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November
22, 2007:
Thanksgiving Facts 2007
Interview
with Lee Hendler, Founder of Freedom's Feast
www.freedomsfeast.us
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Mike
Carruthers:
You think you know the story of Thanksgiving but some facts you
may have missed.
Lee Hendler:
The first Thanksgiving feast, as it were, was, we think a harvest
meal shared by the Plymouth pilgrims and the Wampanoag Indian
tribe in 1621.
Lee Hendler,
Founder of Freedoms Feast, which I'll tell you about in just
a minute.
Then, the first
national Thanksgiving Day was on November 26th 1789 and it was
designated by President George Washington as a way to give thanks
for the establishment of a formal government. And to give thanks
actually for the Constitution - which is something that people
don't know or realize at all.
But Thanksgiving
still didn't become a national holiday until October 3rd 1863.
In the middle
of the Civil War, President Lincoln hoped that it would heal
the wounds of our nation; and again be a time for Americans
to renew our pledge to the Constitution and our common purpose.
Interestingly
President Lincoln declared Thanksgiving a national holiday after
a forty year lobbying effort by Sarah Josepha Hale.
Who was the editor
of the Ladies Home Journal? She was the one who proposed that
turkey and cranberries and potatoes be the main staple of that
celebratory meal.
Lee's organization,
Freedoms Feast, is all about getting people involved in the
true meaning of Thanksgiving. If you'd like to learn more visit
her website which
you can link to from ours: somethingyoushouldknow.net
- I'm Mike Carruthers and that's Something You Should Know.
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