Thanksgiving Day is a harvest festival celebrated primarily in the United States and Canada. Traditionally, it has been a time to give thanks for a bountiful harvest. While it may have been religious in origin, Thanksgiving is now primarily identified as a secular holiday.[1] It is sometimes casually referred to as Turkey Day.
In Canada, Thanksgiving Day is celebrated on the second Monday in October, which is Columbus Day in the United States. In the United States, it falls on the fourth Thursday of November.
The precise historical origin of the holiday is disputed. Although Americans commonly believe that the first Thanksgiving happened in 1621 at Plymouth, Massachusetts, there is some evidence for an earlier harvest celebration by Spanish explorers in Florida during 1565. There was also a celebration two years before Plymouth (in 1619) in Virginia. There was a Thanksgiving of sorts in Newfoundland, modern-day Canada in 1578 but it was to celebrate a homecoming instead of the harvest
In my opinion it has expanded beyond simply thanks for a good harvest but also includes a thanks for family and friends...
It is traditional for families to get together and "feast" on the day and I have many fond memories of Thanksgivings past doing just that.
One of my oft remembered memories is from when my Grandfather was still alive...our extended family would gather (usually around 60 people who all lived within a 20 mile radius) and our patriarch, my Grandfather, an ordained Methodist Minister would give a small sermon and prayer. My Grandfather had a twisted sense of humor and would often base his Thanksgiving message on variations of the 7 deadly sins which always included gluttony (among other of the featured sins)...concluding his remarks with a short prayer of thanks he would then close with an Amen, raise his head and hands to the assembled mob and proclaim...Now Lets Eat!
I always enjoyed the irony of shifting gears from hearing of the dangers of gluttony to actually participating in it (my relatives could sure pull together a big feed)!
