Thanksgiving is celebrated in United States and Canada as is considered as the day of harvest festival. Thanksgiving is a way to express Thankfulness, gratitude and appreciation to God, family and friends for being blessed with various relationships and material possessions. Traditionally, it’s the time to thank for the bountiful harvest. Thanksgiving Day is celebrated on the fourth Thursday of November in the United States and second Monday of October in Canada.
Thanksgiving was observed on various different dates throughout history in the United States. By the mid 20th century, the final Thursday in November had become the customary day of Thanksgiving in most U.S. states. It was not until December 26, 1941 however that President Franklin D. Roosevelt, after pushing two years earlier to move the date earlier to give the country an economic boost, signed a bill into law, with congress, making Thanksgiving a national holiday and settling it to the fourth (but not final) Thursday in November. Beginning with George Washington in 1789, annual presidential proclamations had declared the last Thursday of November as the Thanksgiving date. However, in 1941, a United States Congressional declaration officially designated the fourth Thursday of November as the date of the Thanksgiving holiday. Thanksgiving has been an annual tradition in the United States since 1863.
U.S. tradition compares the holiday with a meal held in 1621 by the Wampanoag and the Pilgrims who settled in Plymouth, Massachusetts. It is continued in modern times with the Thanksgiving dinner, traditionally featuring turkey, playing a large role in the celebration of Thanksgiving.
It is thought that the first Thanksgiving was celebrated to give thanks to God for helping the Pilgrims of Plymouth Colony survive their first brutal winter in New England. The first Thanksgiving feast lasted three days providing enough food for 53 pilgrims and 90 Native Americans. The feast consisted of fowl, venison, fish, lobster, clams, berries, fruit, pumpkin, and squash. William Bradford’s note that, “besides waterfowl, there was great store of wild turkeys, of which they took many,” probably gave rise to the American tradition of eating turkey at Thanksgiving.
As President, George Washington on October 3, 1789 made the proclamation and created the first Thanksgiving Day designated by the national government of the United States of America and again proclaimed a Thanksgiving in 1795. President John Adams declared Thanksgivings in 1798 and 1799. No Thanksgiving proclamations were issued by Thomas Jefferson but James Madison renewed the tradition in 1814, in response to resolutions of Congress, at the close of the War of 1812. Madison also declared the holiday twice in 1815; however, none of these were celebrated in autumn. In 1816, Governor Plumer of New Hampshire appointed Thursday, November 14 to be observed as a day of Public Thanksgiving and Governor Brooks of Massachusetts appointed Thursday, November 28 to be “observed throughout that State as a day of Thanksgiving.”
A thanksgiving day was annually appointed by the governor of New York from 1817. In some of the Southern states there was opposition to the observance of such a day on the ground that it was a relic of Puritanic bigotry, but by 1858 proclamations appointing a day of thanksgiving were issued by the governors of 25 states and two territories. In the middle of the American Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln, prompted by a series of editorials written by Sarah Josepha Hale, proclaimed a national Thanksgiving Day, to be celebrated on the final Thursday in November 1863. Since 1863, Thanksgiving has been observed annually in the United States.
During the second half of the 19th century, Thanksgiving traditions in America varied from region to region. A traditional New England Thanksgiving, for example, consisted of a raffle held on Thanksgiving eve (in which the prizes were mainly geese or turkeys), a shooting match on Thanksgiving morning (in which unfortunate turkeys and chickens were used as targets), church services, and then the traditional feast which consisted of some familiar Thanksgiving staples such as turkey and pumpkin pie, and some not familiar dishes such as pigeon pie. In New York City, people would dress up in fanciful masks and costumes and roam the streets in merry-making mobs.
In the United States, food is cooked traditionally and served at Thanksgiving meals. Firstly, baked or roasted turkey is usually the featured item on any Thanksgiving feast table (so much so that Thanksgiving is sometimes referred to as “Turkey Day”). Stuffing, mashed potatoes with gravy, sweet potatoes, cranberry sauce, sweet corn, other fall vegetables, and pumpkin pie are commonly associated with Thanksgiving dinner. All of these are actually native to the Americans and were introduced as a new food source to the Europeans when they arrived.
Turkey kofta korma
At home, it is a holiday tradition in many families to begin the Thanksgiving dinner by saying grace (a prayer before or after a meal). Traditionally grace was led by the hostess or host, though in later times it is usual for others to contribute. During Thanksgiving Day families and friends usually gather for a large meal or dinner.
Another modern staple at almost every Thanksgiving table is pumpkin pie. But it is unlikely that the first feast included that treat. Of all the Thanksgiving symbols the Turkey has become the most well known. The wild turkey is native to northern Mexico and the eastern United States.
The turkey was originally domesticated in Mexico, and was brought into Europe early in the 16th century. Since that time, turkeys have been extensively raised because of the excellent quality of their meat and eggs. Some of the common breeds of turkey in the United States are the Bronze, Narragansett, White Holland, and Bourbon Red. Though there is no real evidence that turkey was served at the Pilgrim’s first thanksgiving, in a book written by the Pilgrim’s Governor Bradford he does make mention of wild turkeys.
Thanksgiving Day is one of the days that many people look forward because the majority of their family members will be together. It is a time of happiness and joy. It’s a day to have a special Thanksgiving dinner where they prepare majority of traditional dishes. The center of the table is generally placed with a large roasted turkey. Most Thanksgiving turkeys are stuffed with bread based stuffing and roasted or they have the deep fried turkey. Traditional Thanksgiving foods are incomplete without the cranberry sauce, yams, mashed potatoes, corn on the cob, deviled eggs, green beans, peas & carrots, bread rolls, cornbread, biscuits, apple pie, meat pie, pumpkin pie, pecan pie and many more. This is the true way of Thanksgiving tradition that never goes out of style.
For most of the old people, this is the day to be grateful and thank for what they have received during the year. When everyone is gathered around the table for the holiday meal, they may each be asked to share what they are most thankful for that year. This is actually a tradition in many families that is repeated each year.
I wish you all make a memorable feast of your bountiful harvest and
May your stuffing be tasty
May your turkey plump,
May your potatoes and gravy
Have never a lump.
May your yams be delicious
And your pies take the prize,
And may your Thanksgiving dinner
Stay off your thighs!
The year yields its harvest
sharing abundant blessings
may your thanksgiving be blessed.
|Recipe of Veggi-Thanksgiving|
|all type of vegetables
Directions | How to make Veggi-Thanksgiving
|take a pan add water and butter bring it to boil and add all the vegetables and bread crumbs mix well cook till all the vegetables are cooked now add cheese and switch off the flame and transfer it into a baking tray.
Cut potato and sweet potato in to round, arrange on the top of the beaking tray add some butter and bake it for 320 f for 30 to 40 mins.