The festive season in North America begins in October and until the New Year. Opens his Thanksgiving. Rituals dedicated to harvesting existed in different countries. In Germany there is a Thanksgiving Day, but it has a completely different story, which dates back to Roman times. To the American holiday, which will be discussed here, this tradition has nothing to do. In the New World, this event symbolizes more salvation of the colonists from destruction than the autumn harvest of a rich harvest.
The History of Thanksgiving in America
The English pilgrims went to the new continent in search of a good life. But if it were not for the help of the Indian neighbors, the inexperienced Europeans would hardly have been stretched here long. It was they who taught the colonists to hunt local game, to grow corn and other useful plants. This made it possible for people to adapt and get a good harvest in 1621. The settlers decided to thank the Lord and arranged a feast for him in his honor. He was even invited to the savage Indians, who visited their new neighbors as guests of honor. Although the new Americans soon forgot about their hospitality, and the warlike local leader, in general, was chopped off after a couple of years. This is the short story of the American Thanksgiving Day.
From an unofficial holiday, he became a national event a hundred years later, which is widely celebrated all over America. In the US it is celebrated on the fourth Thursday of November. In Canada, Thanksgiving is celebrated a little earlier - on the second Monday of October . For the first time it was celebrated in 1578, in honor of the rescue from the hunger of a marine expedition by Martin Frobisher, who was looking for the Northwest Passage.
Symbols and traditional Thanksgiving dishes
The chroniclers say that at that time the most popular meat dish was venison, but now every American on Thanksgiving Day always buys a fat turkey . To this dish, the table is most often served with potatoes, pumpkin pie and cranberry jelly. Many people take the turkey in the church, as well as in the canteens for the poor. By the way, at many enterprises on the eve of the holiday of the carcass of this bird employers give their workers for free, in the form of a traditional gift. In the United States on this day, colorful parades are held in many cities, on which large cheerful processions of people in Indian costumes and ancient dresses of the first settlers are marching.