Thanksgiving Day is probably the most truly American of the national holidays in the USA.

On Thanksgiving Day, American people gather together with their family and friends to share food and to give thanks for the blessing of the past year. In kitchens across the country, people work to prepare such traditional foods of the season as turkey, cranberry sauce and pumpkin pie. This American holiday has been celebrated since the early days of Pilgrims, who set aside a time of festive thanksgiving in responsible to a plentiful harvest.

The Pilgrims held the first Thanksgiving festival at Plymouth. Massachusetts, in October of 1621. They had arrived there from England the year before on the ship Mayflower. The harsh winter, sickness, and hunger caused the death of over half of the original setters in the first year there.

The fall of 1621 their lives had improved greatly. The seeds planted earlier in the year had produced a harvest that allowed the settlers to increase their meagre food rations, hereby improving their health. Houses were constructed, promising adequate shelter for the upcoming winter. A long-lasting peace treaty was arranged between Massasoit, head chief of the Wampanoag Indians, and the new settlers, allowing the settlers to hunt for food in the surrounding woods in safety.

Because of their good fortune, the Pilgrims decreed a holiday on which all might, “after all special manner, rejoice together”.

William Bradfort, the governor of the colony, sent men out to hunt for waterfowl and wild turkeys. The women went about the work of preparing foods for the upcoming feast. Chief Massasoit was invited to the feast, and he brought with him 90 brightly painted male warriors, about four times the number of Pilgrim men living in the settlement at that time. The Indians contributed to the feast by going into the surrounding forest to hunt deer, so the feast would include venison.

This bright festival took place in an open field along the north bank of Town Brooks, There was target shooting with guns and bows and arrows as well as games of skill and chance. The Indians entertained with some of their dances. Captain Standish
staged review of his tiny force of men.

For three days the festivities went on, with the Pilgrims and their guests gorging themselves on venison cooked on a spit over a blazing open fire, roast ducks and geese, claims and other selfish, smoked eel, groundnuts (a kind of potato-like root), baked in hot ashes, peas, salad greens, herbs, corn pones, and “Injun” (corn-rye) bread
. The Pilgrims served wine made from wild grapes.

There were cranberries by the bushel in neighbouring bogs, But it is doubtful that the Pilgrims had yet found a tasty way of using them. It is also doubtful that the feast included another delicious invention - pumpkin pie. If such pie was served, it is certain that it was not topped with rich whipped cream, for the Pilgrims had no cows as yet and would not have any for another three years.

After that first New England Thanksgiving, the custom spread throughout the colonies, but each region chose its own date. In 1789, George Washington,
the first president of the United States, proclaimed November 26 a day of Thanksgiving. His proclamation still expresses the spirit of the feast:

Whereas it is the duty of all nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey his will, to be grateful for his benefits, and humbly to implore his protection and favour... now therefore I do recommend and assign Thursday, the 26^th day of November next to be devoted by people of these States to the service of that great and glorious Being, who is the beneficent Author of all the good that was, that is, or that will be; that we may then all unite in rendering into him our sincere and humble thanks for his kind care and protection of the people of this country

Thanksgiving Day continued to be celebrated in the United States on different days in different states until Mrs Sarah Josepha Hale
, editor of Godey's Lady's Book, decided to do something about it. For more than 30 years she wrote letters to the governors asking them to make Thanksgiving Days a national holiday.

Finally, in 1863, President Lincoln issued a White House proclamation calling on the “whole American people” whenever they lived - north, south, east, or west - to unite “with one heart and one voice” in observing a special day of thanksgiving.

Setting apart the last Thursday of November for purpose, the President urged prayers in the churches and in the homes to “implore the interposition of the almighty hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to restore it ... to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquility and union”. He also asked that people express heartless thanks for the “blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies”.

In 1938, President Franklin D. Roosevelt
advanced Thanksgiving Day one week. However, since some states used the new date and others the old. It was changed again two years later. Thanksgiving Day is now celebrated on the fourth Thursday in November.

The theme of Thanksgiving has always been peace and plenty, health and happiness. To be truly observed, it involves not merely “thanks” but “giving”, too. It is a time for special generosity and helping the less fortunate.

