Thanksgiving Day
Every Thanksgiving Day, there’s a huge parade in New York City. It is
put on by a big department store. The parade is famous for giant
balloons of favorite comic and storybook characters such as Snoopy.
Harvest holiday
Mm-mmmm! Smell the turkey cooking! It’s Thanksgiving Day and company’s
coming! In the United States and Canada, this is a special holiday.
Families and friends gather to eat and give thanks for their blessings.
Thanksgiving Day is really a harvest festival. This is why it is
celebrated in late fall, after the crops are in. But one of the
first thanksgivings in America had nothing to do with a good harvest. On
December 4, 1619, colonists from England landed near what is now Charles
City, Virginia. They knelt down and thanked God for their safe journey
across the Atlantic.
The first New England Thanksgiving did celebrate a plentiful harvest.
The Pilgrims landed at what is now Plymouth, Massachusetts, in 1620.
They had a difficult time, and the first winter was cruel. Many of the
Pilgrims died. But the next year, in 1621, they had a good harvest. So,
Governor Bradford declared a three-day feast.
The Pilgrims invited Indian friends to join them for the special feast.
Everyone brought food. There was fish, deer meat (venison), turkey, and
duck. Corn was crushed to make hot corn-meal bread and Indian pudding.
In time, other colonies began to celebrate a day of thanksgiving. But
there was no national Thanksgiving Day.
During the Civil War, Sarah Josepha Hale, who wrote \”Mary Had a Little
Lamb,” convinced Abraham Lincoln to do something about it. He proclaimed
the last Thursday of November 1863 as a day of prayerful thanksgiving.
Today, Americans celebrate this happy harvest festival on the fourth
Thursday in November.
Canadians celebrate Thanksgiving Day in much the same way as their
American neighbors. But the Canadian Thanksgiving Day falls on the
second Monday in October.
