Thanksgiving is a holiday in the United States and Canada: it is closely related to European harvest festivals. The first Thanksgiving was held in 1621. After a good harvest, the Pilgrim Fathers, who had travelled to America aboard the Mayflower, organised a great feast. They also invited their Indian friends, who had helped the Pilgrims through their first year in the New World. After that first Thanksgiving, the holiday was not observed regularly and not usually in autumn. In 1863, however, President Abraham Lincoln proclaimed an annual Thanksgiving Day to be celebrated on the last Thursday of November. In 1939, President Roosevelt changed the date to the penultimate Thursday of November to enlarge the Christmas shopping period, which starts after the Thanksgiving celebrations. Not all states followed Roosevelt’s declara
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