Thanksgiving Dinner

For most Americans, the Thanksgiving dinner usually includes seasonal dishes such as stuffed roasted turkey and side dishes such as mashed potatoes, a rich cranberry sauce, and pumpkin pie, among others. This celebratory meal dates back to November 1621, when the Pilgrims and the Native Wampanoag Indians got together at Plymouth for an autumn harvest celebration, now considered America's first Thanksgiving.

The first feast contained turkey (debatable), venison, fish, clams, berries, lobster, pumpkin, waterfowl, and squash, and many of the foods remained a staple of modern Thanksgiving dinners. Turkey is so synonymous with the holiday that the day is sometimes colloquially called Turkey Day.

Today, the dinner centers on cooking and sharing a plentiful meal with close family and friends, and it is so popular that there are annual Thanksgiving parades throughout the United States, the largest and most famous of them being Macy's parade in New York City, featuring marching bands, floats, and performers, and attracting about two to three million spectators to the streets.