Our memorable Thanksgiving table in Costa Rica in 2009. More pics below...and taking more pics today... Got your own? Send them to us!
The first official proclamation of Thanksgiving was issued by the town council of Charlestown, Massachusetts in 1676, and set aside the twentieth of June of that year as "a day of Solemn Thanksgiving and praise to God for his Goodness and Favour" in the midst of the hardships of founding a home in the New World.
United States president Abraham Lincoln, following the precedent of a number of states, designated a national Thanksgiving Day in 1863.
More history on Thanksgiving: Wikipedia, The Writer's Almanac
Our Thanksgiving table in 2009 with friends in Costa Rica - a mix of local flora and ingredients we packed down from the Northeast.
Final setting up..
Guests start looking for their seat names...
During...
After....
Before & After: Emily Henderson Transforms a Senior's Studio Space
Monica & Austin's Charming Bungalow
Good Food to Share 
The Big Book of Small, Cool Spaces 
Apartment Therapy Presents 
The Eight-Step Home Cure 
White Enamel Four-P...
How to Make Easy 3-Ingredient Energy Bars at Home
True Greek Recipe: Paximadi Bread Salad with Tomatoes, Feta and Capers
Here's an interesting alternate version of Thanksgiving's origins:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/26/opinion/26davis.html?_r=1&th&emc=th
Happy American Thanksgiving!
According to NPR this morning, the Pilgrims landed at what is now Provincetown, not Plymouth Rock. ; )
Fascinating how the American myths of Thanksgiving are perpetuated (see: everything in the "fact" blurb). I was just reading Deconstructing the Myths of “The First Thanksgiving” and, as a Canadian, it astonished me how *detailed* the (really obviously) fake and self-serving myths are. I've only recently been made aware of the American grade school practice of "First Thanksgiving" pageants that are reenacted every year. Up here, no one takes seriously the American version of the "origin" of Thanksgiving. It's really weird to see that myth on AT!
astraldream, are you telling me it's a myth that Abraham Lincoln designated a national day of thanksgiving in 1863?
http://showcase.netins.net/web/creative/lincoln/speeches/thanks.htm
You can read Lincoln's Thanksgiving Proclamation at the link above- it's a VERY moving speech and well worth reading today. In our family, my mom always read it to everyone before dinner. :)
http://stuffwhitepeopledo.blogspot.com/2009/11/ignore-ugly-lies-and-brutality-buried.html
Here is another take on the origin of Thanksgiving as a holiday.
Not to be harshing anyone's buzz....Happy Thanksgiving to all my neighbours down south; we could all use a day to think about what we're grateful for. Or just gorge on turkey.
Oh, not the killjoys again... I wish they would just deconstruct themselves into nothingness.
My parents taught us early that the Thanksgiving myth (Pilgrims having a lovely, convivial meal with the Native Americans) was hogwash. For us, it's simply a day to gather as a family and be grateful for the opportunity.
Just hand over the cornbread stuffing, see, and no one gets hurt...
"The Pilgrims were a group of Puritans who landed at Plymouth Rock, in what is now Massachusetts."
WRONG!
What we call PILGRIMS were Separatists. They wanted to separate from the Church of England, something that endangered their lives back in the old country. The PURITANS first arrived 10 years later and founded the Massachusetts Bay Colony. They didn't want to leave the CofE, but "purify it" of it's corruption and greed.
In fact, the two colonies had very little dealings with each other in the early years, even though they were only a few miles apart.
Sorry to be such a fussbudget, but my ancestors were Puritans, so I’ve made something of a study of it.
A more interesting bit of trivia is Thanksgiving is a day of mourning for the Native Americans. And Squanto is the real hero of the day and he gets short shrift.
"Squanto is the real hero of the day"
Truth.
Pretty Kitty: I just read the NYT article you cited. Great article. And wars over religious differences continue today. We are a violent people and if we don't change, we will cease to exist and then it will be a Zoo (Thank you James Patterson!!!).