Thanksgiving Day The American Thanksgiving Day celebration goes back to 1621. In that year, a special dinner was prepared in Plymouth, Massachusetts. The people who had settled there had left England because they were forbidden to keep their religious belief. They came to the new land and faced difficulties in sailing across the ocean. The ship which carried them was called 'the Mayflower'. The North Atlantic was hard to travel. There were bad storms and huge waves. With the help of the Indians, they learned to live in the new land. These Puritans, as they were called, had much to be thankful for. They could enjoy religious freedom. They learned how to grow their crops in accordance with the climate and soil. Now when they selected the fourth Thursday of November for their Thanksgiving celebration, they invited their neighbors, the Indians, to join them in dinner. They also wanted to pray God for the new life. They recalled the group of 102 men, women and children who left England. They remembered those who did not live those the shores of Massachusetts. They thought of the 65 day's journey which tested their strength. The first celebration of a day of Thanksgiving is approximately about______.