Tag Archives: US history

Kirsten Johnson

Happy Thanksgiving!

By Kirsten Johnson | Thu 22nd November 2018 - 9:33 am

Plymouth Rock

This is a revised version of last year’s post…

The North American holiday of Thanksgiving was born of tragedy. The Mayflower, filled with settlers from England, docked in Plymouth, Massachusetts in December 1620. Of the 102 passengers and around 30 crew on board, only five women of eighteen survived the winter, and around half the men and crew.

The following spring, the Wampanoag, a native people, taught the incomers which crops were endemic to the New World, and how to fertilise their crops with fish. This act of good will let to a plentiful harvest, and gave the Pilgrims hope that they might survive the next winter.

American Thanksgiving was set as the fourth Thursday in November by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1941 when he signed a joint resolution of Congress changing the national Thanksgiving Day from the last Thursday in November to the fourth Thursday. Canadians celebrate Thanksgiving on the second Monday in October.

Continue reading »
Posted in LDVUSA and Op-eds | Also tagged and | 5 Comments
Advert

Recent Comments

  • Tony Vickers
    Not higher taxes but different taxes. We said in our 2015 manifesto we'd look at how (not whether) to introduce a Land Value Tax within a single Parliament. Co...
  • Peter Martin
    @ Daniel, You could have a point. Do you mean the government of the Federal Republic Of Germany? They certainly adopted the position of speaking for the ...
  • Steve Comer
    I agree with your sentiments Jack, but does the Party in Wales and it's MS? What little coverage of the Lib Dem campaign in Wales that I heard on news media ...
  • Daniel Walker
    @Peter Martin "Incidentally, the above point about the duty of a national government to adopt policies to ensure a measure of fiscal equalisation in a single...
  • Pawel Urbanski
    Where I grew up in Poland, school lessons finished at 3, but there was optional supervised care until 5 or 6, often just run in the library, for the parents who...