Thanksgiving

A Celebratory Thanksgiving Feast

Thanksgiving Day is an annual national holiday in the United States and Canada celebrating the harvest and other blessings of the past year. This custom of giving thanks for the annual harvest is one of the world's oldest celebrations and can be traced back to the dawn of civilisation. 

The First Thanksgiving

At Resolute we can’t wait for you to join us for our Thanksgiving Tour Package. Whilst this blog is giving an overview of Thanksgiving itself, check back with us later in the month for more blogs on where our tours will take you on this special day.

The History of Thanksgiving

The concept of Thanksgiving is thought to be modelled on a 1621 harvest feast shared by the English colonists (Pilgrims) of Plymouth and the Wampanoag people, when the pilgrims gave thanks for their first bountiful harvest in Plymouth Rock. The settlers had arrived in November 1620, founding the first permanent English settlement in the New England region. This famous American holiday is thus particularly rich in legend and symbolism.

This first Thanksgiving was celebrated for three days, with the settlers feasting with the natives on dried fruits, boiled pumpkin, turkey, venison and much more. The celebration, however, was not repeated until many years later, when in 1789 George Washington proclaimed Thanksgiving to be a national holiday on Thursday November 26th that year - setting the precedent of the last Thursday in November. Despite this, the holiday was celebrated on different days from state to state and Thomas Jefferson later did away with the holiday. 

Thanksgiving didn't become a nationwide holiday until President Lincoln proclaimed the last Thursday in November a national day of Thanksgiving in 1863. Every year following, the President proclaimed a day of Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving was switched from the final Thursday in November to the next-to-last Thursday in November by President Roosevelt in 1939 as he wanted to create a longer Christmas shopping period to simulate the economy which was still recovering after the Great Depression. This caused widespread confusion with many states ignoring the change until Congress sanctioned the fourth Thursday in November as a legal holiday in 1941.

Thanksgiving Traditions

Each year Americans in the United States celebrate the Thanksgiving holiday and most families follow traditions begun on the first Thanksgiving and some have their own traditions. Here are some of the common traditions associated with this celebratory day.

Families Reuniting on Thanksgiving

Most years, one of the best things about Thanksgiving is spending time with family. Many people live far from family members and travel long distances by car, train, or plane to be with their loved ones. Thanksgiving is often one of the busiest travel days of the year. Another tradition is that each year at Thanksgiving, the president of the United States receives a gift of two live turkeys. At a White House ceremony, the president traditionally "pardons" the National Thanksgiving Turkeys so they can live on a farm.

Traditional foods are a large part of Thanksgiving celebrations. Many families include the entire family in the food preparation. Traditional foods include turkey, stuffing, gravy, sweet potatoes, cornbread, mashed potatoes, and cranberry sauce. Many people serve pie for dessert at the end of the meal. Popular pie flavors are pumpkin, pecan, sweet potato, and apple.

Thanksgiving Pie

Some families include breaking the turkey's wishbone as part of their celebration. The wishbone is found attached to the breast meat in the turkey's chest. After the meat has been removed and the wishbone has had a chance to become dry and brittle, two people each take one end of the bone, make a wish, and pull. Whoever ends up with the larger part of the bone gets their wish - wonder who will get their wish at our celebratory dinner?

Sources Used:

https://www.britannica.com/topic/Thanksgiving-Day

https://kids.nationalgeographic.com/history/article/thanksgiving-traditions

https://www.officeholidays.com/holidays/usa/thanksgiving