Saturday, November 24, 2012

Thanksgiving, 2012

This past Thursday, we celebrated Thanksgiving , a national holiday when contemporary America celebrates the three "F's":  family, football, and feasting.  It isn't inherently a religious holiday so we do not have to give thanks to a deity as part of the annual celebration, but people who are religious thank God on this day for their good fortune, good health or family.  It is a holiday with historic traditions of feasting when the first settlers from Europe endured frightful and harsh conditions and celebrated the fall harvest and gave thanks to God.  The "First Thanksgiving" is popularly credited to a 3 day celebration in October, 1621, when 53 Pilgrims and 90 Native Americans celebrated the first havest of the Plymouth Colony near the cape of present-day Massachusetts.

"The First Thanksgiving at Plymouth"  by Jennie A. Brownscombe
The indigineous people helped the Europeans to survive that first year.  Pilgrims was the name given to a group of Separatists that had fled religious persecution in England to Holland.  Concerned about retaining their English identity, they planned a trip in two ships (including the Mayflower) to the New World bringing families and their Calvinist culture and religion to establish a new colony in what is now the state of Massachusetts on the northeast coast of North America. 

Other Europeans had held annual "Thanksgiving" celebrations in the New World, including the Spaniards and the Jamestown settlement in the Colony of Virginia.   President Abraham Lincoln, in 1863, proclaimed it to be a National Holiday.

For our family, we cook a traditional Thanksgiving Dinner, invite family and friends, and enjoy a football game or two.  This year, we had the following Menu:

 
Ron getting ready to carve the turkey


16 pounds of turkey done perfectly with herb butter and stuffed with cornbread dressing

Mary stirring the Glazed Carrots

Our neighbor, Cathy, shared the day with us

Matt and Mary

Malcolm and Amanda

Jack, the pug

Tinker is Amanda and Malcolm's newest family member

Thanksgiving came early this year. Usually, it falls the last Thursday of November.  It marks the beginning of the Winter Holiday Season.  Retailers in our country got the jump early on the holiday gift shopping frenzy that Americans embark upon beginning the day after Thanksgiving. Today is "Small Business Shopping Day" where Americans are encouraged to shop at small and local businesses.  Let's hope that the economic climate improves rapidly for everyone!

3 comments:

  1. Oh my gosh that turkey looks good. Canadian Thanksgiving is in early October so I am once again craving a big ol turkey. I have to wait until Christmas dinner now.

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    1. So turkey is the tradition in Canada as well? I'd thought maybe salmon (yummmm). Hope you have a lovely Christmas.

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  2. Ooops I think I lost my comment so I'll try again. A great looking meal with family and friends. The way it should be...:)

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