We all know the story about the pilgrims and the Wampanoag, where they had a feast and celebrated together, but there is more to why we celebrate Thanksgiving than you think. While all of the original states celebrated Thanksgiving at different times for different reasons, it was not a national holiday until a woman by the name of Sarah Josepha Hale tried to make Thanksgiving a national holiday. Sarah Josepha Hale believed that having a national day of celebrating would help a nation heading toward civil war. Sarah Josepha Hale was granted her wish four months after the battle of Gettysburg, where Abraham Lincoln, seeing the potential of a unifying holiday, officially signed it, making Thanksgiving a national holiday on the last Thursday of every November.