By: Nathan Tolson

Thanksgiving or Thanksgiving Day is a holiday in the United States always celebrated on the fourth Thursday of November.

In 1620, more than a hundred colonists left Plymouth, England, looking for a place where they could practice religion freely and obtain great wealth. After sixty-six days of arduous sailing, the colonists landed on the coast of Cape Cod in what is now Massachusetts. The colonists, now known as Pilgrims, soon came to Plymouth Harbor where they would found the first permanent settlement made by Europeans.

More than a year later, the colonists would have one of the first Thanksgivings with the Wampanoag Native Americans, a tribe home to the southeastern regions of Massachusetts and Rhode Island, where they would share a fall harvest banquet. This event was the beginning of the nearly 400th anniversary celebration that is now Thanksgiving.