Thanksgiving is special for our family because like so many families our adult children live around the country.

VOA: special.2009.11.23

I'm from Livingston,Tennessee. Thanksgiving at my family was always a time when brothers and sisters, aunts and uncles,cousins, we all got together.

VOA: special.2009.11.23

I remember my father drove a bus and my mother was a waitress, and so we often didn't get to have Thanksgiving together.

VOA: special.2009.11.23

This week on our program, we ask some people to share their favorite memories of Thanksgiving Day.

VOA: special.2009.11.23

Sarah Josepha Hale was a magazine editor and writer who campaigned for a Thanksgiving holiday.

VOA: special.2009.11.23

Those who survived the first difficult years held harvest festivals and religious celebrations of thanksgiving.

VOA: special.2009.11.23

Many families also bring out their finest table settings the "good china" for Thanksgiving.

VOA: special.2009.11.23

"Oh,I think a recent Thanksgiving when my son and I had a turkey cook-off.

VOA: special.2009.11.23

Jaetyn Wang wants to know if Americans eat turkey at times other than Thanksgiving.

VOA: special.2010.05.28

"Worst. The worst was also the funnest, 'cause I got up early Thanksgiving day and we went to the Burwick Marathon, but it's a nine-mile road race.

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And Thanksgiving also, in my early days when I was a child, the kids would all get to play, maybe we hadn't seen each other for a while.

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And we usually get at least part of them together for Thanksgiving."

VOA: special.2009.11.23

George Washington issued the first presidential Thanksgiving proclamation in seventeen eighty-nine.

VOA: special.2009.11.23

It established,by law, the fourth Thursday in November as Thanksgiving Day.

VOA: special.2009.11.23

"Can you think of one of your most fond Thanksgiving memories?"

VOA: special.2009.11.23

"And what is one of your fondest Thanksgiving Day memories?"

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Presidents have issued Thanksgiving proclamations every year since eighteen sixty-three.

VOA: special.2009.11.23

But there are no official "rules" for a Thanksgiving meal.

VOA: special.2009.11.23

The whole concept of Thanksgiving was a little bit bizarre.

VOA: special.2009.11.23

In France, the main celebration is Christmas, not Thanksgiving."

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Traditionally the meat served on Thanksgiving is turkey.

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And Thanksgiving was just a really,really special time.

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"What about your worst Thanksgiving memory?"

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Someone would bring the meat. Someone would bring the dressing. And we would all sort of combine the efforts to have a family Thanksgiving dinner and bring out the good china for that particular event.

VOA: special.2009.11.23

And once again, its about the journey. Its about locality. So we want people to pinpoint where they are now and to tell a story related to their own immigrant experience. One woman in Indianapolis,Indiana wrote about feeling very un-American while celebrating the Thanksgiving holiday with her parents.

VOA: special.2010.03.03

It began with this news: READER: "The Christianized Indians in some parts of Plimouth, have newly appointed a day of Thanksgiving to God for his Mercy in supplying their extreme and pinching Necessities under their late want of Corn, & for His giving them now a prospect of a very Comfortable Harvest.

VOA: special.2009.04.20