After the union victory at the Battle of Gettysburg, President Lincoln called for a national holiday to give thanks 242 years after the first pilgrim thanksgiving of 1621. The battle of Gettysburg in three days suffered nearly as many American causalities the United States lost after 12 years of fighting the Vietnam War.
The Thanksgiving of 1621 was the year after the English settlers had suffered a harsh first winter in the New World. After that horrific winter the native Americans taught the new settlers how to farm the native crops that were new to the Europeans: corn, potatoes, pumpkin, and of course turkey. In the fall of 1621 the Plymouth settlers had a bountiful harvest that insured they would survive the second winter in North America. To celebrate and to give thanks they invited the native Americans to a share with them a feast of their bountiful harvest.
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