The first Thanksgiving took place in 1621 when the Pilgrims held a feast after their first successful harvest in Plymouth Colony. They invited the Wampanoag tribe chief Massasoit who brought game to the celebration. In 1623, Governor Bradford declared an official day of Thanksgiving for the harvest. Today Thanksgiving is celebrated annually on the fourth Thursday of November in the United States.

1. Thanksgiving

2. Thanksgiving
• The first Thanksgiving Day in America took place in the
Plymouth Colony in Massachusetts in the year 1621.
After many months of hard work in the fields, a small
group of hardy Pilgrims succeeded in reaping their first
harvest. Now they could face the cold winter months
knowing that there would be plenty of food for all.
• Their gratitude at having survived a year of hardship in
their new home was so great that the settlers decided
to set aside a special time for offering thanks for all
their blessings. As one of the men wrote to a friend he
had left in England, the small group wanted to "rejoice
together after we had gathered the fruits of our labor."

3. Thanksgiving

4. Thanksgiving
• The first American Thanksgiving feast over 375 years
ago was a lavish feast. The long tables were laden with
roast ducks and geese, smoked eel, shellfish, pies,
peas, salad greens and bread. The guests at the dinner
were the Indian chief Massasoit and 90 braves. Several
times during the year there had been conflicts with the
Indians, but peace had come at last. The guests
brought welcome gifts of game to the feast. There
were games and singing and the celebration lasted for
three days.
• Governor William Bradford of Massachusetts made the
first Thanksgiving Proclamation three years after the
Pilgrims settled at Plymouth.

5. Thanksgiving

6. Thanksgiving
• In as much as the great Father has given us this year an abundant
harvest of Indian corn, wheat, peas, beans, squashes, and garden
vegetables, and has made the forests to abound with game and the
sea with fish and clams, and in as much as he has protected us. . .
has spared us from pestilence and disease, has granted us freedom
to worship God according to the dictates of our own conscience.
• Now, I, your magistrate, do proclaim that all ye Pilgrims, with your
wives and ye little ones do gather at ye meeting house, on ye hill,
between the hours of nine and twelve in the daytime on Thursday,
November 29th of the year of our Lord one thousand six hundred
and twenty-three and the third year since ye Pilgrims landed on ye
Pilgrim Rock, there to listen to ye pastor and render thanksgiving to
ye Almighty God for all His blessings.

7. Thanksgiving

8. Thanksgiving
• The custom of giving thanks for the harvest
spread as the country grew. In 1789 President
George Washington proclaimed November 26 a
day of Thanksgiving. In 1863 President Abraham
Lincoln proclaimed one Thanksgiving Day for all
the American people--the last Thursday in
November. Today Thanksgiving Day is celebrated
in American on the fourth Thursday in November.
Let us not forget to thank our God Who gives us
richly all things to enjoy. And let us make every
day a thanksgiving day as we show our
thanksgiving in our thanks-living.

9. Thanksgiving
• Psalm 107:1
• O give thanks unto the LORD, for he is good:
for his mercy endureth for ever.
• (Psalm 100)
A Psalm of Praise
• Make a joyful noise unto the LORD, all ye lands.Serve the LORD with
gladness: come before his presence with singing.Know ye that the
LORD he is God: it is he that hath made us, and not we ourselves;
we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.Enter into his gates
with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise: be thankful unto
him, and bless his name.For the LORD is good; his mercy is
everlasting; and his truth endurethto all generations.

10. Thanksgiving
• Be "thinkful" and thus thankful!
Repeat After Me!
Thank you Jesus
Thank you Jesus
Thank you Jesus
Amen