2013-11-23-Plymouth, MA-Thanksgiving Parade by...

What better place for a Thanksgiving parade than Plymouth, Massachusetts, where it all started? The parade featured marching bands, pipe bands, classic cars and military vehicles, revolutionary and civil war re-enactors, floats and more. But the highlight were the Budweiser Clydesdales which have become as much a symbol of America as they are of the brand they represent. The only word that can describe these magnificent horses is "majestic".The event that Americans commonly call the "First Thanksgiving" was celebrated by the Pilgrims after their first harvest in the New World in 1621.This feast lasted three days, and it was attended by 90 Native Americans (as accounted by attendee Edward Winslow) and 53 Pilgrims. Americans commonly trace the Thanksgiving holiday to a 1621 celebration at the Plymouth Plantation, where the Plymouth settlers held a harvest feast after a successful growing season. The holiday, as we celebrate it today, has been an annual tradition since 1863, when, during the Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln proclaimed a national day of "Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens", to be celebrated on Thursday, November 26.