Thanksgiving 2016 Google doodle celebrates holiday with American folk art imagery

Google’s doodle team used American folk art imagery for today’s Thanksgiving Day doodle, depicting simple patterns and shapes for the image.

“Evocative of American folk art, with quilt-like patterning and simple shapes, today’s Doodle, rendered in a rich harvest-colored palette, is an ode to this season of togetherness,” says Google’s Doodle Blog.

Google offered a brief history lesson on the holiday, telling of its origin nearly 400 years ago when American settlers met the Native American Wampanoag tribe:

[blockquote cite = “Google Doodle Blog”]It was 1620 in Plymouth, Massachusetts when Mayflower colonists and the Wampanoag forged a partnership of necessity. Decimated by an epidemic and wary of the mightier Narragansett, their nearby enemies, the Wampanoag and the newcomers become allies. The pilgrims were unfamiliar with Massachusetts’ natural resources and ill-equipped for survival – but Tisquantum, an English-speaking Patuxet Wampanoag, taught them how to hunt, gather shellfish, and plant corn, beans, and squash. Following harvest in the fall of 1621, the settlers and the Wampanoag, celebrated what’s considered the “First Thanksgiving,” a three-day feast with wild duck, goose, turkey, deer, and barley ale.[/blockquote]

The doodle leads to a search for “Thanksgiving 2016” and includes the usual sharing icon.

Here is a picture of the full doodle currently displaying on Google’s U.S. homepage: