Easy Card Making

Thanksgiving History and Origin

One of the biggest and warmest holidays of the United States, Thanksgiving has its history and origin way back in centuries. There are various instances of thanksgiving observances in history, all of which bear resemblance to the modern celebrations of Thanksgiving; but the generally accepted and circulated view is that the modern day American Thanksgiving has its origin in 1621, when the Pilgrims, or the English settlers and the Native Americans celebrated a three-day long feast in Plymouth, Massachusetts. But quite contrary to this popular belief, the Pilgrims were never the first to have a Thanksgiving feast. Feasts celebrating a good harvest existed well before the Pilgrims or the settlers arrived. Nevertheless, it’s true that these Pilgrims held a Thanksgiving feast (more aptly, a feast to say ‘thanks’) in the first year of their survival in America

Following this Pilgrim’s 1621 Thanksgiving observance, began the Thanksgiving tradition of holding feasts after a good harvest. People usually celebrate Thanksgiving to mark the Autumn harvest and make merry in the plentiful yield. There is, however, a long tradition of celebrating the harvest throughout history. It might interest you to know that even the ancient Greeks and Romans had their respective harvest celebrations with music, parades and feasts quite like today’s Thanksgiving celebrations. People in ancient China also had their harvest festival with families feasting together on ‘moon cakes’ (round yellowish cakes). This was to celebrate the full moon and, as a matter of fact, the Chinese still celebrate this as their Moon Festival with much hype and hoopla ! Then again, there’s the harvest festival of the Jews. The Jewish harvest fest, Sukkot, is celebrated for eight days and is an occasion to catch up with the family on feasts and to be thankful for a good year. The British Isles too has a harvest festival called the Lammas, which marks the beginning of the harvest season.

Now, whatever the history and origin, Thanksgiving today is primarily a day set aside in the most part of North America to show gratitude and be thankful to God. Feasts and family reunions are a regular trend for Thanksgiving in North America. In the United States, Thanksgiving is celebrated on the fourth Thursday in November every year. But in Canada, the harvest season ends a little earlier in the year. Hence in Canada, Thanksgiving is celebrated on the second Monday in October. The Canadians have a three-day long Thanksgiving weekend and the holiday is not as significantly hyped here as in the United States. The Canadians also do not get enough time for a convenient homecoming. So they reserve the family reunions for the Christmas holiday.

The Thanksgiving holiday has serious religious shades for the Roman Catholic Quebecers, who call it l’Action de Grâce. Thanksgiving has a long-standing history in Europe; it is associated with the harvest festivals held there.

So then, as you see, celebrating harvest is quite old. And so is the thanksgiving act–to thank the Almighty for all the good things He has given us ! And all these harvest festivities, although having cultural differences, are common in spirit to the modern American Thanksgiving.

Sean Carter writes on holidays, thanksgiving and celebrations around the world. He also writes on family, relationships,womens issues birthdays, inspiration, religion, love and friendship. He is a writer with special interest in ecard industry. He writes for 123greetings.com

Help ensure this year’s Thanksgiving holiday is low on the stress and high on the enjoyment and thanks-giving by using these simple tips.

