History of Thanksgiving
Thanksgiving, Volume 2: Early November
By: Yara Hidalgo
Many people celebrate thanksgiving, but there are a few that don’t really know the history behind it and why it’s a holiday in the United States. Nowadays families celebrate this event with a Thanksgiving dinner including turkey stuffed, mashed potatoes and gravy, sweet potatoes, corn, turnips, yams and pumpkin pie. Thanksgiving is celebrated on the fourth Thursday of every November, as a symbol of giving thanks to the end of the harvest season. In 1620, the Pilgrims crossed over to the United States in a sailing boat called Mayflower. Approximately 102 people sailed through severe weather conditions for two months causing the death of 46 of them. Because of the awful storms they had to face, they were kept in the butch of the ship; for relief they would sing songs. Finally on December 11, 1620 they arrived at Plymouth Rock. In 1621 they met Squanto, a Native American, along with kindly Native Americans assisted the Pilgrims in helping them learn how to grow goods such as corn, beans and pumpkins. In the summer of 1621, due to the deficiency of goods, Pilgrims joined together to pray to God so that harvest for the next season would improve. By a miracle that same day, at night it rained and the goods survived.
The First Thanksgiving Feast was a shared dinner of 90 people; it happened right after their first harvest celebrating and honoring God for all the support. The party lasted three days. Two more feasts happened after that one, but it wasn’t until October of 1777 when all the 13 colonies celebrated Thanksgiving. After having many feasts President Lincoln announced Thanksgiving to be a holiday celebrated on the fourth Thursday of November of every year. Some fruits and vegetables are symbolic to the Thanksgiving dinner.
Pumpkins, turkeys, corns, cranberries, cornucopias and beans are the vegetables and fruit that are a customary to have for dinner on Thanksgiving. It is a tradition to have Pumpkin Pie as a dessert. And, of course, what’s Thanksgiving without a turkey? The name of Turkey comes from the sound it makes whenever it’s scared, “Turk, turk.” Turkey was part of the meal for the first celebration, since then people have incorporated it in their meals. Corn is also a symbol for Thanksgiving; it’s one of America’s contemporary agricultural products. Cranberries are used to make a sauce poured on the turkey. We see cornucopias everywhere when Thanksgiving holiday is right around the corner. A cornucopia is a horn shaped container filed with grapes, pears, corn, apples, and grains. Beans are also a unique symbol because it has been said that Native Americans taught Pilgrims to grow beans nearby cornstalks, so that beans would use them as their rod. All of these were some of the goods that Pilgrims use to harvest, so they mean a lot when it’s Thanksgiving Day.
It’s a day of giving Thanks for all the negative and positive things that have happened to you. It’s important to give thanks to the appalling things that have happened over the course of the year, because those are the things that make you grow as an individual. It’s also important to give thanks to all the good things that make us smile, laugh, and have a great time.
This year, 2007, Thanksgiving will be on November 22nd.
FYI: A lot of sales are going on the next day, on Friday (they’re one of the really big ones).
This information was retrieved from http://www.thanksgiving-day.org/origin-thanksgiving-day.html, on 11/06/2007.
admin @ November 24, 2007