Mm-mmmm! Smell the turkey cooking! It’s Thanksgiving Day and company’s coming! In the U.S.A. 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. That’s why it is celebrated in late autumn, after the crops have been gathered.
The Pilgrims of New England celebrated the first harvest thanksgiving. They were early English settlers who went to America in 1620 looking for a better life. The Pilgrims had a hard time during their first year, many of them dying during the first winter. But the next year, in 1621, they had a good harvest. So, their governor declared a three-day feast.
The Pilgrims invited American Indian friends to join them for the special feast. In time, other colonies began to celebrate a day of thanksgiving.
Today, people in the U.S.A. celebrate Thanksgiving on the fourth Thursday in November. Canadians celebrate Thanksgiving Day on the second Monday in October.
For thousands of years, people in many parts of the world have held harvest festivals. The Chinese Mid-Autumn Festival was once a celebration of the end of the rice harvest. African Americans celebrate the African harvest at the end of December.
Picture Credit : Google