Thanksgiving

• Serve a thanksgiving dinner or some element of it for people to try, for example, pumpkin pie, or a pecan pie. Talk about the origins of the festival.  
• Have a thanksgiving giving tree, where people attach leaves on which are written the things they are thankful for.

History

Thanksgiving Day in the United States is celebrated on the fourth Thursday of November each year. Traditionally it is a time to give thanks for all the sacrifice and hard work done for the harvest. In modern times people take time off work (4 day weekend starting Thursday) and spend time with family and friends over a large feast held on Thanksgiving Day.

Thanksgiving in the early days of the United States was celebrated on a variety of dates and eventually Abraham Lincoln in 1863 with help from Sarah Josepha Hale [1] decided Thanksgiving should be on the final Thursday in November. Later, Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the day into law [2] making the day officially celebrated on the fourth Thursday of November.

Thanksgiving is believed to have originated as a regional celebration in colonial New England (now in the northeastern United States). The American Thanksgiving may have been modelled on a 1621 harvest feast shared by the English colonists (Pilgrims) of Plymouth (now in Massachusetts) and the Wampanoag people. The celebration in Plymouth is commonly called the first Thanksgiving. Plymouth’s Thanksgiving began with a few colonists going out “fowling,” possibly for turkeys but more probably for the easier prey of geese and ducks, since they “in one day killed as much as…served the company almost a week.” Next, 90 or so Wampanoag made a surprise appearance at the settlement’s gate, doubtlessly unnerving the 50 or so colonists. Nevertheless, over the next few days the two groups socialized without incident. The Wampanoag contributed venison to the feast, which included the fowl and probably fish, eels, shellfish, stews, vegetables, and beer. Since Plymouth had few buildings and manufactured goods, most people ate outside while sitting on the ground or on barrels with plates on their laps. The men fired guns, ran races, and drank liquor, struggling to communicate in broken English and Wampanoag. This was a rather disorderly affair, but it sealed a treaty between the two groups that lasted until King Philip’s War (1675–76), in which hundreds of colonists and thousands of Native Americans lost their lives.

Beyond feasting and entertainment, Thanksgiving has inspired other customs. Many Americans engage in charitable activities on this day, such as volunteering for or organizing food drives. One notable tradition is the “turkey pardon,” in which the U.S. president ceremonially “pardons” a live turkey, sparing it from the dinner table. While some accounts trace the first unofficial turkey pardon to Lincoln, who is said to have spared a turkey in 1863 because his son had grown fond of it, the modern turkey pardon ritual was formalized as an annual White House event by Pres. George H.W. Bush in 1989, and it has been carried on by every president since. Yet another Thanksgiving tradition is the snapping of the wishbone (a forked bone in birds comprising two fused clavicles). In this tradition, after the turkey has been carved, two people tug on either end of the dried wishbone while making a silent wish. Whoever ends up with the longer piece when the bone breaks is said to have their wish granted.

Thanksgiving around the world

In Canada, they celebrate Thanksgiving on the second Monday of October. Days of thanksgiving in Canada also originated in the colonial period, arising from the same European traditions, in gratitude for safe journeys, peace, and bountiful harvests. The earliest celebration took place in 1578, when an expedition led by Martin Frobisher held a ceremony in present-day Nunavut to give thanks for the safety of its fleet. In 1879 Parliament established a national Thanksgiving Day on November 6; the date has varied over the years. Since 1957 Thanksgiving Day has been celebrated in Canada on the second Monday in October.

Liberia celebrates the day on the first Thursday of November and Saint Lucia the first Monday in October and finally Grenada celebrates on October 25th each year.

Thanksgiving food

Thanksgiving dinner is fairly standardized, though it varies somewhat by region. A roast turkey is the most common main dish. It is usually accompanied by sides such as mashed potatoes; sweet potatoes or yams, often baked in casseroles; stuffing, a seasoned bread mixture cooked inside the turkey or separately; and gravy. Some accompanying vegetables are green bean casserole—a mid-20th-century creation mixing green beans with cream of mushroom soup and fried onions—roasted brussels sprouts, glazed carrots, corn pudding, or creamed spinach. Cranberry sauce, a sweet-tart relish, is one of the few dishes that can be directly traced back to precolonial New England, since cranberries are native to the region. A rich variety of pies such as pumpkin pie, pecan pie, apple pie, and sweet potato pie are also served.