DIDACTIC UNIT 3. 6TH COURSE. THANKSGIVING DAY. HISTORICAL BACKGROUND

 

What´s Thanksgiving?, when and where is it celebrated?

Which are its origins?, what´s its meaning?

What things do people do on Thanksgiving day?, what do they eat?, why do they get together?

Read this text and you´ll see why Thanksgiving is so important in the U.S.A.

 

THANKSGIVING. HISTORICAL BACKGROUND

On September 16th, 1620, the ship the Mayflower left Plymouth Harbour in England with 110 passengers. The passengers called themselves the “Pilgrims”. The Mayflower arrived in Massachussets 66 days later, on November 10th, 1620.

The winter of 1620 was very cold and the snow made it difficult for the Pilgrims to build houses. In the spring of 1621 there were less than 50 Pilgrims left alive

On March 16th, 1621, a native American (Indian) from the Patuxet tribe visited the Pilgrims. He was named Samoset. Soon afterwards, he visited them again with a friend called Squanto, who spoke English very good.

Squanto taught the settlers how to plant Indian corn, how to get syrup from the maple trees and how to tell the difference between good and bad plants

In October the Pilgrims had a lot of food from the fields after the harvest. They invited Squanto and the other Indians to join them for a thanksgiving celebration.

For the next 200 years, thanksgiving was celebrated as a harvest festival. In 1863, President Abraham Lincoln said there would be a national day of thanksgiving. Since 1941 Americans have officially celebrated Thanksgiving Day on the fourth Thursday in November. In Canada Thanksgiving is celebrated on the second Monday of October.

This year (2024) on November 28th people all over the USA, and North Americans around the world, will get together in families to enjoy roast turkey and cranberry sauce. They will also eat corn, sweet potatoes and pumpkin pie.