George F. Wilison

Exercise 1

Say if the following statements are true or wrong

1. The original residents of the united States were the British

2. The Pilgrims were a religious group from Britain

3. The native people of the region taught the Pilgrims how to plant their crops.

4. The Pilgrims and the Indians drank a lot of alcoholic drinks at the first Thanksgiving Feast

5. Some of the food served at the first Thanksgiving feast was Indian

Exercise 2

Complete the paragraph by writing appropriate words in the blanks

Nowadays, people celebrate Thanksgiving _1____________ a somewhat different way. For university students, the Thanksgiving weekend _2____________ the first long holiday since the semester began in September. They usually try to 3____________ home to celebrate it with 4____________ friends and relatives.

Thanksgiving Dinner typically consists 5____________ a mandarin and olive salad followed by a very large roast turkey stuffed 6____________ giblet stuffing, cranberry sauce, sweet potatoes, creamed potatoes, creamed onions and green beans. Most people 7____________ pumpkin pie for their Thanksgiving Day dessert, but mincemeat pie 8____________ also popular. Nearly everybody 9___________ wine with the meal.

In the States, the Thanksgiving celebration is nearly as important 10___________

Christmas.

THANKSGIVING TREAT

Find the words about Thanksgiving Day.

A

P

P

L

E

C

I

D

E

R

E

Y

A

R

P

N

O

H

M

B

O

U

N

T

Y

J

R

S

P

I

L

G

R

I

M

S

E

K

P

N

H

U

N

T

I

N

G

W

F

I

S

H

E

Q

R

C

R

U

Y

R

D

L

R

O

W

W

E

N

M

O

N

U

I

O

U

R

A

K

C

U

D

S

L

L

A

F

T

A

P

A

C

R

E

A

M

E

D

O

N

I

O

N

S

A

G

T

F

S

A

H

G

V

S

Y

L

Q

A

N

A

I

T

Y

F

H

P

H

N

T

N

C

T

Y

X

Y

L

P

I

O

I

F

N

U

A

T

I

U

I

C

U

W

R

F

G

V

P

P

N

L

M

R

J

N

N

O

K

D

F

B

O

R

N

T

O

U

G

P

V

S

J

G

D

M

A

Y

F

L

O

W

E

R

C

R

K

E

W

D

R

G

I

Y

B

F

I

E

N

E

W

B

U

I

S

E

V

A

E

L

A

L

N

A

N

S

W

J

E

G

N

T

E

P

V

Y

T

W

N

P

G

K

G

S

D

B

N

P

R

A

I

Y

U

Y

S

X

S

E

R

R

F

I

V

R

I

T

O

N

R

O

C

P

O

P

S

H

A

R

I

N

G

E

U

W

C

S

R

C

R

V

R

R

L

I

C

E

E

G

T

A

G

O

O

S

E

L

T

R

F

J

N

N

E

F

S

P

D

D

P

D

G

X

B

V

T

T

U

X

American Indians Goose Squash

Apple cider Gourds Stuffing

Baking Grace Sweet potatoes

Berries Grain Thursday

Blessing Gravy Turkey

Bounty Harvest

Bread Hunting

Corn Leaves

Cornucopia Mayflower

Cranberry Sauce New England

Creamed Onions New world

Duck Pilgrims

Fall Plymouth Rock

Family Popcorn

Feasting Prayer

Fish Pumpkin pie

Foliage Puritans

Frost Sharing

					1
												2
3
											4							5
				6				7
		8
	9																10
							11						12
				13								14
										15

ACROSS

3. Thanksgiving bird

4. Playmouth Rock settlers

6. Head of a school

9. Small horse

11. Thanksgiving dish made with bread and seasonings

13. Wind noise

14. Ear jewelry

15. Hospital worker and doctor's helper

DOWN

1. Ship of the Pilgrims

2. Loyal

5. School subject with singing

6. Famous rock of Pilgrim settlement

7. Helps heal a broken bone

8. Month of Thanksgiving

10. Helps heal dry hands

12. Guests at first Thanksgiving

ANSWERS

Ex. 2

2. in

3. is

4. go

5. their

6. of

7. with

8. have (make, prepare)

9. is

10. uses (drinks, has)

11. as

Crossword

ACROSS

3. turkey

4. pilgrims

6. principal

9. pony

11. stuffing

13. howl

14. earrings

15. nurse

DOWN

1. Mayflower

2. faithful

5. music

6. Plymouth

7. cast

8. November

10. lotion

12. Indians

---