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Thanksgiving
Day and Thanksgiving 2007 Date |
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 Thanksgiving
is a holiday celebrated in much of North America, generally
observed as an expression of gratitude, usually to God. The
most common view of its origin is that it was to give thanks
to God for the bounty of the autumn harvest.
Thanksgiving 2006 Date is November
22 in the United States and October 8 in Canada
In the United States,
the holiday is celebrated on the fourth Thursday in November.
In Canada, where the harvest generally ends earlier in the
year, the holiday is celebrated on the second Monday in October,
which is observed as Columbus Day or protested as Indigenous
Peoples Day in the United States . |
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Traditional
Celebration and Customs |
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 Thanksgiving is traditionally celebrated with a feast shared among friends and family. In both Canada and the United States, it is an important family gathering, and people often travel far distances to be with family members for the celebration. The Thanksgiving holiday is generally a "four-day" weekend in the United States, in which Americans are given the relevant Thursday and Friday off. Thanksgiving is almost entirely celebrated at home, unlike the Fourth of July or Christmas, which are associated with a variety of shared public experiences (fireworks, caroling, etc.). In Canada, it is a three-day weekend as Thanksgiving falls on a Monday.
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The
First Thanksgiving Proclamation |
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 Which U.S. president
made Thanksgiving a national holiday?
In the middle of the Civil War, prompted
by a series of editorials written by Sarah Josepha Hale,
the last of which appeared in the September 1863 issue of
Godey's Lady's Book, President
Abraham Lincoln proclaimed a national Thanksgiving
Day, to be celebrated on the final Thursday in November 1863:
The year that is drawing towards
its close, has been filled with the blessings of fruitful
fields and healthful skies. To these bounties, which
are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget
the source from which they come, others have been added,
which are of so extraordinary a nature, that they cannot
fail to penetrate and soften even the heart which is
habitually insensible to the ever watchful providence
of Almighty God. In the midst of a civil war of unequalled
magnitude and severity, which has sometimes seemed to
foreign States to invite and to provoke their aggression,
peace has been preserved with all nations, order has
been maintained, the laws have been respected and obeyed,
and harmony has prevailed everywhere except in the theatre
of military conflict; while that theatre has been greatly
contracted by the advancing armies and navies of the
Union. Needful diversions of wealth and of strength from
the fields of peaceful industry to the national defence,
have not arrested the plough, the shuttle, or the ship;
the axe had enlarged the borders of our settlements,
and the mines, as well of iron and coal as of the precious
metals, have yielded even more abundantly than heretofore.
Population has steadily increased, notwithstanding the
waste that has been made in the camp, the siege and the
battle-field; and the country, rejoicing in the consciousness
of augmented strength and vigor, is permitted to expect
continuance of years, with large increase of freedom.
No human counsel hath devised nor
hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They
are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who, while
dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless
remembered mercy.
It has seemed to me fit and proper
that they should be solemnly, reverently and gratefully
acknowledged as with one heart and voice by the whole
American people. I do therefore invite my fellow citizens
in every part of the United States, and also those who
are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands,
to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November
next, as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent
Father who dwelleth in the Heavens. And I recommend to
them that while offering up the ascriptions justly due
to Him for such singular deliverances and blessings,
they do also, with humble penitence for our national
perverseness and disobedience, commend to his tender
care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners
or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which
we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the
interposition of the Almighty Hand to heal the wounds
of the nation and to restore it as soon as may be consistent
with the Divine purposes to the full enjoyment of peace,
harmony, tranquillity and Union.
In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand, and
caused the seal of the United States to be affixed.
Done at the city of Washington, this third day of October,
in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and
sixty-three, and of the independence of the United States
the eighty-eighth.
-- Proclamation of President Abraham
Lincoln, 3 October 1863.
Since 1863, Thanksgiving has been
observed annually in the United States.  In 1939, President Franklin D. Roosevelt declared that Thanksgiving would be the next to last Thursday of November rather than the last. With the country still in the midst of The Great Depression, Roosevelt thought this would give merchants a longer period to sell goods before Christmas. Increasing profits and spending during this period, Roosevelt hoped, would aid bringing the country out of the Depression. At the time, it was considered inappropriate to advertise goods for Christmas until after Thanksgiving. However, Roosevelt's declaration was not mandatory; twenty-three states went along with this recommendation, and 22 did not. Other states, like Texas, could not decide and took both weeks as government holidays. Roosevelt persisted in 1940 to celebrate his "Franksgiving," as it was termed.
The U.S. Congress in 1941 split the difference and established that the Thanksgiving would occur annually on the fourth Thursday of November, which was sometimes the last Thursday and sometimes the next to last.
On November 26 that year
President Roosevelt signed this bill into US law. Beginning in 1947, the National Turkey Federation has presented the President of the United States with one live turkey and two dressed turkeys. The live turkey is pardoned and lives out the rest of its days on a peaceful farm.
Since 1970, a group of Native Americans and others have held a National Day of Mourning protest on Thanksgiving at Plymouth Rock in Plymouth, Massachusetts. |
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The
History of Thanksgiving in North America |
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 Thanksgiving is closely related to harvest festivals that had long been a traditional holiday in much of Europe. The first North American celebration of these festivals by Europeans was held in Newfoundland by the Frobisher Expedition in 1578. Another event claiming to be the first Thanksgiving occurred on December 4, 1619 when 38 colonists from Berkeley Parish in England disembarked in Virginia and gave thanks to God. Prior to this, there was also a thanksgiving feast celebrated on September 8, 1565 in St. Augustine when Pedro Menéndez de Avilés landed he and his men shared a feast with the natives.
Most people recognize the first Thanksgiving as taking place on an unremembered date, sometime in the autumn of 1621, when the Pilgrims held a three-day feast to celebrate the bountiful harvest they reaped following their first winter in North America.
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Thanksgiving
Day in the United States, Customs, Facts and Trivia |
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The Pilgrims set apart a day for thanksgiving at Plymouth immediately after their first harvest, in 1621; the Massachusetts Bay Colony for the first time in 1630, and frequently thereafter until about 1680, when it became an annual festival in that colony; and Connecticut as early as 1639 and annually after 1647, except in 1675. The Dutch in New Netherland appointed a day for giving thanks in 1644 and occasionally thereafter.
During the American Revolutionary War the Continental Congress appointed one or more thanksgiving days each year, except in 1777, each time recommending to the executives of the various states the observance of these days in their states.
 George Washington, leader of the revolutionary forces in the American Revolutionary War, proclaimed a Thanksgiving in December 1777 as a victory celebration honoring the defeat of the British at Saratoga. The Continental Congress proclaimed annual December Thanksgivings from 1777 to 1783, except in 1782.
George Washington again proclaimed Thanksgivings, now as President, in 1789 and 1795. President John Adams declared Thanksgivings in 1798 and 1799. President Madison, in response to resolutions of Congress, set apart a day for thanksgiving at the close of the War of 1812. Madison declared the holiday twice in 1815; however, none of these were celebrated in autumn.
One was annually appointed by the governor of New York from 1817. In some of the Southern States there was opposition to the observance of such a day on the ground that it was a relic of Puritanic bigotry, but by 1858 proclamations appointing a day of thanksgiving were issued by the governors of 25 states and two Territories.
In the middle of the Civil War, prompted by a series of editorials written by Sarah Josepha Hale, the last of which appeared in the September 1863 issue of Godey's Lady's Book, President Abraham Lincoln proclaimed a national Thanksgiving Day, to be celebrated on the final Thursday in November 1863. |
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Thanksgiving
Day in Canada |
 Canadians trace the holiday to a feast held by Martin Frobisher in Newfoundland in 1578. It is also probable that American loyalists who emigrated to Canada after American independence brought with them many of their Thanksgiving traditions.
