We are going to show you
about another culture: England, the US, Canada and about the celebration called
“Thanksgiving day”.
In this project you can find the origin of the
thanksgiving day where we tried to show you specifically about every detail,
and some interesting points about the whole story behind this important
American and English day; then you can find information about the first day
that this festivity was celebrated. But we also talk to you about the Canada
celebration and their own style of celebrating, and a little bit of Japan.
After all this information you can find some other
material like the way of how it has been evolved, about the many days it is
celebrated, the different meals are often eaten before and now, and finally the
way it is celebrated nowadays, about the new traditions imposed by the people
that now celebrate this festivity. We try to give you the truer information we
could find. We also put some pictures on every topic that have meaning about it
and they can be really useful.
At the end of the project you can find the sources
where we find the information, so if you want to look for more or to visit the
places we looked at.
This investigation is very interesting and very
worth to be read, because it contains a lot of new information about another
culture and it is important for us to know a little bit more about the world
around us.
Origin of Thanksgiving Day
The Pilgrims
left Plymouth, England, on September 6, 1620. Their destination: The New World.
Although filled with uncertainty and peril, it offered both civil and religious
liberty.
For
over two months, the 102 passengers braved the harsh elements of a vast
storm-tossed sea. Finally, with firm purpose and a reliance on Divine Providence,
the cry of “Land!” was heard.
Arriving in Massachusetts in late November, the
Pilgrims sought a suitable landing place. On December 11, just before
disembarking at Plymouth Rock, they signed the “Mayflower Compact”—America’s first document of civil government and the first to introduce
self-government.
After a prayer service, the Pilgrims began
building hasty shelters. However, unprepared for the starvation and sickness of a harsh New
England winter, nearly half died before spring. Yet, persevering
in prayer,
and assisted by helpful Indians, they reaped a bountiful harvest the following summer.
The grateful Pilgrims then declared a
three-day feast,
starting on December 13, 1621, to thank God and to celebrate with their
Indian friends. While this was not the first Thanksgiving in America
(thanksgiving services were held in Virginia as early as 1607), it was
America’s first Thanksgiving Festival.
Pilgrim Edward Winslow described the Pilgrims’ Thanksgiving in these
words: “Our harvest being gotten in, our Governor
sent four men on fowling [bird hunting]
so that we might, after a special manner, rejoice together after we had
gathered the fruit of our labors. They four in one day killed as much fowl as…
served the company almost a week… Many of the Indians [came] among us and…
their greatest King, Massasoit, with some ninety men, whom for three days we
entertained and feasted;
and they went out and killed five deer, which they brought… And although it be
not always so plentiful as it was at this time with us, yet by the goodness of god we are… far from want.”
Canadian Thanksgiving Origin
The first Canadian Thanksgiving is often traced back to 1578
and the explorer Martin Frobisher. Frobisher,
who had been trying to find northern to the Pacific Ocean, held his
Thanksgiving celebration not for harvest but in thanks for surviving the long
journey from England through the perils of storms and icebergs. On his third
and final voyage to the far north, Frobisher held a formal ceremony in Frobisher Bay in Baffin Island (present-day Nunavut) to give
thanks to God and in a service ministered by the preacher Robert Wolfallthey
celebrated Communion.
The origins
of Canadian Thanksgiving are also sometimes traced to the French settlers who
came to New France with
explorer Samuel de Champlain in the
early 17th century, who celebrated their successful harvests. The French
settlers in the area typically had feasts at the end of the harvest season and
continued throughout the winter season, even sharing food with the indigenous peoples of the
area.
As settlers arrived
in Canada from New England, late autumn Thanksgiving celebrations became
common. New immigrants into the country, such as the Irish, Scottish and
Germans, also added their own traditions to the harvest celebrations. Most of
the U.S. aspects of Thanksgiving (such as the turkey or what were called guinea fowls originating
from Madagascar), were
incorporated when United Empire Loyalists began
to flee from the United States during the American Revolution and
settled in Canada.
