The dinner traditionally consists of foods indigenous to the Americas: turkey, potatoes (usually mashed and sweet), squash, corn (maize), green beans, cranberries (typically as cranberry sauce), and pumpkin pie. Other Thanksgiving customs include charitable organizations offering thanksgiving dinner for the poor, attending religious services, and watching television events such as Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade and America's Thanksgiving Parade as well as NFL football games. Thanksgiving is regarded as the beginning of the holiday season, with the day following it, Black Friday, said to be the busiest shopping day of the year in the United States. [1]

New England and Virginia colonists originally celebrated days of fasting, as well as days of thanksgiving, thanking God for blessings such as harvests, ship landings, military victories, or the end of a drought. These were observed with feasts and other communal gatherings.  The modern-day Thanksgiving Day in the U.S. is a federal holiday for Americans to give thanks as the Pilgrims did with their Native American neighbors after their first harvest in Plymouth (now in Massachusetts) in November 1621. This feast lasted three days and was attended by 90 Native American Wampanoag people and 53 survivors of the Mayflower (Pilgrims).  [1]