MY ENGLISH SECTION

The feast is closely related to the events of the first English settlement in the New World. In 1620 a group of Christian settlers, who later would be known as pilgrims traveled to America aboard the Mayflower ship. Disembarked in November, in the late autumn, on the coast of Massachusetts (on the east coast of the United States) to fulfill its purpose in establishing the Plymouth Colony. The harsh winter in these latitudes took them by surprise, without taking time to prepare for harsh conditions of deprivation and cold. Of the hundred pilgrims did not survive half of them. Those who did so, they had to fend for aid and food that natives of the area, the Wampanoag Indians, they provided.

In the fall of 1621, already in place and with the first crop harvested, the survivors decided to share their results with the Indians who helped them when they had no resources. The governor of the colony proclaimed "a day of thanksgiving to the Lord for us in a more special rejoice after having collected the fruit of our work."

This peaceful coexistence with the natives last few years, as the massive influx of European settlers and the occupation of the territories of growing indigenous people out of their ongoing. The result of such confrontamientos was the almost total extermination of the Wampanoag Indians. After the so-called King Philip's War in 1675, only survived 400.

Although the tradition dates from 1621 and has been held in one way or another since then, the celebration as an official holiday is more recent. In 1789, the first president of the United States, George Washington proclaimed the date as a national day of Thanksgiving. In 1863, Abraham Lincoln declared that the celebration should take place as a national holiday in the United States. However, it was not until 1941 that Congress set the date as a federal holiday.