Giving Thanks

Thanksgiving has been celebrated in America from the earliest days, but it became an official national holiday in 1863 in the midst of the Civil War. President Abraham Lincoln proclaimed the day, finally responding to a forty-year campaign for a national, annual holiday that was led by Sarah Josepha Hale, editor of Godey's Lady's Book and author of “Mary had a Little Lamb.” It became tradition for each subsequent president to issue an annual proclamation naming the last Thursday in Novemb