<Tr> <Th> Frequency </Th> <Td> Annual </Td> </Tr> <Tr> <Th> Related to </Th> <Td> Thanksgiving in Canada Thanksgiving in Norfolk Island Thanksgiving in Liberia Thanksgiving in Leiden, Netherlands Thanksgiving in Saint Lucia </Td> </Tr> <P> Thanksgiving, or Thanksgiving Day, is a national holiday celebrated on the fourth Thursday of November . It originated as a harvest festival . Thanksgiving has been celebrated nationally on and off since 1789, after Congress requested a proclamation by George Washington . It has been celebrated as a federal holiday every year since 1863, when, during the American Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln proclaimed a national day of "Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who in the Heavens," to be celebrated on the last Thursday in November . Together with Christmas and the New Year, Thanksgiving is a part of the broader fall / winter holiday season in the U.S. </P> <P> The event that Americans commonly call the "First Thanksgiving" was celebrated by the Pilgrims after their first harvest in the New World in October 1621 . This feast lasted three days, and--as accounted by attendee Edward Winslow--it was attended by 90 Native Americans and 53 Pilgrims . The New England colonists were accustomed to regularly celebrating "thanksgivings"--days of prayer thanking God for blessings such as military victory or the end of a drought . </P>

When did thanksgiving start as a national holiday