A history professor at Florida State University says the story of the pilgrims and Native Americans holding the first Thanksgiving is just that -- a story.
Andrew Frank says the first Thanksgiving was held during the Civil War as a day of fasting and prayer.
“Historically, there was really no first Thanksgiving,” Frank said. “There were regional days of thanks in the colonial past, and they told their own localized stories, but the classic first Thanksgiving story is largely an invention.”
Frank says it didn't become a feast until the 1930's. That was under President Franklin Roosevelt, who decided it should always be on a Thursday so that all Americans would share a common holiday regardless of religion.
"It’s frustrating when the holiday is reduced to a third grade play with construction paper Pilgrim hats,” he said. “I think we could have Thanksgiving without the fake story behind it all."