it's time for Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving Day is a harvest festival celebrated primarily in the United States and Canada. Traditionally, it is a time to give thanks for the harvest and express gratitude in general. While perhaps religious in origin, Thanksgiving is now primarily identified as a secular holiday.

Lots of food, football games, parades and plenty of time to spend with the people you cherish most in your life. These things are all inescapable parts of Thanksgiving day. But who would want to escape from them anyway?

The traditional "first Thanksgiving" is the celebration that occurred at the site of Plymouth Plantation, in 1621. The Plymouth celebration occurred early in the history of what would become one of the original thirteen colonies that became the United States. The celebration became an important part of the American myth by the 1800s. This Thanksgiving, modeled after celebrations that were commonplace in contemporary Europe, is generally regarded as America's first. Elementary school teacher Robyn Gioia has argued that the earliest attested "thanksgiving" celebration in what is now the United States was celebrated by the Spanish on September 8, 1565 in what is now Saint Augustine, Florida. Today, Thanksgiving is celebrated on the fourth Thursday of November in the United States and on the second Monday of October in Canada.

If you haven't logged into orkut yet today, make sure you do so that you can check out our special Thanksgiving doodle in action:



Thanksgiving dinner is held on this day, usually as a gathering of family members and friends. It's known as Turkey Day!

Happy Thanksgiving to you and your family.

Indian Student's Doodle on Google on Children's Day

The colorful doodle on Google's home page on Children's Day Saturday - complete with a peacock and Mahatma Gandhi - is the creation of a 10-year-old Indian student and represents the country's diversity and culture. This is the first time that a 'made in India' doodle is being featured on the popular search engine.

Beating a good 4,000 other competitors, Puru Pratap Singh's doodle is based on the theme 'My India - Full of Life'. Singh is a Class 4 student of Gurgaon, the commercial hub adjoining the national capital.

A Google doodle is a creative Google logo that appears on some special days to commemorate scientific and artistic achievements, historic or seasonal events, and other local occasions.

According to Singh, the G in his doodle stands for the national bird peacock, O stands for wisdom, another O for India's scientific achievement, the next G for Kashmir being India's crown, L for the country's brave defence personnel and E for Mahatma Gandhi's values.

Encapsulating the rich diversity of the country in terms of the different religions practised here, highlighting latest scientific feats and also showcasing Mahatma Gandhi, Singh's winning entry is a riot of colors laden with aesthetics and deep seated meaning - exactly what Google doodles are all about.

"India is a country which has a blend of thousands of traditions and all religions like Hinduism, Christianity, Sikhism and Islam. It has developed a lot in the past few years. The discovery of water on the moon by the Indian scientists is a proof of this fact," Singh said.

"Indian culture is as vibrant as the colours of the peacock. Kashmir, the crown of India, is as serene as the peace bird and as pure as the lotus. We, the Indian citizens are also trying to fulfil Mahatma Gandhi's dream of educating each and every Indian child," he added.

In August this year, Google India decided to unleash the creativity of thousands of children in India with a doodling competition called Doodle4Google.

Open to students from Class 1 to 10, the contest was judged by a panel of judges that comprised renowned cartoonist N. Ponnappa, artist Raghava K.K. and the faculty of the National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad.

For over a decade, Google has been designing doodles for its home page and Dennis Hwang - the master doodler - has been driving this innovation.

Besides having his doodle featured on the Google home page all day on Children's Day, Singh has also been awarded a laptop, a T-shirt with his doodle and a Rs. 100,000 technology grant for his school.

Doodle 4 Google - Vote Now

Over 4000 children drew doodles representing the Doodle 4 Google theme, 'My India', and told us what India means to them.
Below, you'll see a display of our top 45 finalists. Please vote for your favourite doodle in each of the following groups:

1. Standards 1-3
2. Standards 4-6
3. Standards 7-10

We ask that you vote for your favourite doodle in EACH of the three groups mentioned above. Please note that you might not be able to vote more than once, so select the doodle you want to vote for carefully.

Online voting is open from 21st of October 2009 to 31st of October 2009.
Thank you for voting and look out for the final winner's doodle on Google.co.in on 14th November 2009!

Judging Process

600 Semi Finalists

The best 600 doodles from across the country will be chosen via our judging criteria in each of the three age group brackets. This means that each age bracket will be equally represented.

45 Finalists

A judging panel will choose 45 top doodles (15 from each age bracket) to become our finalists. These 45 top doodles will be displayed in a gallery on this website on October 21, 2009. These will then be made available to the Indian public who can vote for the doodles they like best in each age bracket.

Judging Panel: Our judging panel will include renowned cartoonist, N.Ponnappa, young internationally acclaimed artist Raghava KK., as well as faculty and students of the National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad <http://www.nid.edu/>, our Doodle 4 Google partner institute and one of India's foremost institutions in the field of design education.

Prizes: All 45 finalists will be invited to attend the final awards ceremony in November 2009. We will cover stay and travel expenses for all 45 finalists + one adult (teacher, parent, etc). In addition, all finalists will receive a Doodle 4 Google certificate and a Google goody bag.

Final Winner

After the public online vote across the three age brackets, the final winner will be decided by Google’s original doodler, Dennis Hwang. The final winner will be announced at an awards ceremony attended by the finalists and members of our judging panel.

Prizes: The final winner will have his/her doodle displayed on the Google India homepage on November 14^th 2009. He/she will also win a laptop! Finally, the winner's school will also be awarded a technology grant of Rs.1,00,000.