Turkey and Thanksgiving Day 2008

Thanksgiving or Thanksgiving Day, as others say, is a joyous family festival celebrated with enthusiasm in US, Canada and several other countries. How about here in the Philippines, do we celebrated this day? Maybe some do, but for me I have no idea.

What really is Thanksgiving or Thanksgiving Day(in the U.S.)? Thanksgiving Day is usually celebrated on the fourth Thursday in November, at the end of their harvest season. Thanksgiving Day is an annual American Federal holiday to express thanks for one’s material and spiritual possessions. Most Americans celebrate this day by gathering at home with family or friends for a holiday feast. The period from Thanksgiving Day to New Year’s Day often is called the holiday season.

Why do we always hear Turkey in Thanksgiving Day Feast or Turkey on Thanksgiving Day?

The Pilgrims Ate Turkey. What did the Pilgrims eat at their Thanksgiving festival? They didn’t have corn on the cob, apples, pears, potatoes or even cranberries. No one knows if they had turkey, although they were used to eating turkey. The only food we know they had for sure was deer. 11(And they didn’t eat with a fork; they didn’t have forks back then.)

So how did we get the idea that you have turkey and cranberry and such on Thanksgiving? It was because the Victorians prepared Thanksgiving that way. And they’re the ones who made Thanksgiving a national holiday, beginning in 1863, when Abe Lincoln issued his presidential Thanksgiving proclamations…two of them: one to celebrate Thanksgiving in August, a second one in November. Before Lincoln Americans outside New England did not usually celebrate the holiday. (The Pilgrims, incidentally, didn’t become part of the holiday until late in the nineteenth century. Until then, Thanksgiving was simply a day of thanks, not a day to remember the Pilgrims.) (from HNN.us)

This years Thanksgiving Day 2008 will be on November 27, 2008. Don’t forget to have a memorable Thanksgiving this year guys!