Cal State San Bernardino and its Palm Desert Campus will be closed Thursday, Nov. 22, and Friday, Nov. 23, in observance of the Thanksgiving Day holiday. Classes will resume and the campus will reopen for business on Monday, Nov. 26. Finals week for the fall quarter begins Tuesday, Dec. 4, and the university will hold its December Commencement on Saturday, Dec. 8, in Coussoulis Arena. In 1621, the Plymouth colonists and Wampanoag Indians shared an autumn harvest feast, which is acknowledged today as one of the first Thanksgiving celebrations in the colonies, as reported by History.com. This harvest meal has become a symbol of cooperation and interaction between English colonists and Native Americans. Although this feast is considered by many as the very first Thanksgiving celebration, it was actually in keeping with a long tradition of celebrating the harvest and giving thanks for a successful bounty of crops throughout the 13 English colonies. But not until October 1777 did all of the colonies celebrate Thanksgiving at the same time. George Washington declared it a holiday in 1789. By the mid-1800s, many states observed Thanksgiving. Meanwhile, the poet and editor Sarah J. Hale had begun lobbying to make it a national holiday. During the Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln, looking for ways to unite the nation, discussed the subject with Hale. In 1863, he gave his Thanksgiving Proclamation, declaring the fourth Thursday in November a day of thanks. For more information on Cal State San Bernardino, call the university’s Office of Strategic Communication at (909) 537-5007 and visit the Inside CSUSB news website.