| Thanksgiving encompasses the concepts of | | | | The concept of friendship and diplomacy between the |
| gratefulness and friendship. As a holiday, it has a | | | | Indians and the colonists, unfortunately, did not remain |
| special history and a plethora of rituals. The idea of | | | | for very long. The quick increase of the colonist |
| giving thanks for food and friendship did not start with | | | | population in New England led to tension and wars. |
| today's Thanksgiving holiday. It was always there, even | | | | The early colonists were not called pilgrims. The word |
| before the major religions admitted it inside their rituals. | | | | "pilgrim" was coined, out of context, during the early |
| Earlier than the time humans settled down in certain | | | | nineteenth century, and the idea to make Thanksgiving |
| parts of the planet earth, the hunters rejoiced and | | | | a national holiday spread around much later when a |
| thanked their gods of nature for making the prey | | | | book, Chronicles of the Pilgrim Forefathers was |
| available. Later, when the settlements formed and | | | | published. In time, what had started as a harvest |
| people learned farming, giving thanks for nature's gifts | | | | celebration became the national holiday, Thanksgiving, |
| after a bountiful harvest became a seasonal | | | | in 1863. |
| ceremony. | | | | This holiday owes its birth to a woman, Sarah Josepha |
| Autumn is known to be a generous season to the | | | | Buell Hale--the editor of a women's magazine Godey's |
| New England area with its game and harvests. During | | | | Lady Book. Mrs. Hale campaigned for years before |
| the late sixteenth century, the Europeans who | | | | she was successful to convince President Lincoln to |
| migrated to the Americas wrote about the different | | | | proclaim it as a national holiday. Since the American |
| and flavorsome foods found in the new continent. The | | | | South saw this as a Yankee holiday, they made up |
| Wampanoag, the indigenous people of the New | | | | their own Thanksgiving Day; however, the holiday took |
| England with whom the early settlers celebrated the | | | | hold, and each ethnic community who immigrated to |
| first Thanksgiving, already had celebratory rituals | | | | the new world added its own special touch to the |
| showing their thankfulness to nature. | | | | food and the entertainment of the day. |
| Having gone through times of hunger and deprivation, | | | | In our time, a classic Thanksgiving dinner consists of |
| the early colonists of the Plymouth plantation and their | | | | turkey, cranberry sauce, pumpkin pie, and root |
| governor William Bradford were delighted with the | | | | vegetables with additions from the local and ethnic |
| bounty of 1621, and together with Wampanoag people | | | | dishes and flavors, such as lasagna and turkey stuffed |
| and their Chief Massasoit, they celebrated the harvest | | | | with a duck. The Thanksgiving meal's main dish is the |
| for three days with entertainment, food, and friendship. | | | | turkey. The Thanksgiving turkey gained presidential |
| As much as this celebration signaled entertainment for | | | | fame when the National Turkey Federation presented |
| the Indians, it meant serious worship for the Puritans. | | | | President Truman with a turkey. Eventually, pardoning |
| What the meals for those three days were like at that | | | | a turkey from becoming a meal turned into a yearly |
| time is difficult to pinpoint, but culinary history of the | | | | ritual for the United States Presidents. |
| region shows that the pies and the baking came much | | | | Thanksgiving, on the last Thursday of each November, |
| later after the people established colonies and built | | | | is the heartfelt celebration of a grateful, melting-pot |
| ovens. The Thanksgiving food in 1621 probably | | | | nation. May it spread and bring peace and prosperity |
| consisted of venison, wild turkeys, fish, onions, corn, | | | | to the entire world. |
| berries, cranberries, and chestnuts. | | | | |