What is Thanksgiving?
Understanding Thanksgiving
We have heard many things about the term “Thanksgiving” but the literal meaning of this festival or tradition is still a poll! Different countries celebrate it differently and on different dates with different clothing, type of food with varying reasons.
If we rush through history, Thanksgiving is widely celebrated on the 4th Thursday of November every year in the U.S, Puerto Rico & Brazil. In Canada, it is celebrated on the 2nd Monday of October every year. In Norfolk Island i.e. in the South Pacific Ocean it is celebrated on the 4th Wednesday of November every year. While Liberia celebrates Thanksgiving on the 1st Thursday of November every year, also Korea celebrates between late September & early October. Israel celebrates on the 15th Day of the month of Tishrei i.e. in the Gregorian Calendar between late September & late October. Grenada celebrates on the 25th of October every year, while Saint Lucia celebrates on 5th October every year.
The true story behind Thanksgiving
Thanksgiving also has an alias known as Harvest Festival & Labor Thanksgiving. Every country has its way of celebrating this tradition. It was first laid down by the French settlers in Canada. It is believed that these settlers celebrated this tradition in 1578 when a globetrotter named Martin Frobisher survived the journey of exploring which he first started from England. Later, as this was observed and loved by different countries this festival was soon declared as the Annual Harvest Affair in the 1660s.
It is also said that Thanksgiving for the first time was celebrated in Plymouth of the United States in 1621 for consecutive 3 days. Here, the Wampanoag Indians were also observed who taught the pilgrims there to cultivate the land and celebrate it more precisely as it was all about the Harvest and blessings that the land offered over a year.
Now if we discuss what was prepared for the 1st Thanksgiving feast it was chicken, rabbit, vegetables like cabbage, carrots, onions, leeks, fishes like lobsters, chestnuts, honey/maple syrup & some dried fruits. Nowadays, Thanksgiving has mashed potatoes, stuffed turkeys, Mushrooms, Eggplant, Brussels sprouts, Gravy, Beans (green), pumpkin pie, Corns, Cranberry sauce, Macaroni with Cheese and, Casseroles.
