Origin of Thanksgiving
The story of Thanksgiving is basically the story of the Pilgrims（清教徒）who set sail from Plymouth, England on a ship called the Mayflower on September 6, 1620. The Mayflower was a small ship crowded with men, women and children, besides the sailors on board.
Although Pilgrims had first sighted the land off Cape Cod（科德角）,Massachusetts, they did not settle until they arrived at a place called Plymouth. Captain John Smith had already settled there for over five years. And the Pilgrims finally decided to settle there. Plymouth offered an excellent harbor and plenty of resources. The local Indians were also non-hostile.
But their happiness was short. Ill-equipped to face the winter on this estranged（遥远的）place they were ravaged （毁坏）thoroughly. Somehow they were saved by a group of local Native Americans who befriended（亲近）them and helped them with food. Soon the natives taught the settlers the technique to cultivate coms and grow native vegetables, and store them for hard days. By the next winter they had raised enough crops to keep them alive. The winter came and passed by without much harm. The settlers knew they had beaten the odds and it was time to celebrate.
They celebrated it with a grand community feast where the friendly native Americans were also invited. It was kind of a harvest feast, which the Pilgrims used to have in England. However, the third year was real bad when the coms got damaged. Pilgrim Governor William Bradford ordered a day of fasting and prayer, and rain happened to follow soon. To celebrate that day, November 29th of that year was proclaimed a day of thanksgiving.
Though the Thanksgiving Day is presently celebrated on the fourth Thursday of every November, this date was set by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1939. Earlier it was the last Thursday in November. But sometimes the last Thursday would turn out to be the fifth Thursday of the month. This falls too close to the Christmas, leaving the businesses even less than a month's time to cope up with the two big festivals. Hence the change is.
8.The grand community feast was much like a harvest feast in England.