What really is Thanksgiving?

Thanksgiving is a North American harvest festival. When the Pilgrims (a Puritan sect) arrived in America to start a new life here, they set up colonies, practiced their religion freely, and farmed their new land. They celebrated Thanksgiving as an act of gratitude to God for their new life and freedoms.

In the United States, Thanksgiving is celebrated as a legal one-day holiday every year on the fourth Thursday of November. When the Pilgrims first came to Plymouth Plantation, the Native American tribes like that of Wampanoag taught them how to yield crops for a living.

The earliest authenticated celebration was the one in September 1565, in Florida. The Native Americans were deeply pious, and the tradition is carried through even today.

European farmers observed Thanksgiving for a good harvest. They stuffed a goat's horn with the harvested grains symbolically known as cornucopia or the Horn of Plenty. This ritual was carried on when they arrived in Canada.

Thanksgiving is celebrated on the second Monday of October every year in Canada. It dates back to Martin Frobisher, who celebrated it in 1578 out of appreciation for having survived his journey trying to find a northern passage to the Orient.

Hence, the former celebrated Thanksgiving as a prayer for a good harvest. Since 1947, The National Turkey Federation gives the President of the country one live and two dressed turkeys as gift. This ritual is known as the National Thanksgiving Turkey Presentation.

Knowing why Thanksgiving started is so different than what it is and means today. We do not celebrate the harvest or cheer a journey anymore. We celebrate the family. We celebrate friends and we celebrate the blessings that we have.

The best thing to me about Thanksgiving is certainly not the shopping the next day, called Black Friday. Thanksgiving is sharing a meal, a laugh, a story, and a smile. Family and friends being together for a day of watching football and eating till we are stuffed like the turkey. That certainly brings happiness to my family.

Americans can and should use this day not just as a day of happiness but also as a day of reflection. Think deeply about what you have and thank all of the people in your life that makes you appreciate not only what you have, but what is yet to come.


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