Happy Thanksgiving From LGR

11/26/09-by Bridgette P. LaVictoire
Just over four centuries ago, my ancestors held a thanksgiving feast in what is today Quebec. While this feast does not correspond to the festival held in the United States, it is an important note to remember. In all cultures and all societies, there has always been a festival to mark the end of the growing season and the beginning of the hunting season, and to mark the end of a long and often treacherous journey, such as those of the French settlers who came to Quebec with Samuel de Champlain.

Feasts and masses of thanksgiving were scattered across the calendar for whenever an even that required thanks be given occurred. The first thanksgiving celebration was held in Virginia in 1619 on a small farmstead known as Berkeley Hundred. However, it was in 1863 that the first national thanksgiving was announced in the United States by Abraham Lincoln. He set the date as being the last Thursday of November. In 1939, Franklin Roosevelt tried to make Thanksgiving the third Thursday in November, but in 1941, Congress set the date officially to be the fourth Thursday in November, which was occasionally the next to the last Thursday in November.

Every year, friends and family gather across the nation to celebrate Thanksgiving and some of us watch the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. Even for those of us who have no family and few friends, it is a day to remember what we are grateful for.

To all of our readers, may you have a happy Thanksgiving.