Thanksgiving: An American Tradition
 American history tells us that the first Thanksgiving feast was held by the Pilgrims of Plymouth Colony in 1621 to celebrate the first bountiful harvest in America.
More than 200 hundred years later, the tradition had spread throughout the new territory, but was celebrated by individual states in a nation that had since been torn apart by the very war and politics that had once united its people.
But our nation's tradition of "counting our blessings" persisted, though it was not made a national Holiday until October of 1863 when, even amid the suffering of the Civil War (or perhaps because of it), President Abraham Lincoln proclaimed that our nation would give thanks as one, for such things as "the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies. . . Bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the source from which they come."
Sarah Josepha Hale—a 74-year-old magazine editor fueled the proclamation by writing a letter to President Lincoln, imploring him to recognize the significance of the day to the nation as a whole.
"You may have observed that, for some years past, there has been an increasing interest felt in our land to have the Thanksgiving held on the same day, in all the States," she wrote. "It now needs National recognition and authoritive fixation, only, to become permanently, an American custom and institution."
Today, almost 400 years have come and gone since that original Thanksgiving-and what an institution it has become. Here are some facts about the incredible bounty which is still provided by our fruitful fields, our healthful skies, and the hard working farm families that cultivate the land each year.
- 248 million: The number of turkeys expected to be raised in the United States in 2011. That's up 2 percent from the number raised during 2010. The turkeys produced in 2010 together weighed 7.11 billion pounds and were valued at $4.37 billion. Source: USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service
- 750 million pounds: The forecast for U.S. cranberry production in 2011. Wisconsin is expected to lead all states in the production of cranberries, with 430 million pounds, followed by Massachusetts (210 million). New Jersey, Oregon and Washington are also expected to have substantial production, ranging from 17 million to 54 million pounds. Source: USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service
- 2.01 billion bushels: The total volume of wheat - the essential ingredient of bread, rolls and piecrust - produced in the United States in 2011. Kansas, Montana and North Dakota accounted for about 33 percent of the nation's wheat production. Source: USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service
- 2.4 billion pounds: The total weight of sweet potatoes produced by major sweet potato producing states in2010. North Carolina (972 million pounds) produced more sweet potatoes than any other state. Source: USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service
- 1.1 billion pounds: Total production of pumpkins in the major pumpkin-producing states in 2010. Illinois led the country by producing 427 million pounds of the vined orange gourd. Pumpkin patches in California, New York and Ohio also provided lots of pumpkins: Each state produced at least 100 million pounds. The value of all pumpkins produced by major pumpkin-producing states was $117 million. Source: USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service
- 13.3 pounds: The quantity of turkey consumed by the typical American in 2009, with no doubt a hearty helping devoured at Thanksgiving time. Per capita sweet potato consumption was 5.3 pounds. Source: U.S. Department of Agriculture as cited in the Statistical Abstract of the United States.
- $1.38: Retail cost per pound of a frozen whole turkey in December 2010. Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics as cited in the Statistical Abstract of the United States: 2012
By the President of the United States of America: A Proclamation
Washington, DC, October 3, 1863
 The year that is drawing towards its close, has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies. To these bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the source fromwhich they come, others have been added, which are of so extraordinary a nature, that they cannot fail to penetrate and soften even the heart which is habitually insensible to the ever watchful providence of Almighty God.
In the midst of a civil war of unequaled magnitude and severity, which has sometimes seemed to foreign States to invite and to provoke their aggression, peace has been preserved with all nations, order has beenmaintained, the laws have been respected and obeyed, and harmony has prevailed everywhere except in the theatre of military conflict; while that theatre has been greatly contracted by the advancing armies and navies of the Union.
Needful diversions of wealth and of strength from the fields of peaceful industry to the national defence, have not arrested the plough, the shuttle or the ship; the axe has enlarged the borders of our settlements, and the mines, as well of iron and coal as of the precious metals, have yieldedeven more abundantly than heretofore. Population has steadily increased, notwithstanding the waste that has been made in the camp, the siege and thebattle-field; and the country, rejoicing in the consiousness of augmented strength and vigor, is permitted to expect continuance of years with large increase of freedom.
No human counsel hath devised nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the Most HighGod, who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy. It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently and gratefully acknowledged as with one heart and one voice by the whole American People. I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next, as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens.
And I recommend to them that while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliverances and blessings,they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to His tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty Hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to restore it as soon as may be consistent with the Divine purposes to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquillity and Union.
  
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