Archive: Nov 2018

Happy Thanksgiving from the Tour Guides of Key Culinary Tours and Sarasota Suncoast Tours! Our Tour Guides share some of their Thanksgiving favorites: “I love Thanksgiving because all my favorite people are around the table with glorious food and lots of laughs.” – Susan “Thanksgiving is a time when my family and friends gather around the traditional dinner taste and give thanks for all our blessings we are thankful for throughout the year. After dinner we all began preparing to decorate for the holidays.” – Pamela “I try to have an attitude of gratitude every day. Love this holiday. Grateful for my health and family and friends.” – Denice Memory – “Traveling a mile to my Aunt’s house through a snowstorm by tractor-flatbed. Adventure! Illinois Farm County.” Tradition – “Have a turkey basket and everyone writes what they are thankful…

American Thanksgiving originated in 1621 in Plymouth, Massachusetts as a harvest festival for thanks and prayers and was attended by pilgrims and Native Americans. George Washington proclaimed Thanksgiving as a National holiday in 1789, but was celebrated on and off for many years. President Abraham Lincoln made Thanksgiving a Federal holiday in 1863. Over the years the day to celebrate sparked great controversy by presidents and the House of Representatives and between states on which day to observe Thanksgiving—the last Thursday of the month or the fourth Thursday of the month. While President Franklin D. Roosevelt at first declared that the last Thursday of the month would be a Federal holiday for Thanksgiving, he later changed the day to the fourth Thursday of November and signed a bill on December 26, 1941 to confirm the day. Some fun facts about…