FUNNY: Celebrate Evacuation Day, Eschew Thanksgiving

Sure, Thanksgiving Day provides us with an excuse to gorge ourselves on turkey, stuffing and pumpkin pie, but the reason for celebrating — the pilgrims coming over on the Mayflower — hardly measures up to the patriotic achievement of another day: Evacuation Day.

This is all according to author and long-time "This American Life" regular Sarah Vowell, who appeared on Jon Stewart's Daily Show Thursday night. Her debut as the show's Senior Historical Context Correspondent presented the audience with a 100% factual account of a day that, she argued, deserves our attention far more than those silly Mayflower pilgrims.

Vowell argued for honoring Evacuation Day every November 25, but what is it, exactly? Well, it's celebrated in New York every year to mark the last British troops leaving the city at the end of the Revolutionary War in 1783.

Watch Vowell explain it here: