| Thanksgiving
USA (fourth Thursday of November)
The American Thanksgiving holiday began as a feast of thanksgiving in the early days of the American colonies almost four hundred years ago. In 1620, a boat, The MayFlower, filled with more than one hundred people sailed across the Atlantic Ocean to settle in the New World, América. The Pilgrims (Colonos) settled in (llegaron) what is now the state of Plymouth,Massachusetts. Their first winter in the New World was difficult. They had arrived too late to grow many crops (cosechas), and without fresh food, half the colony died (murieron) from disease (enfermedades). The following spring the Iroquois Indians taught (les enseñaron) them how to grow corn (maíz), a new food for the colonists. They showed them other crops to grow in the unfamiliar soil and how to hunt animals and fish to eat.
In the autumn of 1621, bountiful crops of corn, barley, beans and pumpkins were harvested (recolectadas). The colonists had much to be thankful for (dar las gracias), so a feast (fiesta) was planned. They invited the local Indian chief and 90 Indians. The Indians brought deer to roast with the turkeys and other wild game offered by the colonists. The colonists had learned how to cook cranberries and different kinds of corn and squash dishes from the Indians. To this first Thanksgiving, the Indians had even brought popcorn. In following years, many of the original colonists celebrated the autumn harvest with a feast of thanks. After the United States became an independent country, Congress recommended one yearly day of thanksgiving for the whole nation to celebrate. George Washington suggested the date November 26 as Thanksgiving Day. Then in 1863, at the end of a long and bloody civil war, Abraham Lincoln asked all Americans to set aside the last Thursday in November as a day of thanksgiving. Thanksgiving
falls on the fourth Thursday of November, a different date every year.
The President must proclaim that date as the official celebration. |
