Thanksgiving

Do you feel like tasting all this food? Well, this is typical from Thanksgiving! Our next most popular national holiday in the USA. It is an annual national holiday in the United States and Canada. This holiday is particularly rich in legend and symbolism. 

Probably, you are wondering when Thanksgiving is celebrated. It is on the 4th Thursday of November and it is a Harvest Festival to celebrate the blessings of the year. The first day after Thanksgiving is the widely known Black Friday and it marks the start of the Christmas shopping season. 

But, how did Thanksgiving become a national holiday? Sarah Josepha Hale campaigned for a national Thanksgiving in the US during the 19th century, eventually winning President Abraham Lincoln's support in 1863. He and the subsequent presidents proclaimed a national day of thanksgiving annually until 1941 when Congress made Thanksgiving official by specifying the day of its celebration. 

 
But nowadays, can you imagine how it is celebrated? In many American households, the Thanksgiving celebration has lost much of its original religious significance; instead, it now centers on cooking and sharing a family meal with lots of typical products such as turkey, sweet potatoes, salad, cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes, pumpkin, etc. Turkey, a Thanksgiving staple so ubiquitous it has become all but synonymous with the holiday, may or may not have been on offer when the Pilgrims hosted the inaugural feast in 1621. They also attend religious services, see special sporting events or go with their family to see parades. One of the most famous and largest is the one in New York City named Macy's Thanksgiving parade: 

This tradition emerged when colonists in America celebrated it thanking God for the military victories and for the end of the drought. 

In 1619, 38 English settlers arrived in Virginia, and the native Americans helped the Pilgrims to get through the winter. And, why did the Pilgrims come to America? Several powerful reasons propelled them across the Atlantic Ocean to make new lives in America -but religious liberty wasn't their most pressing concern. The Pilgrims had no reason to leave the Dutch Republic in order to seek religious toleration because they already had it. Therefore, we have to look for other reasons and one of the big ones is commercial. 

This parade attracts around 2 to 3 million spectators every year along its 2.5-mile route and draws an enormous television audience. It typically features marching bands, performers, elaborate floats conveying various celebrities, and giant balloons shaped like cartoon characters. 

Beginning in the mid-20th century and perhaps even earlier, the president of the USA has "pardoned" one or two Thanksgiving turkeys each year, sparing the birds from slaughter and sending them to a farm for retirement. A number of US governors also perform the annual turkey pardoning ritual. 

Author: Andrea Delgado Calle