Millions of Americans are
celebrating the annual Thanksgiving Day holiday Thursday with a traditional
feast with friends and family.
Thanksgiving, which is held in the United
States on the fourth Thursday of November, is one of the biggest travel holidays
of the year. The day is centered on a meal usually including turkey or ham,
potatoes or squash, stuffing, cranberry dressing, and pumpkin
pie.
President George Bush is spending the holiday at the Camp David
presidential retreat outside of Washington, while his successor, President-elect
Barack Obama is in Chicago.
Even the
astronausts and a cosmonaut aboard the International Space Station are marking
the day. The U.S. space agency NASA says the crew of the orbiting outpost are
dining today on a special freeze-dried meal of traditional foods.
In
addition to the feast, many Americans spend the day watching nationally
televised events such as New York City's annual Thanksgiving Day Parade,
sponsored by Macy's department store, a national dog show, and football
games.
Friday after Thanksgiving is seen as the official start to the
holiday-shopping season, with many stores offering big discounts and opening in
the pre-dawn hours for the rush of shoppers.
The United States has
officially observed Thanksgiving since 1863, although the first Thanksgiving is
believed to have taken place in 1621.
That year, British colonists at the
Plymouth settlement in what is now the northeastern U.S. state of Massachusetts
held a feast with a Native American tribe the Wampanaog, who taught the
colonists how to grow food and hunt for game in their new home.
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