I think this is one holiday that everybody can celebrate without controversy.
Families gather together and eat their dinners and share a small part of their lives in conversation.
Psalms 106:1 Praise ye the LORD. O give thanks unto the LORD; for he is good: for his mercy endureth for ever.
1 Thessalonians 5:8 In everything give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.
The first Thanksgiving was in November 1621, after the Pilgrims first corn harvest proved successful. The pilgrims organized a feast and invited a group of the colony’s Native American, this first thanksgiving lasted for three days.
While no record exists of the exact menu, a Pilgrim wrote in his journal that four men went on a fowling mission for the event and that the Native Americans arrived bearing five deer.
Historians have suggested that many of the dishes were likely prepared using Native American spices and cooking methods. Because the Pilgrims had no oven and the Mayflower’s sugar supply had dwindled by the fall of 1621, the meal did not feature pies, cakes or other desserts.
In 1817, New York was the first of several states to have a Thanksgiving holiday; In 1827, a campaign was started to establish Thanksgiving as a national holiday.
Abraham Lincoln asked all Americans to ask God to commend to his care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners or sufferers in the civil strife and to heal the wounds of the nation.
He scheduled Thanksgiving for the final Thursday in November, and it was celebrated on that day every year until 1939 when Franklin Roosevelt moved the holiday up a week in an attempt to make retail sales go up during the Great Depression.
In 1941 Roosevelt signed a bill making Thanksgiving the fourth Thursday in November.