Ah, Thanksgiving, my favorite holiday, because it's all about gratitude rather than what we get.

We talk about giving thanks, but the idea of setting aside time to express gratitude is not uniquely American.

There are at least a dozen countries that have similar holidays.

And for all of us, Thanksgiving is packed with tradition.

But where did they all begin?

1621 may have been the first American celebration,

but our traditions, like when it takes place, what we eat,

and of course the holiday-defining Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade,

only evolved in the past 100 or 150 years.

I'm Patty Steele.

A deeper look at Thanksgiving. Next on the backstory. This is an I-Heart podcast. Guaranteed human. We're back with the backstory. Thanksgiving

traditions just make us feel happy, cozy, and safe, because they're

kind of embedded in our core from our earliest memories. And that's true even when we have to deal

with the occasional, annoying relative, or side dishes that we're not crazy about. Personally,

not a big fan of can't eat yams. But for us, Thanksgiving is all about food,

family and festivity, and maybe some football. Most of all, it's about gratitude, however.

So how did the way we celebrate start? Well, we know the story of the first Thanksgiving in 1621,

but it wasn't anything close to how we celebrate these days. Family feasts with turkey, overeating, parades, football, all came about

a whole lot later. Actually, the whole idea of a feast this time of year originated with

immigrants who, in their origin countries

were used to holding harvest festivals in late autumn. So the idea of celebrating the harvest

and getting ready to hunker down for the winter grew out of that earlier tradition.

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