By Shanfeng
In the golden autumn of October, when the maple leaves spread over the magnificent rivers and mountains of Canada, the annual festival-Thanksgiving begins.
Thanksgiving is an important holiday for both Canadians and Americans. During this holiday, people reunite with their families and share food and drinks. The most essential meal on the Thanksgiving table, however, is turkey.
Do you know why you eat turkey on Thanksgiving? What is the origin of Thanksgiving?
Today, WOW NATURE is here to tell you about this wonderful festivity!
Thanksgiving, as the name suggests, is a holiday of gratitude and giving. Canada and the United States have their own origins of Thanksgiving.
Canada’s Thanksgiving Day began in 1578 with Martin Frobisher’s exploration of the Northwest Passage in the Arctic Circle. After three expeditions and overwhelming difficulties, Frobisher finally completed the dangerous voyage from England to Canada full of storms and icebergs. Because of his accomplishment, he held a gratitude celebration on Baffin Island (now Nunavut) in Frobisher Bay, in order to thank the Christian gods for the blessing of his adventure.
Canada’s first official Thanksgiving Day was October 14, 1872. Since then, due to various factors, the Canadian Parliament eventually adjusted Thanksgiving Day to the second Monday of October in 1957, and this date has been the same since.
Thanksgiving Day in the United States originated in 1620. A passenger ship, the Mayflower, sailing from Plymouth to Plymouth Colony, Massachusetts, was loaded with Puritans and successfully reached the North American continent. In the winter of that year, many new immigrants were hungry, cold, sick, and died. With the help of the local indigenous peoples, the new immigrants learned to hunt and grow corn and pumpkins, and they had a harvest the following year. On the harvest day, new immigrants from Europe invited the indigenous peoples to reunite and thank God for the gift. In 1863, President Lincoln first declared that the last Thursday of November was Federal Thanksgiving. On December 26, 1941, President Roosevelt Jr., in order to use Thanksgiving to boost the US economy, signed a resolution of Congress to formally change the date of Thanksgiving from the last Thursday of November to the fourth Thursday of November, thus the United States is grateful. The celebration date continues to this day. Thanksgiving in Canada and the United States are both very different and very similar.
Canada’s Thanksgiving Day is also an earlier date, mainly thanks to God’s harvest. Thanks to the harvest, nature, sunshine and nectar, the grain grows as the theme of gratitude, without religious overtones. During the festival, family reunions are the main focus, and the entertainment and shopping atmosphere is relatively low-key. The United States is located in southern Canada where the autumn harvest season is later, and the holidays are also relatively later. Americans celebrate Thanksgiving all over the country, with entertainment, performances, movies, and sports events. Every year on the second day of Thanksgiving, that is, Black Friday, major shopping venues will sell goods at a much lower price than usual. Many people will go out with their families after the reunion, and line up day and night to shop for high-quality and low-priced goods.
Thanksgiving food in Canada and the United States has always been wine and delicacies. The traditional Thanksgiving meal includes roast turkey, roasted sweet potatoes and winter vegetables, walnut pumpkin pie, and side dishes include gravy mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, cranberry jam, sweet corn and various vegetables.
On Thanksgiving Day, family members all return from the north and the south. The family gathers together, chew delicious turkey, drink fine wine, and talk about the past. The atmosphere is warm and harmonious. After meals, I often offer to play traditional games. I love getting the family involved in various competitions and other entertainment activities. In addition, people also carry out charitable events. Most communities will donate non-perishable foods and canned foods to people in difficult situations, and companies may sponsor the charity for the distribution of food.
So, why do we eat turkey on Thanksgiving?
In 1620, the British Puritans who came to the United States through hardships faced an unfamiliar place and lacked food and clothing. At that time, turkeys could be seen everywhere in North America. Turkeys attracted attention for their large size, rapid growth, strong disease resistance, and high lean meat rate. These new immigrants turned the hunted turkey into delicacies and treated the indigenous peoples with great hospitality. According to research, turkey meat is not only tender and light but also has the advantages of "one high and two low" in terms of nutritional value. Turkey is high in protein and also considered to be an ideal health food for patients with cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases. It is also good food therapy for replenishing qi and the spleen. Currently, many countries in the world substitute turkey for beef, pork, lamb and duck.
US President Pardons Thanksgiving Turkey
Every year on Thanksgiving Day, the President of the United States will "pardon" one or two turkeys. These turkeys will be raised until they are old and will never be slaughtered. There are many theories about the origin of this tradition. One of them refers to President John F. Kennedy. Three days before his assassination, he announced at the White House that he "released" a turkey to show his good virtuousness. Another theory is that the tradition of pardoning turkeys began when President Abraham Lincoln’s son Tad Lincoln asked his father to release a turkey that the White House chef planned to slaughter, and Lincoln agreed. It is also said that it originated from President Truman, who once released the turkey brought by the guests and was passed on as a good story. In 1989, President Bush Sr. officially established the custom of "pardoning turkeys" when he was in office. At that time, Bush Sr. received the turkey as a Thanksgiving gift. He publicly said in the Rose Garden of the White House, "It has now been pardoned by the President and approved. Spend the rest of your life on a farm near here." As a result, every American president after that has maintained this tradition during Thanksgiving.
Unexpectedly, there are so many little-known stories about Thanksgiving.
Thanksgiving is coming. On this special day, let us be grateful to our parents for bringing us life, to be grateful for God’s patronage for us to have opportunities, and to be grateful for everything that life brings us. . . . . . , Always cherish gratitude, and always show gratitude. To create a better life.
Article content and pictures are taken from Wikipedia
fantastic!