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Thanksgiving Day, History and Dinner Menu

Dates:

In Canada : 08 October 2007 (occurs the second Monday of October);

In US: 22 November 2007 (occurs the fourth Thursday of November).

Thanksgiving is one of the nicest family holidays. It is celebrated in different countries around the world, including Canada and the United States . On this holiday families gather to thank each other for the gone by year of support. However, traditional historical Thanksgiving is related to the harvest season and celebrates the fall harvest, as done by many of the First Nations in North America long before any settlers came along.

History of Thanksgiving Day in Canada

In 1578, in Canada , the English explorer Martin Frobisher held a formal ceremony in what is today the province of Newfoundland and Labrador to thank God for surviving the journey to the New World . The tradition was continued by the settlers and is now considered the first official Thanksgiving in North America and the first Canadian Thanksgiving. Also, it is an interesting fact to be noted that the Canadian Thanksgiving Day coincides with the European harvest festival.

History of Thanksgiving Day in the United States

In the US, the early settlers in Massachusetts' Plymouth Colony held the first Pilgrim celebration in the autumn of year 1621 with members of the Wampanoag after the Pilgrim's first harvest to celebrate the food, feasting, to praise God and thank the Native American Squanto for teaching them how to grow corn.
November 26, 1789 was proclaimed by Lincoln as the first national Thanksgiving Day.

Traditional Thanksgiving Dinner Menu

It is believed that the Pilgrims served four wild turkeys and vegetables at their first thanksgiving feast. Thus, keeping with this belief now-a-days, it is traditional on a Thanksgiving Day dinner to serve stuffed baked turkey with cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes, and vegetables, such as corn, turnips, yams, and for dessert pumpkin pie.

Thanksgiving with family and kids

Feasting with the whole family on Thanksgiving, where old time and family stories are told filling the evening with laughter and warm memories, make this holiday one of the most joyous and most delightful family celebrations.
Especially memorable are these celebrations for the children. All of the preparations, the warm and savory smells in the house of the turkey and pumpkin pie being baked and the excitement of the upcoming special evening leave children with memories they come to cherish for the rest of their lives. Memories they will come to share with their own children and grandchildren one day and, thus, continue the tradition.

References:

Wikipedia.org. Thanksgiving Day . Retrieved on September 29, 2007 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thanksgiving

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