- Long ago, before the first Europeans arrived in North
America, the farmers in Europe held celebrations at harvest
time. To give thanks for their good fortune and the abundance
of food, the farm workers filled a curved goat's horn with
fruit and grain. This symbol was called a cornucopia or
horn of plenty. When they came to Canada they brought this
tradition with them.
- In the year 1578, the English navigator
Martin Frobisher held a formal ceremony, in what is now
called Newfoundland, to give thanks for surviving the
long journey. He was later knighted and had an inlet of
the Atlantic Ocean in northern Canada named after him -
Frobisher Bay. Other settlers arrived and continued these
ceremonies.
- The third came in the year 1621, in what is
now the United States, when the Pilgrims celebrated their
harvest in the New World. The Pilgrims were English colonists
who had founded a permanent European settlement at Plymouth
Massachusetts. By the 1750's, this joyous celebration
was brought to Nova Scotia by American settlers from the
south.
The Thanksgiving celebration was held occasionally
in English areas of British North America in the eighteenth
century, especially in Nova Scotia. The holiday rose
to much greater prominence with the arrival of the United
Empire Loyalists fleeing the American Revolution. The
holiday became entrenched in English Canadian society.
It is however little celebrated in French-speaking Quebec,
but the official holiday also applies there.
The first official Canadian Thanksgiving Day was celebrated on April 5, 1872 in gratitude for the Prince of Wales' recovery from serious illness. The holiday was not officially recognized again till 1879, when parliament declared Thanksgiving to be an annual national secular holiday. The date was moved several times, finally being set on its current date (the second Monday in October) in 1957. For much of the period before 1957 parliament proclaimed the date annually. |
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Thanksgiving
Dinner |
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 The centerpiece of contemporary Thanksgiving
in the United States and Canada is a large meal in the late
afternoon or evening, starring a large roasted turkey. Because
turkey is the most common main dish of a Thanksgiving dinner,
thanksgiving is sometimes colloquially called Turkey Day.
The USDA estimated that 269 million turkeys were raised in
the country in 2003, about one-sixth of which were destined
for a Thanksgiving dinner plate.
Many other foods are served alongside the turkey-so many that, because of the amount of food, the Thanksgiving meal is generally served midday or early afternoon to make time for all the eating, and preparation may begin at the crack of dawn or days before.
Traditional Thanksgiving foods are sometimes specific to the day, and although some of the foods might be seen at any semi-formal meal in the United States , the meal often has something of ritual or traditional quality.
Commonly served dishes include cranberry sauce, gravy, mashed potatoes, candied yams, green beans and stuffing. For dessert, various pies are served, particularly pumpkin pie, strawberry-rhubarb pie and pecan pie.
Turkey Facts
- At one time, both the turkey and the bald eagle were
national symbols of America.
- According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, one-sixth
of the 300 million turkeys sold each year are sold for
Thanksgiving.
- A turkey under 16 weeks old is called a fryer ;
a roaster is usually five to seven months
old.
- Turkeys have great hearing, but no external ears.
- Age is the most important factor in the taste of a turkey.
Old males are preferable to young ones. The opposite is
true for female birds.
- Turkeys are the only breed of poultry native to the western
hemisphere.
There are also regional differences as
to the "stuffing" (or "dressing") traditionally served with the turkey. Southerners generally make theirs from cornbread, while in other parts of the country white bread is the base, to which oysters, apples, chestnuts, sausage or the turkey's giblets may be added. These eating patterns are very similar in Canada .
Foods other than turkey are sometimes served as the main dish for a Thanksgiving dinner. Goose and duck, foods which were traditional European centerpieces of Christmas dinners before being displaced by turkeys, are now ironically sometimes served in place of the Thanksgiving turkey. On the West Coast of the United States , Dungeness crab is common as an alternate main dish, as crab season starts in early November. Turducken, a turkey stuffed with a duck stuffed with a chicken, is becoming more popular, from its base in Louisiana . Deep fried turkey is rising in popularity as well, requiring special fryers to hold the large bird. In Maryland sauerkraut is eaten. Vegetarians or vegans may try tofurkey, a tofu concoction imitating a turkey.