Did You Know...?
In Japan the Thanks Giving day it’s
celebrated on November 23 and the origin of this is because of the American
occupation of Japan in the second World War.
When is celebrated?
Canada
Thanksgiving or Thanksgiving Day, occurring on the second Monday in October,
is an annual Canadian holiday to give thanks at the close of the harvest season. Although the original act of
Parliament references God and the holiday is celebrated in churches, the holiday is mostly
celebrated in a secular manner. Thanksgiving is a statutory holiday in all provinces in Canada, except for New Brunswick and Nova
Scotia. While businesses may remain open in
these provinces, the holiday is nonetheless, recognized and celebrated
regardless of its status.
United States
Thanksgiving or Thanksgiving Day, currently celebrated on the fourth Thursday in
November by federal legislation in 1941, has been an annual tradition in the
United States by presidential proclamation since 1863 and by state legislation
since the Founding
Fathers of the United States. Historically, Thanksgiving began as a tradition of celebrating the harvest of the year.
What do we eat in
Thanksgiving?
Most people in the United States celebrate this holiday with family
gatherings in their homes where they prepare a feast. Is common in many homes
offer a prayer of thanks. The traditional main course for dinner is a big roast
turkey or baked. This turkey is traditionally served with a filling made
cornbread and sage. It is traditionally served with jelly or cranberry sauce.
Besides vegetable dishes are usually served as green beans (green beans, green
beans), sweet potatoes (yams, sweet potato) and mashed potatoes with gravy, a
gravy made from turkey, also often served a variety of desserts , pumpkin pie
being the most popular. It is also common to prepare the pecan pie and apple.
It is continued in modern times with the Thanksgiving dinner,
traditionally featuring turkey, playing a central role in the celebration of
Thanksgiving.
In the United States, certain kinds of food are traditionally served at
Thanksgiving meals. Firstly, baked or roasted turkey is usually the featured
item on any Thanksgiving feast table (so much so that Thanksgiving is sometimes
referred to as "Turkey Day"). Stuffing, mashed potatoes with gravy,
sweet potatoes, cranberry sauce, sweet corn, various fall vegetables (mainly
various kinds of squashes), and pumpkin pie are commonly associated with
Thanksgiving dinner. All of these are actually native to the Americas or were
introduced as a new food source to the Europeans when they arrived. Turkey may
be an exception.
New World Foods and other vegetables
Prepare corn husks, potato, sweet potato, squash of all kinds ... All
these ingredients represent Native American food, which in theory gave the
Indians the pilgrims of the Old World. The traditional story that the pilgrims
hunted turkey and brought it to the table.
It is also common to find other vegetables as a side dish: green beans,
Brussels sprouts, carrots, onions or cauliflower stewed.
Thanksgiving
Nowadays
Four day weekend.
Instead
of changing its calendar position like every other holiday, Thanksgiving is
reliably, dependably always on the third Thursday of November, which
automatically guarantees a four day weekend away from annoying coworkers and
board meetings, parent-teacher conferences and bagged lunch. It’s really the
first time since summer ended that you have a few days of much-needed (and
much-deserved!) rest and relaxation, so we’re definitely excited to circle the
date on our calendars every year!
Gears
us up for Black Friday.
Part
of that much-appreciated four day weekend is, of course, Black Friday, the Friday after Thanksgiving. It's the busiest
shopping day in the USA and it's the beginning of the Christmas shopping
season. It's called like that because on that day all shops earn a lot of money
from sales, so they go into the black (as opposed to be in the red, meaning
that they have debts).
It’s
simple.
There’s
no big song-and-dance commercial about it. Thanksgiving have one simple
purpose: to bring together family and friends for a good meal and to give
thanks to all your blessings in life. Sure, turkey preparation may be
complicated, but the day of Thanksgiving is beautiful in its simplicity. Just
show up and eat!
