What gives with Thanksgiving?

[Amy Z]

Barb wrote:

> The Puritans thought it was a miracle that they made it through 
1620-
> 1621 (they were probably right), and were especially grateful for 
> this, so this has been the emphasis of the U.S. version for some 
> time. 

That's the basic idea as I always learned it (ad nauseam, as Barb 
said--how many times did we make turkeys out of our hands traced onto 
construction paper?).  I.e. it's about gratitude for the founding of 
the country; yet another European experiment in moving to the New 
World nearly fizzled, but didn't.  (This is why Native Americans are 
just a tad ambivalent about it.)  Most of the Puritan immigrants died 
that winter, but a few survived, enough to keep the colony going.  
The original feast would have been in spring, not fall.

Although there are usually references to the Puritans, Thanksgiving 
has become a general holiday of gratitude, and as far as I'm 
concerned we can't have enough of those.

Amy Z