The origin of Thanksgiving goes back to the beginning of American history. In 162, the famous ship Mayflower arrived in America with 12 Puritans who could not bear the religious persecution in Britain. In the winter at the turn of 162 and 1621, they encountered unimaginable difficulties and were in hunger and cold. When the winter passed, only 5 immigrants survived. At this time, the kind-hearted Indians brought the immigrants necessities of life, and specially sent people to teach them how to hunt, fish and grow corn and pumpkins. With the help of the Indians, the immigrants finally got a bumper harvest. On the day of celebrating the bumper harvest, according to religious traditions and customs, the immigrants set a day to thank God, and decided to invite them to celebrate the festival together to thank the Indians for their sincere help.
On the first Thanksgiving Day, Indians and immigrants gathered together. They fired a salute at dawn, marched into a room used as a church, expressed their sincere gratitude to God, and then lit a bonfire for a grand banquet. On the second and third days, wrestling, running, singing, dancing and other activities were held. The first Thanksgiving was a great success. Many of these celebrations have been circulated for more than 3 years and have been preserved to this day.
at first, there was no fixed date for Thanksgiving, which was decided by the states temporarily. It was not until the independence of the United States that Thanksgiving became a national holiday. In 1863, President Lincoln made Thanksgiving a legal holiday. By 1941, the U.S. Congress had passed a law to designate Thanksgiving Day on the fourth Thursday of November every year. On Thanksgiving Day, the whole country in the United States is very busy. People go to church to pray for gratitude according to the custom, and there are costume parades, drama performances or sports competitions everywhere in urban and rural towns. Relatives who have been separated for a year will also come back from all over the world, and the whole family will be round and round, enjoying the delicious Thanksgiving turkey.
The origin of Thanksgiving in Canada
Thanksgiving in Canada and the United States is not on the same day, and it may be known that the Canadian Parliament listed Thanksgiving as a legal holiday a little later than that in the United States. But the first Thanksgiving in Canada is 4 years earlier than that in the United States, and the celebration of Thanksgiving in Canada is on the second Monday in October. Unlike the tradition of Americans remembering the Puritan ancestors' settlement in the New World, Canadians mainly thank God for their successful harvest. Thanksgiving in Canada is earlier than that in the United States. It is a simple fact that the harvest season in Canada is earlier than that in the United States, because Canada is closer to the north. Thanksgiving in Canada is usually thought to be influenced by three traditional habits.
one is the influence from European tradition. Since the earliest harvest about 2 years ago, people have celebrated the harvest and thanked the rich nature for its Enshi and good luck. When Europeans came to Canada, they also brought this tradition into Canada, and influenced the tradition of Thanksgiving in Canada later.
The second is the influence of British explorers celebrating their survival. 4 years before the pilgrims landed in Massachusetts, Canada held its first official Thanksgiving Day. In 1578, an English explorer named Martin Frobisher tried to find a passage connecting the East, but he failed. But he established a settlement in present-day Newfoundland, Canada, and held a feast to celebrate survival and harvest. Other later settlers continued these "gratitude" ceremonies. This time is considered as the first Thanksgiving in Canada.
the third influence came from the later United States. In the autumn of 1621, British immigrants who traveled across the ocean to the new American continent held a three-day carnival to thank God for the bumper harvest. Since then, this custom has continued and gradually became popular everywhere. During the American Revolution, a group of royalists loyal to the British royal family moved to Canada, which also brought the habits and methods of American Thanksgiving to Canada. In 175, the harvest celebration was brought to Nova Scotia by immigrants from the southern United States. At the same time, French immigrants arrived and held a "Thanksgiving" banquet. All these have had a profound impact on Thanksgiving in Canada.
In p>1879, the Canadian Parliament declared that November 6th was a Thanksgiving Day and a national holiday. In the following years, the date of Thanksgiving was changed many times until January 31, 1957, when the Canadian Parliament declared the second Monday of October as Thanksgiving Day, thanking Almighty God for blessing Canada and giving it rich harvest.
In 1863, President Lincoln officially declared Thanksgiving as a national holiday in the United States. Usually, American Thanksgiving allusions are inseparable from Puritans and famous leader Bradford, 12 companions, may flower, a wooden sailboat weighing 18 tons and 9 feet long, Cape Cod Bay, Plymouth Harbor, Indians and Chief Massasod. These are the historical testimony of the first permanent colony in New England.
There are many similarities between Thanksgiving in the two countries, such as cornucopia and pumpkin pie, which are full of flowers and fruits to symbolize abundance. The food on the table of Canadian Thanksgiving dinner usually varies with the change of region and time, some are venison and waterfowl, some are wild ducks and geese, but at present it is mainly turkey and ham.