Ministry of Education

Centro Educativo Cultural Bilinge Ezer

English work

Topic:
Thanksgiving Day

Presented by:
Ilioska Nadiuska Vargas Vega

Grade:
XI A

Teacher
Bryan Montenegro
 WHAT IS A THANKSGIVING DAY?

Thanksgiving Day is a national holiday

celebrated in Canada, the United
States, some of the Caribbean islands,
and Liberia. It began as a day of giving
thanks for the blessing of
the harvest and of the preceding year.

Similarly named festival holidays occur in Germany and Japan.

Thanksgiving is celebrated on the second Monday of October in
Canada and on the fourth Thursday of November in the United
States, and around the same part of the year in other places.
Although Thanksgiving has historical roots in religious and cultural
traditions, it has long been celebrated as a secular holiday as well.

Thanksgiving Day is a national holiday celebrated in Canada,

the United States, some of the Caribbean islands, and Liberia. It
began as a day of giving thanks for the blessing of the harvest and
of the preceding year. Similarly named festival holidays occur in
Germany and Japan. Thanksgiving is celebrated on the second
Monday of October in Canada and on the fourth Thursday of
November in the United States, and around the same part of the
year in other places. Although Thanksgiving has historical roots in
religious and cultural traditions, it has long been celebrated as
a secular holiday as well.

Date 2017 date

2nd Monday in October (Canada) October 9, 2017 (Canada);

1st Thursday in November (Liberia) November 2, 2017 (Liberia);

Last Wednesday in November (Norfolk November 29, 2017 (Norfolk Island);

Island)
November 23, 2017 (U.S., Puerto Rico)
Fourth Thursday in November (U.S., Puerto
Rico)
 HISTORY

Prayers of thanks and special

thanksgiving ceremonies are
common among almost all religions
after harvests and at other times.
The Thanksgiving holiday's history
in North America is rooted in
English traditions dating from the Protestant Reformation. It also
has aspects of a harvest festival, even though the harvest in New
England occurs well before the late-November date on which the
modern Thanksgiving holiday is celebrated.

In the English tradition, days of thanksgiving and special

thanksgiving religious services became important during
the English Reformation in the reign of Henry VIII and in reaction
to the large number of religious holidays on the Catholic calendar.

Before 1536 there were 95 Church holidays, plus 52 Sundays,

when people were required to attend church and forego work and
sometimes pay for expensive celebrations. The 1536 reforms
reduced the number of Church holidays to 27, but
some Puritans wished to completely eliminate all Church holidays,
including Christmas and Easter.

History in Canada
The origins of Canadian Thanksgiving are also sometimes traced
to the French settlers who came to New France in the 17th
century, who celebrated their successful harvests. The French
settlers in the area typically had feasts at the end of the harvest
season and continued throughout the winter season, even sharing
food with the indigenous peoples of the area.

History in USA

In the United States, the modern

Thanksgiving holiday tradition is
traced to a sparsely documented
1621 celebration at Plymouth in
present-day Massachusetts, and
also to a well recorded 1619 event in Virginia.

The 1621 Plymouth feast and thanksgiving was prompted by a

good harvest. Pilgrims and Puritans who began emigrating from
England in the 1620s and 1630s carried the tradition of Days of
Fasting and Days of Thanksgiving with them to New England. The
1619 arrival of 38 English settlers at Berkeley Hundred in Charles
City County, Virginia, concluded with a religious celebration as
dictated by the group's charter from the London Company, which
specifically required "that the day of our ships arrival at the place
assigned ... in the land of Virginia shall be yearly and perpetually
kept holy as a day of thanksgiving to Almighty God."

Thanksgiving proclamations were made mostly by church leaders

in New England up until 1682, and then by both state and church
leaders until after the American Revolution. During the
revolutionary period, political influences affected the issuance of
Thanksgiving proclamations.

As President of the United States, George

Washington proclaimed the first nationwide
thanksgiving celebration in America
marking November 26, 1789, "as a day of
public thanksgiving and prayer to be
observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many and
signal favours of Almighty God.

