感恩节的来历英文版
感恩节是北美洲独有的节日，始于1621年。1863年，美国总统林肯将它定为国家假日，并且规定每年11月的第四个星期四为美国的感恩节。感恩节有四天假期。借着长假，很多人都会赶回家庆祝佳节，所以，美国感恩节的热闹程度绝不亚于中国的中秋节。2014年的感恩节是：2014年11月27日。以下是关于感恩节的英文介绍。
The Story of American Thanksgiving
(Contributed by Bing Wei, Granny Betty's Story Time )
每逢11月第四个星期四，美国人迎来了自己最重要的传统节日感恩节。感恩节，原是清教徒为感谢上天赐与的好收成，同时，也表达了新英格兰“移民”对印第安土著居民最初的谢意。如今，这一传统节日更多意味着合家团聚。下文以历史为脉络，探究了感恩节的渊源，并把目光锁定在1621年翔实的感恩“盛宴”上。阅读完文字，别忘点击附带的小测试。
Theorigin of the Thanksgiving Day
Thanksgiving Day is an American holiday and not celebrated in continental Europe. On the fourth Thursday of each November, familiesand friends gather together for the occasion to celebrate with a traditionalturkey dinner, usually in the mid-afternoon. Thanksgiving originated as acelebration of the year's harvest and is similar to the Mid-Autumn Festival inChina.
This American tradition started in 1621 before theUnited States of Americawas established. It was a huge celebration for a hard-earned harvest the firstyear after arriving in the New World.
OnSeptember 6, 1620, the Mayflower ship set sail from Plymouth, Devon, England,taking all the English Pilgrims(清教徒)tothe New World. The English Pilgrims numbered about a hundred people, and leftEnglandtoescape religious persecution. Their voyage to the New World was financed by Merchant Adventurers, an English investorgroup.
ThePilgrims sailed sixty-six days, arrived in the New Worldin November of the same year. They first settled in a cornfield abandoned byNative Indians and named it Plymouth Plantation.
Theyworked on the land with much difficulty and were beset by a devastating plaguein which half of the Pilgrim died in the long winter of 1620. In the spring of1621, an Indian brave named Squanto and her Wampanoag(瓦帕浓人，北美印第安人阿尔琴族一部落)tribecame to their help. The tribe taught the Pilgrims how to work the earth andplant corn, beans, pumpkins, squash and other crops.
The Thanksgiving feast in 1621
In late September 1621, the Pilgrimswere pleased with their great harvest. To celebrate their first harvest, thePilgrims wanted to thank God and the Native Indian. They invited Squanto andthe entire Wampanoag tribe that celebrate together in a shared feast.
It was said about ninety Wampanoag turned up, much to the surprise of thePilgrims, whose population had shrunk to no more than 50. The chief of the tribehad his men hunt five deer to bring to the feast. The first Thanksgiving dinnerhad an elaborate menu with venison, wild turkey, goose, duck, crane, swan, andother waterfowl; they also has local seafood: clams, lobsters, mussels, salmon,cod, bass, herring, shad, bluefish, lots of eel and oysters. They also cookedplenty of vegetables, among them squash, pumpkins and beans were the mostpopular.
They ate raspberries, strawberries, grapes, plums, cherries, blueberries,walnuts, chestnuts, acorns, hickory and ground nuts, wheat flour, Indian cornand corn meal and they made beer out of barley. The pumpkin pudding was laterdeveloped into the traditional pumpkin pie.
The first Thanksgiving dinner is said to have lasted from three days to oneweek with much food, beer and liquor. The Pilgrims and the Native Indian sattogether on the ground, shared food with fingers or used rough plates made ofwood or stale bread. They ran races, played old English games and stagedparades during the festive, with marches, drums and firing of their muskets.
"Thanksgiving" related tothe Bible
The phrase "thanksgiving" initially comes from the Bible. ThePilgrims of Plymouth, however, were mainly Puritans and strict CalvinistProtestants. They only observed three religious holidays from the NewTestament: Sunday Sabbath, Days of Fasting and humiliation and Thanksgiving.Thanksgiving marked favourable ("mercies") in community life.
Thefirst Thanksgiving festival was indeed a time of happiness, fellowship andrejoicing for the Pilgrims. They arranged a friendly treaty with the NativeAmerican Indians, built houses in the wilderness, and raised sufficient cropsto feed themselves for the upcoming long winter. The Pilgrims had become thefirst generation of settlers in this new land holding so much promise.
Fromthen on, Thanksgiving became a holiday for celebrating the harvest in the New World, dates varied from October to November eachyear over the next 150 years.
Thanksgiving, the Nationalholiday
The first National Thanksgiving was declared by the Continental Congress in1777. On October 3, 1789, President George Washington declared that the peopleof theUnited Statesshould observe "a day of public thanksgiving and prayer" on Thursday,26 November.