1. Prepare early & plan ahead. Nothing can better ensure a stress-free holiday than planning early and doing as many of the preparation steps ahead of time. Read on for just what steps you can do before the big day.
2. Invites your guests early, and be clear on when they have to be at your home. There’s no reason to not invite your guest as early as September or early October, especially if they have to travel to get to your home. And, very importantly, be sure to specify right up front when they need to arrive at your home, and build a little ‘buffer’ in. For instance, in our family we like to serve the Turkey dinner at 5:30 or 6:00 pm, but we ask all guests to arrive by 4:00 pm, the better to socialize, help and, importantly, keep the stress off you. The last thing you need to worry about as you baste the turkey is “what if Aunt Martha is an hour late?”
3. Accommodate your out of town guests. Plan early and don’t be shy about being directive for your out-of-town guests. Don’t leave them guessing whether they can stay with you at your house. Tell them clearly they can, or clearly tell them they can’t. If they can’t, do this graciously by saying you’ve reserved a room at a local, affordable motel or B&B – do they want you to hold the reservation for them or not?
4. Don’t overshoot, keep it simple. Remember, the best times and memories at Thanksgiving come from the time spent together, not the show-off cooking and party hosting you might do. Show-off party hosting is a sure-fire recipe for stress and perhaps flame out. So keep your plans and aspirations for the meal, decorations and day simple, with an accent on making your guests comfortable, serving them honest but simple traditional fare and letting them enjoy the time with family and friends.
5. Encourage sharing. Plan a few activities that will help people share and bond. It can be as simple as telling people ahead of time that during dinner everyone who’s willing, will have a chance to share what they are thankful for. Or perhaps have a group walk in a pretty local park for an hour in the afternoon while the turkey’s cooking. This will sharpen their appetites and make everything taste better!
6. Pick the right menu, and make sure you can deliver. Plan your menu well in advance and, if there are any dishes you’ve never made before, don’t make your Thanksgiving guests your guinea pigs! Instead, practice your new dishes ahead of time. I like to practice new turkey recipes in October. Everyone loves turkey and doesn’t get it often enough during the rest of the year. Invite some friends over in October and cook a smaller turkey to get your technique and recipe down. You’ll go into Thanksgiving week with unparalleled confidence.
7. Get the bird. Odds are, you can walk into almost any grocery store on Thanksgiving day and find a turkey. Fine. But why have the stress of worrying about this, and why take just whatever happens to be there. Talk to your local butcher a few weeks ahead of time. Get his advice as to the correct turkey size for your number of guests. Order your bird from him and arrange to pick it up on Wednesday or Thursday morning – depending on schedules and whether you have room in your fridge!
8. Lighten the load through ‘potluck’ delegation. In our family we lighten the load on the hosts by passing around an ‘on line sign up sheet’ and asking some of the guests to volunteer to make some of the dishes and bring them – potluck style! My sister usually brings several pies she bakes the day before and my Mother brings her famous string bean recipe. That’s less work for me, and they like being able to contribute! See the below resources for on line tools to make potluck sign ups easy.
9. Get your gear in place. Now is the time to think through seating, tables, place settings etc. Do you need to arrange to borrow any extra equipment? Make arrangements ahead of time for what you need to borrow and be sure to get it 3-4 days ahead of time if possible, or arrange a posse for early Thursday so it just gets done and doesn’t add to the stress. I always borrow two extra folding tables and 8 folding chair from my church hall and have my brother-in-law help me pick this stuff up in a van on Thursday morning. This allows us to seat 20+ guests! For you it might be getting 6 extra place settings by having some guests bring them.
10. Shop ahead of time. Do your final grocery shopping 3-4 days before Thanksgiving. Whatever you do, don’t wait until Wednesday night or Thursday morning. Instead, go out the previous weekend to buy everything except the fresh fruits, vegetables and the turkey. You’ll feel much better on Monday and Tuesday!
11. I know this is #11, but this is more about next year. When it’s all over, write down your notes. Take a few minutes on Friday or Saturday after Thanksgiving and write down some notes on what went well and how to improve. Write down any recipe adjustments and notes as well, as well as how long it took to cook the turkey (every oven is different!). It can be really valuable to know what the correct quantities of food are to serve so many guests. Next year, knowing that putting the bird in the oven at 1 pm worked perfectly for a 5 pm dinner will remove one more iota of stress. Then store your notes some place good – I use on line note & to do list software (see below) but you can also be as simple as putting your paper notes with the turkey pan!

That’s all there is to it. You see the common themes: plan ahead, get as many tasks done as possible before Thanksgiving day, share some potluck tasks with your guests, and keep your ambitions in rein so the menu and plans are simple and surefire. Most important, don’t forget to enjoy the stuffing!

Mitch Mueller recommends using sign up sheets for Thanksgiving, to do list template, and, to simplify Christmas: christmas gift list templates.