For thanksgiving (lowercase t) as a religious or theological idea, see gratitude.

Thanksgiving, or Thanksgiving Day, is an annual holiday observed in the United States and Canada to celebrate being thankful for the things one has. In the U.S., the holiday is celebrated on the fourth Thursday in November, and is the second most important holiday after Christmas. In Canada, Thanksgiving is celebrated on the second Monday in October.

Origins of Thanksgiving

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Following a nineteenth century tradition, most Americans believe that the first American Thanksgiving was a feast that took place on an unremembered date, sometime in the autumn of 1621, at Plymouth Plantation, Massachusetts. In 1620, a group led by separatists from the Church of England, who were heading for Virginia, instead landed at modern-day Plymouth, Massachusetts, for uncertain reasons. In the autumn of 1621, they celebrated a three-day harvest feast with the native Wampanoag people, without whom they would not have survived the winter of 1620. This event was not viewed as a thanksgiving celebration at the time; the colony would not have a Thanksgiving observance until 1623 — and that was a religious observance rather than a feast.

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