Thanksgiving Day
in the United States, an annual festival of thanksgiving for the mercies of the closing year. Practically it is a National harvest festival, fixed by proclamation of the President and the governors of States, and ranks as a legal holiday. In 1789 the Episcopal church formally recognized the civil government's authority to appoint such a feast, and in 1888 the Roman Catholic church also decided to honor a festival which had long been nearly universally observed though nowhere with such zest as in the New England States, where it ranks as the great annual family festival, taking the place which in England is accorded to Christmas. The earliest harvest thanksgiving in America was kept by the Pilgrim Fathers at Plymouth in 1621, and was repeated often during that and the ensuing century; Congress recommended days of thanksgiving annually during the Revolution, and in 1784 for the return of peace-as did President Madison in 1815. Washington appointed such a day in 1789 after the adoption of the Constitution, and in 1795 for the general benefits and welfare of the nation. Since 1817 the festival has been observed annually in New York, and since 1863 the Presidents have always issued proclamations appointing the last Thursday in November as Thanksgiving Day.
THANN (tän), a town of Upper Alsace, Germany; on the Thur river; 23 miles S. W. of Kolmar. It dates back to 995 and in 1325 became the property of the House of Hapsburg. In 1632 it was captured by the Swedes (during the Thirty Years' War) and in 1675 the French under Turenne blew up the castle of Engelburg, the ruins of which overlook the town. Thann has manufactures of silk, cotton, chemicals, and machinery, and contains the beautiful church of St.
Theobald (Roman Catholic) with a spire of delicate openwork 325 feet high.