Other dishes reflect the region or cultural background of those who have come together for the meal. For example, Italian-Americans often have lasagna on the table and Ashkenazi Jews may serve noodle kugel, a sweet pudding.
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Popular culture |
 As the holiday most associated with family gatherings in the U.S., Thanksgiving is often humorously portrayed in movies and television as an occasion for extended family members to bicker with one another.
A number of U.S. television programs have featured Thanksgiving Day specials. Friends, a program that aired on Thursday nights, was especially noted for this.
In the U.S., the song "Alice's Restaurant" by Arlo Guthrie is associated with Thanksgiving, as the precipitating events described in the song occurred on Thanksgiving of 1965. "Alice's Restaurant" is played by many radio stations across the country at least once on that day.
A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving
This sweet, heartwarming 1973 offering from the Peanuts gang (and Charles Schultz)
once again shows Charlie Brown in a pickle, as his erstwhile friends impose
upon the hapless would-be-host to provide a memorable and traditional Thanksgiving
feast. |
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Thanksgiving
Recipes: Traditional Pecan Pie Recipe |
 Ingredients :
Pastry (pie base):
- 1 cup plain flour
- ¼ cup cubed butter
- 2 tbsp castor sugar
- 1 egg yolk
Filling:
- ¾ cup golden syrup
- ¼ cup butter
- 1/3 cup brown sugar
- 3 eggs
- 1 and a ½ cup pecan nuts, halved
- ½ tsp vanilla essence
Preparation:
To make the pie base, crumb together the flour and butter with fingers. Then add the eggs, sugar and about 1 tablespoon of cold water and knead to smooth dough.
Roll out the dough and use to line an 8 inch pie tin. Prick the base and fill with baking beans. Refrigerate for about half an hour. In the meantime, preheat the oven to 200 deg C. Then bake the pastry base for about 10 minutes.
Heat the syrup, sugar and butter till the sugar dissolves. Cool slightly then add the eggs and vanilla essence. Lastly, stir in the pecan nuts.
Pour the mix into the pastry case and bake for about 40 minutes.
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Thanksgiving
Recipes: Thanksgiving Turkey Stuffing Recipe & Serving suggestions |
 45 minutes preparation
Ingredients :
- 2-2 1/2 loaves bread, torn up in small pieces
- 2 cups celery, chopped with celery leaves
- 2 cups onions or 1 onion, diced
- 1 cup fresh parsley, diced
- 1 tablespoon seasoning salt
- 2 teaspoons poultry seasoning
- 1 teaspoon pepper
- 1/2-1 cup butter
- 1 bouillon cube
- 1/2 cup water
- 9 eggs, beaten with some milk added
Preparation:
- Saute celery, onion& parsley in butter& chicken broth in a frying pan until soft.
- Add seasonings to torn up bread.
- Add celery, onion& parsley mixture to bread.
- Add beaten eggs& milk mixture to bread.
- Mix well.
- Bread should be moist enough to hold together well.
- Adjust with more eggs or milk.
- Put stuffing in turkey and pack fairly tight- do not stuff turkey until you are ready to put in the oven.
- Stuffing can be made the day before& stored in the fridge.
15-20 servings
3 hours 45 minutes cooking
For Thanksgiving in the United States,
turkey is traditionally served with cranberry sauce and gravy.
Other items vary, but common complimentary dishes include
mashed potatoes, biscuits, dinner rolls, black olives, various
vegetables such as corn, squash, sweet potatoes, and various
types of pies for dessert (such as pumpkin, apple and pecan). |
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Many of theese articles incorporates texts from, Wikipedia
and the 1911
Encyclopædia Britannica, which are in the public
domain.
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