What do americans celebrate in Thanksgiving?
First, a little bit of history
On the fourth Thursday of November, people in the United States celebrate Thanksgiving, a national holiday honoring the early settlers and Native Americans who came together to have a historic harvest feast.
The story begins when English Protestants, called Puritans, wanting to break away from the Church of England sailed across the Atlantic Ocean in the Mayflower in1620 to settle in a "New World".
Long before settlers came to the East Coast of the United States, the area was inhabited by many Native American tribes. The area surrounding the site of the first Thanksgiving, now known as southeastern Massachusetts and eastern Rhode Island, had been the home of the Wampanoag people for over 12,000 years, and had been visited by other European settlers before the arrival of the Mayflower. The native people knew the land well and had fished, hunted, and harvested for thousands of generations.
One day, Samoset, a leader of the Abenaki people, and Squanto visited the settlers. Squanto was a Wampanoag who had experience with other settlers and knew English. He helped the settlers grow corn and use fish to fertilize their fields. After several meetings, a formal agreement was made between the settlers and the native people, and in March 1621, they joined to protect each other from other tribes.
One day that fall, four settlers were sent to hunt for food for a harvest celebration. The Wampanoag heard gunshots and alerted their leader, Massasoit, who thought the English might be preparing for war. Massasoit visited the English settlement with 90 of his men to see if the war rumor was true.
Soon after their visit, the Native Americans realized that the English were only hunting for the harvest celebration. Massasoit sent some of his own men to hunt deer for the feast and for three days, the English and native men, women, and children ate together. The meal consisted of deer, corn, shellfish, and roasted meat, different from today's traditional Thanksgiving feast. They played ball games, sang, and danced.
Although prayers and thanks were probably offered at the 1621 harvest gathering, the first recorded religious Thanksgiving Day in Plymouth happened two years later in 1623. On this occasion, the colonists gave thanks to God for rain after a two-month drought.
In the 19th century, the modern Thanksgiving holiday started to take shape. In 1863, President Abraham Lincoln declared two national Thanksgivings; one in August to commemorate the Battle of Gettysburg during the Civil War, and the other in November to give thanks for "general blessings." It is the second one that Americans celebrate today.
How do American people celebrate Thanksgiving today? We asked our hostudents
We asked Jean-Marc Choufani, hostudent from United States, if he could tell us a little bit more about this festivity because the only clue that we, non-American people, have about Thanksgiving is what we see in movies. But we are not far from beign right, Jean-Marc says that “for the most part yes (it resembles to what we see on TV) everyone eats and drinks until they have to be rolled out of the room. It’s part of preparing for the winter in some of the colder states”.
“Johnny” will be celebrating this year with a potluck dinner with his friends in Boston, but the previous years that he spent here in Spain as a dentistry student, he traveled or spent with his roommates. “Thanksgiving is meant to be a day to enjoy with your friends & family, so these are usually all good memories!”
What comes into your mind when you talk about this day? Food, “glorious food” … Traditional dishes are roast turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy, green beans, corn, dinner rolls, cranberry sauce, and pumpkin pie. “I am a sucker for apple pie and stuffing (neither of which existed when people first started celebrating Thanksgiving in America)”.
As you can see, this tradition has changed a lot since it was first celebrated. “Although the holiday had quite an unpleasant beginning, it has evolved into something much more humane and positive. It’s a nice people-oriented holiday that everyone can enjoy and has no religious affiliation”, says Choufani.
Happy Thanksgiving guys!
