Thanksgiving is just a day away, and many have still been looking for recipes and meals to cook on that festive day.

But while people have been busy with turkeys and pies, have you ever wonder that Thanksgiving this year came later than usual.

Thursday has always been the day when it is celebrated. For some, it feels kind of weird.

Why didn’t it move to Friday so people can have a 3-day weekend? Some companies give employees another day off as holiday so that Americans could continue lugging their massive weight turkeys.

According to the Farmer’s Almanac, Thursday was a special day for Puritan colonists in New England, with some of the ministers giving a lecture on the afternoons of Thursdays. Still, for a brief 5 years in the 1600s, it has always been held on the 25th of November.

With George Washington’s presidency, the White House declared it in 1789 to honor the US Constitution. Albeit it was Abraham Lincoln who really proclaimed that Thanksgiving Day should always be held every last Thursday of November.

According to Harold Holzer, a historian, and chairman of Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Foundation, Lincoln is the father of the whole idea of a nation giving thanks for its advantages and privileges of living in a democracy like this.

The late President Lincoln issued the proclamation on the 3rd of October, 1863, three months after the Gettysburg and Vicksburg victories. He wrote that there are so many things to gratefully acknowledged. So he declared, “I do therefore invite my fellow-citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next as a day of thanksgiving and praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the heavens.”

Currently, people celebrate it with a festive table full of delicious food and a whole of preparation before that.

Some of the traditional Thanksgiving meals you may want to place on yours are roast turkey, green bean casserole, candied yams, mashed potatoes, gravy, brined turkey, classic stuffing, cranberry sauce, pumpkin, cornbread dressing, sausage gravy, sweet potato casserole, apple pie, roasted vegetables, turkey cake, butternut squash soup, pecan pie, baked sweet potato casserole and a whole lot more. You could do your own sophisticated recipe or the classic ones.

After the day has ended, you may still have a lot of leftovers. Here are some of the creative and yummy ways to reinvent your dishes, specifically your turkey – leftover thanksgiving nachos, turkey frittata, turkey tetrazzini, turkey vegetable soup with stuffing dumplings, leftover turkey chili, roasted turkey lasagna, turkey leftover casserole, twice-baked sweet potatoes.

If you are too lazy to do another batch of cooking, take note that you can still save them in the fridge for several days and by a few months in the freezer.

As long as they’re frozen, you can keep them there indefinitely, but take note that the taste would vary. Store them in airtight containers or plastic freezer bags.

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