Thanks Giving Post

The story of the first thanksgiving when the pilgrims invited local native Americans to share a meal with them but I bet you didn't know Thanksgiving didn't become an annual tradition until 200 years later.The first Thanksgiving in 1621 wasn't just a big meal it was a three day festival filled with eating hunting and other entertainment in honor of the pilgrims first successful harvest.The Indians killed 5 deer as gifts for the colonists so Venison was definitely on the the first thanksgiving menu.I bet you didn't know that turkey not,they also didn't have pumpkin pie or potatoes which hadn't been introduced to England yet.While they may have eaten cranberries they would have been served plain not in a sauce or relish.The pilgrims didn't plan on having a thanks giving tradition in fact they didn't repeat the November celebration in many years.In 1789 president George Washington announced the first ever national Thanksgiving holiday which took place on Thursday November 26th 1789 but it didn't become an annual tradition nation wide until the 19th century.Thats when an American writer named Sara Josepha Hale.Most famous for writing the nursery rhyme Mary had a little lamb was inspired by Diary of a pilgrim life to recreate that first Thanksgiving feast.Beginning in 1827 Hale waged a nearly 30 year campaign to make Thanksgiving a national holiday,she also published recipes for pumpkin pie turkey and stuffing that probably didn't appear on the pilgrims plates.but would become the staples of modern Thanksgiving meals.In 1863 in the mist of the civil war president Aberham Lincoln announced that the nation would celebrate Thanksgiving every year on the final Thursday in November.Did you know in 1939 president Franklin D Roosevelt decided to move Thanksgiving up a week to give depressing error realtors more time to make money during the pre Christmas shopping season but that never happened and the Holiday will stay on Thursday November 26th 1789.