American Thanksgiving is celebrated annually on the fourth Thursday of November to commemorate the harvest feast shared between the Pilgrims and Wampanoag Indians in 1621. The Pilgrims arrived in North America on the Mayflower in December 1620 and were taught farming methods by the Wampanoag, which helped them survive their first winter. In the autumn of 1621, the surviving Pilgrims held a three-day feast to celebrate the harvest with the Wampanoag, establishing an annual tradition now celebrated as Thanksgiving.