Ten Most Popular Quotes About Thanksgiving

While Thanksgiving services and festivals were held as early as the 1600's, it was 1789 when President George Washington issued a proclamation and America celebrated its first Day of Thanksgiving to God. Despite the early proclamation, official Thanksgiving observances occurred only at the State level. Then, in 1863, after 30 years of persistence by Mrs. Sarah Joseph Hale (1788-1879), editor of Godey's Lady's Book and writer of Mary Had a Little Lamb, to institute a national Thanksgiving Day, President Abraham Lincoln responded by setting aside the last Thursday of November as a national Day of Thanksgiving.

In 1941, Congress permanently established the fourth Thursday of each November as a national holiday in the U.S. While Americans remember the Pilgrims who settled in the New World, Canadians give thanks for a successful harvest. Canada celebrates their Thanksgiving on the second Monday in October.