感恩节 Thanksgiving Day _0

感恩节 Thanksgiving Day

Every year on the fourth Thursday of November is ThanksgivingDay. It's a festival for American and Canadian with the purpose of thanks forharvest. While canadians celebrate on the second Monday of October. I have a penfriendin America. He wrote to me his Thanksgiving Day last year. He told me that it wasa time for family reunion. Families would come back home to celebrate thefestival together. Most of the time it was his mother who prepared the dinner. Turkeyis must for the festival. It looks like huge chicken. His mother also made pumpkinpie and many other delicious food for them. After the dinner, they talked witheach other with the old thing or the future plan. He said sometimes they wouldinvite some friends to share the happiness of Thanksgiving Day. In a word, hehad a great time on Thanksgiving Day.

每年十一月的第四个星期四是感恩节。这是美国和加拿大为了感谢丰收的节日。但是加拿大人却是在十月的第二个星期一庆祝。我在美国有一个笔友。他写信告诉我他去年感恩节的情况。他告诉我那是家庭团聚的时间。家人们都会回家庆祝节日。大多数时候,是他的母亲准备晚餐。火鸡是节日的必需品。它看起来像一只巨型鸡。他的母亲也做了南瓜派和许多其他美味的食物给他们。晚饭过后,他们会互相谈论过去的事或未来计划。他说有时候他们也会邀请一些朋友来一起分享感恩节快乐。总之,他在感恩节过得很开心。

 

第二篇:感恩节的由来(The Origin of Thanksgiving Day)

感恩节的由来(The Origin of Thanksgiving Day)

Thanksgiving Day

Fourth Thursday in November

Almost every culture in the world has held celebrations of thanks for a plentiful harvest. The American Thanksgiving holiday began as a feast of thanksgiving in the early days of the American colonies almost four hundred years ago.

In 1620, a boat filled with more than one hundred people sailed across the Atlantic Ocean to settle in the New World(新大陆). 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 Iroquois Indians(美国纽约州东北部易洛魁族印第安人)taught them how to grow corn, 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(大麦), beans and pumpkins were harvested. The colonists had much to be thankful for, so a feast was planned. They invited the local Indian chief and 90 Indians. The Indians brought deer to roast with the turkeys and other wild game offered by the colonists. The colonists had learned how to cook cranberries and different kinds of corn and squash dishes from the Indians. To this first Thanksgiving, the Indians had even brought popcorn.

In following years, many of the original colonists celebrated the autumn harvest with a feast of thanks.

After the United States became an independent country, Congress recommended one yearly day of thanksgiving for the whole nation to celebrate. George Washington suggested the date November 26 as Thanksgiving Day. Then in 1863, at the end of a long and bloody civil war, Abraham Lincoln asked all Americans to set aside the last Thursday in November as a day of thanksgiving.

Thanksgiving falls on the fourth Thursday of November, a different date every year. The President must proclaim that date as the official celebration.

Thanksgiving is a time for tradition and sharing. Even if they live far away, family members gather for a reunion at the house of an older relative. All give thanks together for the good things that they have.

In this spirit of sharing, civic groups and charitable organizations offer a traditional meal to those in need, particularly the homeless. On most tables throughout the United States, foods eaten at the first thanksgiving have become traditional.

Symbols of Thanksgiving

Turkey, corn, pumpkins and cranberry sauce(酸果曼沙司)are symbols which represent the first Thanksgiving. Now all of these symbols are drawn on holiday decorations and greeting cards. The use of corn meant the survival of the colonies. "Indian corn" as a table or door decoration represents the harvest and the fall season.

Sweet-sour cranberry sauce, or cranberry jelly, was on the first Thanksgiving table and is still served today. The cranberry is a small, sour berry. It grows in bogs(沼泽), or muddy areas, in Massachusetts and other New England states. The Indians used the fruit to treat infections. They used the juice to dye their rugs and blankets. They taught the colonists how to cook the berries with sweetener(甜味佐料)and water to make a sauce. The Indians called it "ibimi" which means "bitter berry." When the colonists saw it, they named it "crane-berry" because the flowers of the berry bent the stalk over, and it resembled the long-necked bird called a crane. The berries are still grown in New England.

In 1988, a Thanksgiving ceremony of a different kind took place at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine. More than four thousand people gathered on Thanksgiving night. Among them were Native Americans representing tribes from all over the country and descendants of people whose ancestors had migrated to the New World.

The ceremony was a public acknowledgment of the Indians' role in the first Thanksgiving 350 years ago. Until recently most schoolchildren believed that the Pilgrims cooked the entire Thanksgiving feast, and offered it to the Indians. In fact, the feast was planned to thank the Indians for teaching them how to cook those foods. Without the Indians, the first settlers would not have survived.