HISTORY

Americans of all religions celebrate Thanksgiving on the fourth Thursday of November. Thanksgiving is a special day for families and people travel great distances to be with their families. They give thanks for the food and blessings.

The tradition started when in 1620 a group of men, women and children left England on a ship called Mayflower. They were Pilgrims and they wanted to start a new life in the New World.

The voyage was very hard.They were cold and hungry and many of them died. The voyage took 65 days. They landed on the north –east coast of North America. What today we know as Massachusetts. When they arrived it was almost winter so they had no time to grow crops. The winter was long. Very few survived.

When the Pilgrims got to America, it was winter and there were no food or houses. Many of them died from sickness, starvation and freezing to death.

There were some people who lived in America already. The Pilgrims called them Indians. The Indians called Pilgrims suffering and they dicided to help them.

There was one Native American in particular who helped the Pilgrims. His name was Squanto. He spoke English because he has been a slave in England for 8 years. He hepled the Pilgrims recover from their first difficult winter by teaching them the best places to catch fish and eel. He helped them to keep peace with the other local Native Americans.

In spring Native Americans, the Wampanoag Indians, helped them. They taught the Pilgrims how to grow corn, and pampkins, how to build houses out of local trees and how to survive the cold winter weather of Massachusetts. 

The summer harvest was very good and by November, a year after their first arrival, there was food for everybody. The Pilgrims was so happy, and they wanted to celebrate it and invited the Native Americans to a great dinner where they gave thanks to God for the food. That was the first Thanksgiving dinner.

But the first thing that they did was say a prayer of Thanksgiving to God forgiving them friends, food,houses and a pleace to live where they could go to any church they wanted.

Thanksgiving has been celebrated every year in the USA since 1863, but in 1941, it was made in official national holiday by President Roosevelt. Each year as a holiday tradition, the President of the United States pardons a turkey.

Today the traditional thanksgiving meal is similar to the first. They eat roast turkey with cranberry sauce, potatoes, corn and pumpkin pie.

Thanksgiving Customs- when the food is ready the family sits around the table and each person says one thing they are thankful for before they eat The family spends the rest of the night eating dinner, drinking wine and talking about everything they are thankful for that year. On Thanksgiving Day, families and friends usually gather for a large meal or dinner. Because of this Thanksgiving holiday weekend is one of the busiest travel period of the year. In the United States Thanksgiving is a four-day or five-day weekend vacation in school and college calendars

Every year on Thanksgiving Day, many professional and university foodball teams play important games. These games are on TV all day, and most people watch them.

The most famous Thanksgiving parades takes place in New York City. It’s called the Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade. There are huge floats depicting everything from traditional Thanksgiving scenes to characters from pop culture. Many American families watch these parade on TV on Thanksgiving morning. They also have parades in other big cities.

Black Friday Shopping There is traditionally a huge sale the day after Thanksgiving They offer great deals, but there are huge crowds.  Department stores would use parades for big advertising on Christmas sales.  It became an unwritten rule that Christmas sale advertising was that day and forward in the other words, the day after thanksgiving became the first official holiday shopping day this actually made some department stores mad. When does the GREED stop?

 In 1939 retail shops wanted to have their advertising done before Thanksgiving. This led president Franklin Roosevelt to change Thanksgiving Day to a week earlier. Some refused this change resulting Thanksgiving being celebrated on two separete days. Some referred to the change as Franksgiving.  The term "black friday" goes back to 1966 when it was used by Philadelphiia police department to discribe the huge crowds and the massive traffic jams. Quite a headache for them. It had a negative meaning until the early 1980's. Throughout the year retailers traditionally operated at the financial loss, and made their profit during the holiday season starting on BLACK FRIDAY. On the financil records red ink meant a loss and back ink meant a profit.  Black Friday under this theory would mean, more black ink more profit.

 I wish to express my profound gratitude to YOU for your patience and ongoing support on my studying English. I am sure that I am in safe hands. I know you are a safe pair of hands.  Without my celebrated a feast of Thanksgiving until now, my daily prayers are full of grateful thanks and thanksgiving to GOD for wonderful friends like YOU whom I have met in my life.

Thanksgiving Day celebration will be incomplete without the legendary turkey. The Pilgrims used to call any wild fowl, turkey. The turkey is usually the main course of most household during this celebration. It is a customary dinner which serves as a reminder of the four wild turkeys that were served at the first Thanksgiving feast. The Cornucopia The Turkey The Pumpkin Cranberries Beans and Corn The Cornucopia s a symbol of nature's productivity. It is the "horn of plenty" and is the most common symbol of a harvest festival. It is a horn-shaped container or basket that is filled with the abundance of a harvest. The traditional cornucopia was a curved goat's horn.

Native Americans taught the Pilgrims to grow beans next to cornstalks. The was so that the beans could use the cornstalks as their pole as they grow, hence American beans are also known as Pole beans. Beans are therefore a special symbol of thanksgiving feast. The Cornucopia The Turkey The Pumpkin Cranberries Beans Another symbol of the modern Thanksgiving dinner is the pumpkin pie. The pumpkin is one of the most important symbols of the harvest festival and is an American favorite. Cranberries are a kind of berry. Its name originated from crane berry because of its pink blossoms and drooping head which reminded the Pilgrims of the crane. The Pilgrims found out how to sweeten the bitter cranberries with maple sugar. The cranberry sauce was and is still used as a side dish of turkey during Thanksgiving dinner. back

 This year, an unprecedented number of big-box retailers have decided to open their doors on Thanksgiving, with many of them forcing their workers to miss their family dinner under penalty of being fired. Others can't even afford family dinner, given their poverty wages. Spread their shame! back