This holiday marks an important event of American history as the first few colonies developed on the newly founded continent. It was a hard winter when the pilgrims had landed, and the land was unfamiliar them, thus making food harder for them to produce agriculturally.

The Wampanoag Indians had comet their rescue by inviting the pilgrims to their grand autumn harvest on Plymouth Rock, ultimately becoming America’s first Thanksgiving. However, this is only the part of the story.

According to the History Channel, this feast was practiced throughout the other colonies as a celebration of their establishment.

Thanksgiving didn’t become an official holiday, until our first president George Washington, sent out a proclamation to have Thanksgiving once or twice a year in honor of our independence and the victory of the American Revolution, according to the History a Channel.

The south, however, remained foreign the idea of Thanksgiving and the states held the feast on different days. It wasn’t until 1861 President Abraham Lincoln established Thanksgiving as a National Holiday and to be celebrated the llast Thursday of November.

The motives behind the celebration of Thanksgiving overall is expressing gratitude, each time period had its own meaning, for the pilgrims at Plymouth Rock it was geared towards the help of their Indian neighbors, for President Washington he wanted it to be celebrated in rejoice of the nation’s victory and independence of the American revolution as mentioned on the History Channel.

Furthermore according to the allabouthistory website the ultimate meaning of Thanksgiving focuses on meaningful relationships.