2. Thanksgiving Day is a national holiday celebrated primarily in Canada and the
United States as a day of giving thanks for the blessing of the harvest and of the
preceding year. It is celebrated on the second Monday of October in Canada
and on the fourth Thursday of November in the United States. Several other
places around the world observe similar celebrations. Thanksgiving has its
historical roots in religious and cultural traditions and has long been celebrated
in a secular manner as well.
3. The Pilgrim Fathers
In 1620 a group of people left the south coast of England to live in America.
They arrived in November, and many of them died during that first winter.
The local tribe, the Wampanoag Indians, taught these Europeans how to plant
corn andcatc the local fish.as a result, the following autumn the settlers had
collected enough food to survive the winter. As a thank you, the Europeans
invited the native Americans to a feast which lasted theree days.
Unfortunately, this was one of thefew examples where the Europeans
cooperated with the local people.
4. Nationals Day of Celebration
The early European Americans were a religious people and many had feast in the
autumn to give thanks that they had enough to eat, but it wasn’t until hundreds
of year later than Thanksgiving became a national celebration.
A writer and magazine editor called Sarah Josepha Hale spent 30 years trying to
get the governement to create a national day of celebration. Finally, in 1863,
President Lincoln agreed.
Now Americans in every state sit down with family and firends to eat 46 million
turkeys!
5. What to eat on Thanksgiving
Squash soup, roasted turkey, potatoes, sweet
potatoes, green beans and carrots.
Don’t forget the cranberry sauce and traditional
cornbread. End with apple pie or pumpkin pie!
6. Pumpkin
pie
Pumpkin pie is a sweet dessert pie
with a spiced, pumpkin-based custard
filling. In the United States it is usually
prepared for Thanksgiving. The
pumpkin is a symbol of harvest time.
The pie consists of a pumpkin-based
custard, ranging in colour from orange
to brown, baked in a single pie shell,
rarely with a top crust. The pie is
generally flavored with cinnamon,
powdered ginger, nutmeg, and cloves.
Allspice is also commonly used, and
can replace the clove and nutmeg as
its flavor is similar to both combined.
Cardamom and vanilla are also
sometimes used as batter spices. The
7. Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade
In the 1920s one of New York’s most famous departement
stores began a parade through the streets of the city to
celebrate thanksgiving. Employees of macy’s wore
fanatastic costumes aking lions and tigers through the
syreets. Now the parade is famous for its fifteen
enormous balloons depicting favourite children’s
characters such asK the Frog or Snoopy, Toothless the
Dragon or Paddington Bear.
