This Thursday is Thanksgiving Day. The writer O. Henry called it the one day that is purely American. Thanksgiving is not a religious holiday. But it has spiritual meaning. Some Americans attend religious services on the day before Thanksgiving, or on Thanksgiving morning. Others travel long distances to be with their families. They have a large dinner, which is the main part of the celebration.
本周四是感恩节。作家欧·亨利把这一天称为“纯美国式”的节日。感恩节不是一个宗教节日，但它有宗教方面的含义。一些美国人在感恩节的前一天或是感恩节的早上参加宗教仪式，还有的长途跋涉和他们的家人团聚。感恩节的主要庆祝方式是一桌丰盛的家庭晚宴。
For many Americans, Thanksgiving is the only time when all members of a family gather. The holiday is a time of family reunion.
对许多美国人来说，感恩节这一天是所有家庭成员欢聚一堂的难得时光。这个节日是家人团聚的时刻。
Thanksgiving week is generally one of the busiest travel times of the year. Many Americans who usually visit family and friends by plane are driving shorter distances instead this week. Some mental-health experts say the attacks have frightened people. They say people feel safer and happier close to home.
感恩节这一周通常是全年中人们出行最为繁忙的时段之一。许多经常坐飞机走亲访友的美国人这一周将改为短途驾车。一些心理健康专家认为，恐怖袭击令人们感到恐慌。他们说，人们在离家较近的地方会觉得更安全、更快乐。
More than any other holiday, Thanksgiving is a celebration of family and home. Many people say that this year they are especially thankful for their families and friends and the good things in their lives. On Thanksgiving, people enjoy a long day of cooking, eating and talking. The traditional meal almost always includes a turkey with a bread mixture cooked inside.
与其它节日不同，感恩节是一个家庭节日。许多人说，今年他们特别感谢他们的家人、朋友和生活中一切美好的事物。在感恩节，人们享受着一整天的烹调、美味和交谈所带来的快乐。传统的感恩节大餐都包括一只火鸡，火鸡内填满面包和火鸡一起做熟。
Other traditional Thanksgiving foods served with turkey are sweet potatoes, cranberries and pumpkin pie. Stores are said to sell more food at Thanksgiving than at any other time of the year. And many people eat more food at Thanksgiving than at any other time of the year.
其他和火鸡相搭配的传统感恩节食物有：红薯，越橘和南瓜派。据说，感恩节前后，商店出售的食物比一年中的任何时候都要多。当然，许多人在感恩节吃的食物也比一年中其它的时候要多。
Over the years, Americans have added new traditions to their Thanksgiving celebration. For example, a number of professional and university football games are played on Thanksgiving Day. Some of the games are broadcast on national television.
近年来，美国人给感恩节增添了新的庆祝方式。例如，在感恩节这一天会举行由职业队和大学生参加的橄榄球比赛。其中有些比赛在国家电视台播放。
The origin of the Thanksgiving Day
This American tradition started in 1621 before the United States of America was established. It was a huge celebration for a hard-earned harvest the first year after arriving in the New World.
On September 6, 1620, the Mayflower ship set sail from Plymouth, Devon, England, taking all the English Pilgrims (清教徒)to the New World. The English Pilgrims numbered about a hundred people, and left England to escape religious persecution. Their voyage to the New World was financed by Merchant Adventurers, an English investor group.
The Pilgrims sailed sixty-six days, arrived in the New World in November of the same year. They first settled in a cornfield abandoned by Native Indians and named it Plymouth Plantation.
They worked on the land with much difficulty and were beset by a devastating plague in which half of the Pilgrim died in the long winter of 1620. In the spring of 1621, 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)tribe came to their help. The tribe taught the Pilgrims how to work the earth and plant corn, beans, pumpkins, squash and other crops.
The Thanksgiving feast in 1621
In late September 1621, the Pilgrims were pleased with their great harvest. To celebrate their first harvest, the Pilgrims wanted to thank God and the Native Indian. They invited Squanto and the entire Wampanoag tribe that celebrate together in a shared feast.
It was said about ninety Wampanoag turned up, much to the surprise of the Pilgrims, whose population had shrunk to no more than 50. The chief of the tribe had his men hunt five deer to bring to the feast. The first Thanksgiving dinner had an elaborate menu with venison, wild turkey, goose, duck, crane, swan, and other waterfowl; they also has local seafood: clams, lobsters, mussels, salmon, cod, bass, herring, shad, bluefish, lots of eel and oysters. They also cooked plenty of vegetables, among them squash, pumpkins and beans were the most popular.
They ate raspberries, strawberries, grapes, plums, cherries, blueberries, walnuts, chestnuts, acorns, hickory and ground nuts, wheat flour, Indian corn and corn meal and they made beer out of barley. The pumpkin pudding was later developed into the traditional pumpkin pie.
The first Thanksgiving dinner is said to have lasted from three days to one week with much food, beer and liquor. The Pilgrims and the Native Indian sat together on the ground, shared food with fingers or used rough plates made of wood or stale bread. They ran races, played old English games and staged parades during the festive, with marches, drums and firing of their muskets.
"Thanksgiving" related to the Bible
The phrase "thanksgiving" initially comes from the Bible. The Pilgrims of Plymouth, however, were mainly Puritans and strict Calvinist Protestants. They only observed three religious holidays from the New Testament: Sunday Sabbath, Days of Fasting and humiliation and Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving marked favourable ("mercies") in community life.
The first Thanksgiving festival was indeed a time of happiness, fellowship and rejoicing for the Pilgrims. They arranged a friendly treaty with the Native American Indians, built houses in the wilderness, and raised sufficient crops to feed themselves for the upcoming long winter. The Pilgrims had become the first generation of settlers in this new land holding so much promise.
From then on, Thanksgiving became a holiday for celebrating the harvest in the New World, dates varied from October to November each year over the next 150 years.
Thanksgiving, the National holiday
The first National Thanksgiving was declared by the Continental Congress in 1777. On October 3, 1789, President George Washington declared that the people of the United States should observe "a day of public thanksgiving and prayer" on Thursday, 26 November.
Many say the credit for the establishment of an annual Thanksgiving holiday should be given to Sarah Josepha Hale. Being the editor of Ladies Magazine and Godey's Lady's Book, she lobbied to the governors, senators, and presidents for a national holiday and published stories and recipes for that day in her magazine. After 36 years of crusading, she won her battle. In 1863, buoyed by the Union victory at Gettysburg, President Lincoln proclaimed that November 26, would be a national Thanksgiving Day, to be observed every year on the fourth Thursday of November.
In 1941, a Congressional Joint Resolution set the fourth Thursday of November as a national holiday for Thanksgiving.
There you are - the brief history of Thanksgiving- a day in America for families and friends to gather together. The festival is also celebrated by Americans living abroad. Thanks to the Native Americans and the Pilgrims who created this idea of a day of Thanksgiving all those live in the New World can be thankful for all we have and share the joy with our family members and friends.
Thanksgiving Day is a harvest festival. Traditionally, it is a time to give thanks for the harvest and express gratitude in general. It is a holiday celebrated primarily in the United States and now is primarily identified as a secular holiday.
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