Thanksgiving is called “Thanksgiving” because it was originally a special day set aside to give thanks for blessings like a good harvest, survival, or military victories, especially in early colonial New England.

Name meaning

  • The word “thanksgiving” comes from Christian “days of thanksgiving,” which were religious observances focused on thanking God for good fortune or deliverance from hardship.
  • Colonists in New England used the term for days of prayer and gratitude after events such as safe voyages, successful harvests, or relief from drought.

Early colonial usage

  • In the 1600s, English colonists in North America proclaimed specific days as “days of thanksgiving” after events they saw as signs of divine favor.
  • A 1619 service at Berkeley Hundred in Virginia was ordered to be kept “yearly and perpetually” as a day of thanksgiving to God for safe arrival, showing the term already in use before the famous Plymouth story.

Link to the “First Thanksgiving”

  • The 1621 harvest feast in Plymouth between the Pilgrims and the Wampanoag later became popularly known as “the First Thanksgiving,” tying the existing religious phrase to a harvest meal image.
  • Over time, this idea of a shared harvest celebration and formal “day of thanksgiving” blended into the modern holiday’s name and story.

From religious day to national holiday

  • New England communities long held weekday “days of Thanksgiving” with church services and family meals, and this practice spread as people moved across the United States.
  • Presidents like George Washington and later Abraham Lincoln used the same religious language of giving thanks when they proclaimed national days of thanksgiving, cementing “Thanksgiving” as the official holiday name.

Modern sense of “Thanksgiving”

  • Today, even though many people celebrate it in a more secular way, the name still reflects its core idea: a day focused on gratitude for family, food, and the good things of the past year.
  • The word now carries both its historical religious meaning (thanking God) and a broader cultural meaning of pausing to be thankful, regardless of personal beliefs.