This file photo provided by Disney shows President Bush as he pardons one of two turkeys during the 60th annual Thanksgiving Turkey Presentation ceremony at the White House. Last year's birds are currently living the good life at Disney World in Florida, where they were flown by a United Airlines flight that was renamed 'Turkey One' for the occasion. - AP
WASHINGTON (AP):
UNITED STATES President George W. Bush was yesterday heading to Camp David, his presidential hideaway north of Washington, for Thanksgiving, thankful for his almost-expired "privilege of serving as the president".
Thanksgiving Day is being celebrated across the United States today.
President-elect Barack Obama was staying in Chicago, Illinois, to "have a whole bunch of people over to the house" and squeeze in some Christmas shopping.
On a holiday designed for reflection, one man, historically unpopular, was heading to a remote mountaintop with his family. The other, promising change, was surrounding himself with dozens of people in a bustling city.
Dressed casually in a leather jacket and black scarf yesterday, Obama handed out food to the needy at a Chicago church with his wife, Michelle, and their two daughters, shaking hands and jovially telling people "you can call me Barack".
He followed that with a quick visit to a school next door, where he asked the excited kids, "Who's going to have turkey?" "Who's going to have green beans?" "Who's going to have sweet potato pie?"
Obama has shown a knack for symbolism, in this case following the Thanksgiving tradition of helping the poor, said David Greenberg, a Rutgers University historian who is working on a history of political spin.
"Here he's showing a different side of himself, the president as national conscience or moral authority. I think that's probably a good note for him to introduce in a transition period that's been so heavily focused on Wall Street and the financial system and these economic problems," he said. "He's not forgetting who these economic problems are hurting the most."
For Bush, his final Thanksgiving in office is proving a time for nostalgia. He always reflects a bit at Thanksgiving, but he went further as he spared the Thanksgiving turkey, 'Pumpkin', last night in a half-century-old presidential tradition.
What is Thanksgiving day about?
Today, the United States celebrates Thanksgiving day. Here are a few facts about the history of the holiday.
In 1621, having made a successful harvest after a brutal winter that killed half their number, the 50 or so surviving Colonists in Plymouth "entertained and feasted", in the words of one, with a visiting delegation of nearby Wampanoag Indians, led by "their greatest king," Massasoit.
Historical records indicate that the parties dined on venison and corn rather than on the stuffing, cranberry sauce and pumpkin pie Americans have come to associate with Thanksgiving, and that the feast probably took place in the early autumn rather than November.
Although there were sporadic local Thanksgiving days in Colonial and early America, it was not until the middle of the Civil War - 1863 - that President Abraham Lincoln issued a proclamation making the last Thursday in November a national holiday of Thanksgiving.
Lincoln's statement suggested that thanks were being given as much for "the advancing armies and navies of the Union" as for a bountiful harvest, and the president urged special prayers for "all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged".
