Thanksgiving Day

1) Thanksgiving Day is a national holiday celebrated on various dates in

the United States, Canada, Brazil, Grenada, Saint Lucia, and Liberia, and the
sub-national entities Leiden, Norfolk Island, and Puerto Rico. It began as a day
of giving thanks and sacrifice for the blessing of the harvest and of the
preceding year. Similarly named festival holidays occur in Germany and Japan.
Thanksgiving is celebrated on the second Monday of October in Canada and on
the fourth Thursday of November in the United States and Brazil, and around
the same part of the year in other places. Although Thanksgiving has historical
roots in religious and cultural traditions, it has long been celebrated as
a secular holiday as well.

2) Origin
In 1620, the legend goes, a boat filled with more than one hundred people sailed
across the Atlantic Ocean to settle in the New World. This religious group had begun to
question the beliefs of the Church of England and they wanted to separate from it. The
Pilgrims settled in what is now the state of Massachusetts. Their first winter in the New
World was difficult. They had arrived too late to grow many crops, and without fresh
food, half the colony died from disease. The following spring, the Wampanoag Iroquois
Indians taught them how to grow corn (maize), a new food for the colonists. They
showed them other crops to grow in the unfamiliar soil and how to hunt and fish.

In the autumn of 1621, bountiful crops of corn, barley, beans, and pumpkins were
harvested. The colonists had much to be thankful for, so a feast was planned. They
invited the local Iroquois chief and 90 members of his tribe.

The Native Americans brought deer to roast with the turkeys and other wild game
offered by the colonists. The colonists learned how to cook cranberries and different
kinds of corn and squash dishes from the Indians. In following years, many of the
original colonists celebrated the autumn harvest with a feast of thanks.
- In Argentina we have the Independence Day celebrated on May 25th. We eat
locro and empanadas.

3) Thanksgiving food
Turkey: No traditional Thanksgiving dinner would be complete without turkey! In fact,
in informal conversation, some people refer to Thanksgiving as Turkey Day.

Stuffing: There are various ways to make it, but it usually consists of finely chopped
breadcrumbs, onions, and herbs that are stuffed inside the turkey and cook with the
turkey inside of the oven. Stuffing usually has a mushy texture, and it takes on a lot of
flavor from the turkey.
Mashed Potatoes: Mashed potatoes are another staple of any traditional
Thanksgiving dinner. They are also very easy to make!

Gravy: Gravy is a brown sauce that we make by adding flour to the juices that come
out of the turkey while it is cooking. On Thanksgiving, it is traditional to eat gravy with
the turkey, stuffing, and mashed potatoes.

Cornbread: It’s a type of bread made from corn flour, and it has a cake-like
consistency. You can make it sweet or savory, and it is delicious both ways.
Rolls: At the first Thanksgiving meal, the Pilgrims didn’t have butter or wheat flour, so
whatever bread they had would have been made out of corn. They would not have had rolls
like this.

Sweet potato casserole:  It’s served as a side dish, not a dessert, but it is very sweet.

Butternut Squash: Butternut squash is a typical Thanksgiving food, and it can be

prepared in a variety of ways. It has a soft texture and a sweet flavor.

Cranberry sauce:  cranberry sauce isn’t poured over anything. They eat it by itself as a
Thanksgiving side dish.
Spiced apples: A traditional Thanksgiving dinner will often feature spiced apples.
Spiced apples are cooked with cinnamon, nutmeg, and other spices. Once cooked, the
apples become soft. They often serve them warm, and they can either be a side dish or
a dessert.

Pie: At the end of a Thanksgiving meal, you’ve got to have a slice of pie. While we eat
a variety of pies at Thanksgiving, the two most common are apple pie and pumpkin pie.

 Green Bean Casserole: A casserole is a stew that’s cooked slowly in the oven.
Green bean casserole has cream of mushroom soup, fried onions and— of course—
green beans!

Corn;