THANKSGIVING FOODS

According to what traditionally is known as "The First

Thanksgiving," the 1621 feast between the Pilgrims and
the Wampanoag at Plymouth Colony contained waterfowl,
venison, fish, lobster, clams, berries, fruit, pumpkin,
and squash. William Bradford noted that, "besides waterfowl and
cider, there was great store of wild turkeys, of which they took
many." Many of the foods that were included in the first feast
(except, notably, the seafood)
have since gone on to become
staples of the
modern Thanksgiving dinner.

Early feasts of the Order of Good

Cheer, a French-Canadian
predecessor to the modern Thanksgiving, featured
a potluck dinner with freshly-hunted fowl, game, and fish, hunted
and shared by both French Canadians and local natives.

Many Americans would say it is "incomplete" without cranberry

sauce, stuffing or dressing, mashed potatoes, and gravy. Other
commonly served dishes include winter squash and sweet
potatoes, the latter often prepared with sweeteners such as brown
sugar, molasses, or marshmallows. Fresh, canned, or frozen corn is
popular and green beans, often served as green bean casserole,
are frequently served.

The beverages at Thanksgiving can vary as much as the side

dishes, often depending on who is present at the table and their
tastes. Spirits or cocktails sometimes may be served before the
main meal. On the dinner table, unfermented apple cider (still or
sparkling) or wine are often served. Pitchers of sweet tea can
often be found on Southern tables.

PARADES
Since 1924, in New York City, the
Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade is
held annually every Thanksgiving
Day from the Upper West Side of
Manhattan to Macy's flagship store
in Herald Square, and televised
nationally by NBC. The parade features parade floats with specific
themes, scenes from Broadway plays, large balloons of cartoon
characters, TV personalities, and high school marching bands. The
float that traditionally ends the Macy's Parade is the Santa Claus
float, the arrival of which is an unofficial sign of the beginning of
the Christmas season. It is billed as the world's largest parade.

Founded in 1924, the same year as the Macy's parade, America's

Thanksgiving Parade in Detroit is one of the largest parades in the
country. The parade runs from Midtown to Downtown Detroit and
precedes the annual Detroit Lions Thanksgiving football game. The
parade includes large balloons, marching bands, and various
celebrity guests much like the Macy's parade and is nationally
televised on various affiliate stations. The Mayor of Detroit closes
the parade by giving Santa Claus a key to the city.

There are Thanksgiving parades in many other cities, including:

Ameren Missouri Thanksgiving Day Parade (St. Louis,

Missouri)
 America's Hometown Thanksgiving Parade (Plymouth,
Massachusetts)
Belk Carolinas' Carrousel Parade (Charlotte, North Carolina)
Celebrate the Season Parade (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania)
First Light Federal Credit Union Sun Bowl Parade (El Paso,
Texas)
H-E-B Holiday Parade (Houston, Texas)
McDonald's Thanksgiving Parade (Chicago, Illinois)
Santa Claus Parade (Peoria, Illinois), the nation's oldest,
dating to 1887 and held the day after Thanksgiving
Parada de los Cerros Thanksgiving Day Parade (Fountain
Hills, Arizona)
UBS Parade Spectacular (Stamford, Connecticut) held the
Sunday before Thanksgiving so it doesn't directly compete
with the Macy's parade 30 miles (48 km) away.

Most of these parades are televised on a local station, and some

have small, usually regional, syndication networks; most also carry
the parades via Internet television on the TV stations' websites.
 DAYS AFTER THANKSGIVING

The day after Thanksgiving is a day off for some companies and
most schools, particularly those that remain open on Columbus
Day. It is known as Black Friday and has historically been known
as a day for chaotic, early-morning sales at major retailers that
were historically closed on Thanksgiving; those who oppose the
consumerist nature of the day can instead participate in Buy
Nothing Day. The day after Thanksgiving is also Native American
Heritage Day, a day to pay tribute to Native Americans for their
many contributions to the United States.

Small Business Saturday, a movement promoting shopping at

smaller local establishments, takes place on the last Saturday in
November, two days after Thanksgiving. Cyber Monday is a
nickname given to the Monday following Thanksgiving; the day
evolved in the early days of the Internet, when consumers
returning to work took advantage of their employers' broadband
Internet connections to do online shopping and retailers began
offering sales to meet the demand. Giving Tuesday takes place on
the Tuesday after Thanksgiving.