and mashed potatoes with gravy, cranberry sauce and pumpkin pie. According to Wikipedia, “Americans eat more food on Thanksgiving than on any other day of the year.” Along with Christmas and New Year’s Day, Thanksgiving is one of the three major holiday celebrations of the year. According to usnews.com, 46.3 million Americans will travel fifty miles or more to be with friends and family to eat Thanksgiving dinner. Happy Thanksgiving! What are you thankful for? 
Hey Lynn thank you for this detailed information! Here in North Mexico we also celebrate Thanksgiving as we adopted a lot of the north american traditions here in the border region.
I am thankful for my family and for being healthy and for being able to work while being close to my kids.
Very interesting…you do have a lot to be thankful for. Wonderful!
Great post, @LynnChat! I’m very thankful I could travel to see family in Buenos Aires again after a long time of travel restrictions.
What are you thankful for … and if you’ll have a Thanksgiving dinner, what will you eat, Lynn? 
Hi! I’m also thankful that I can travel to see my family for Thanksgiving in the US, for my kids, my health and for a flexible and safe job during a pandemic. I will cook Thanksgiving dinner for my parents and we will have the traditional trimmings…turkey, stuffing, gravy, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, cream corn, cranberry sauce and green beans…probably won’t have to eat for a week after that! 
Thank you for this information. Very interesting. 
Growing up in South Africa, I always heard about Thanksgiving, but never knew what it was really about. I have experienced a Thanksgiving meal at a hotel (in Dubai), but I don’t think it was quite as authentic as in the States. 
You will have to visit the US sometime for the real thing! 
The spirit of Thanksgiving is definitely a great one. However, there is a lot of controversy surrounding the tradition. After the pilgrims took over the United States, many natives were killed. Thanksgiving has now been under reconsideration (like the celebration of Columbus Day) to remember the Native Americans that died and bring awareness to the history of Thanksgiving. The month of November has also been proclaimed National Native American Heritage Month.
It would be an interesting discussion to talk about other traditions that are controversial or no longer practiced in different countries… 
Thanks for bringing this up @JoAnn , as I think it is really important part of history that a lot of people still don’t know about. As a US-American I have been questioning the celebration of Thanksgiving over the past few years myself, and I think changing the focus of the holiday is a great start to recognizing what actually happened during those times.
I would also be curious to see what other holidays or traditions in other cultures have changed over the years.
Thank you for the reminder @JoAnn. We should definitely learn from our past and do better and take time everyday and not just on Thanksgiving to focus on being thankful for our many blessings and what people have sacrificed.