As presented by Kristopher Jordan to the students of 5ºA and 5ºB

Thanksgiving Day is an American holiday that originated

in order to celebrate the harvest of the crops in autumn,

and to ask for a blessing for the upcoming year.

The holiday originated in England and was brought to

the United States by English settlers that left England

and brought their traditions with them

Giving thanks for the harvesting of crops is a very

common tradition in many cultures, although the

traditions, the way things are celebrated, and the time of

the celebration may be different

The first Thanksgiving was November 26, 1789. George

Washington, the first president of the United States,

made Thanksgiving Day an official holiday in the U.S.

after this first celebration.

Now it is celebrated the fourth Thursday of November.

The tradition of Thanksgiving in the United States is

commonly linked to a feast that was held between the

pilgrims who had just arrived to what is now the United

States, and the Indians who lived nearby.

The pilgrims had arrived with insufficient supplies and for

this reason, almost half of them died.

The Indians, who had a lot of knowledge about farming

and living off the land, donated supplies to the new

European settlers and taught them how to farm and live

off the land.

So, in order to “give thanks” to the Indians, the settlers

organized a feast and invited their new friends to join

them so they could celebrate their new harvest and

thank their new friends for all that they had done to help

them.

Thanksgiving now has become a holiday to spend time

with family, eat good food, relax, and remember all of the

things we are thankful for in our lives- and to remember

not to take anything for granted

The most common Thanksgiving food is turkey.

Everyone eats turkey. As sort of a nickname, some

people even call it “Turkey Day”. Of course, every

family’s traditions are different, but Turkey is THE

Thanksgiving staple. Other common items include:

mashed potatoes, gravy, dressing, sweet potatoes, corn,

pumpkin pie, and cranberry sauce among other things.

Turkeys are native to the Americas, however the

Spaniards were the first to bring turkeys back to Europe,

where they soon became popular all over.

Another common tradition of Thanksgiving is having

parades. The biggest parade is the Macy´s Thanksgiving

Day parade which takes place in New York City and is on

television every year for all people to see.

The MOST American tradition on Thanksgiving Day is

American football. Every year there are three

professional football games that are played on

Thanksgiving Day. The Detroit Lions and the Dallas

Cowboys always play games on Thanksgiving Day. This

year, the games are the Chicago Bears vs. the Detroit

Lions, the Philadelphia Eagles vs. the Dallas Cowboys,

and the San Fransisco 49ers vs. the Seattle Seahawks.

In my family, we always get together for Thanksgiving to

celebrate and be with one another. We eat turkey,

mashed potatoes with noodles on top, sweet potatoes,

green bean casserole, and pumpkin pie. It is my favorite

holiday because I love to eat! But more importantly, it is

a great day to remember how lucky we are to be alive

and to have all of the people and things that we have in

our lives. After we eat, we usually watch the football

games that are on while we play a card game called

“euchre”. As I said, every family has their own traditions,

this is just what my family does. I love Thanksgiving and

I am sad that I will not get to spend it with my family this

year.

The day after Thanksgiving Day is known in the U.S. as

“Black Friday”. Although it is not a holiday, most people do not

have to work on Black Friday because it is the day after

Thanksgiving and it makes an extended weekend, much like

the “Puentes” that you are very used to having here in Spain.

Many people also have the Wednesday before Thanksgiving

off of work as well.

Black Friday is widely known as the biggest shopping day of

the year in the U.S. because Thanksgiving is the last major

holiday before Christmas. On Black Friday, the stores open

very early in the morning and offer huge deals and discounts

on all of their things. For this reason, many people go

shopping on this day, and that is how it got the name Black

Friday.