Thanksgiving
Thanksgiving is a popular holiday in America, but have you ever wondered what this holiday is for? What is Thanksgiving all about? It is a day to celebrate harvest and for giving thanks for perceived blessings of the year. It is known as the celebration to instill gratitude in life. Thanksgiving is not just about holidays and good food; it’s also about being generous and grateful for the people you have in your life. It also marks the beginning of the holiday season. Although we associate Thanksgiving with the United States, other countries like Canada, Germany, Austria, and Switzerland also celebrate it. Though the idea behind is similar across the world, every country has its own unique ways of celebrating it. Let’s take a look at how Thanksgiving is celebrated in different parts of the world.
Of all the celebrations from around the world, America’s Thanksgiving is the most popular of them all. It marks the beginning of the winter American holiday season until the New Year celebrations. American Thanksgiving was first celebrated by the Pilgrims in 1624 to commemorate their first successful harvest. It was the President Abraham Lincoln who proclaimed a national Thanksgiving Day that was to be held every November. Thanksgiving has been celebrated ever since and the celebrations that you see today is an extension of the same fiesta. A typical American celebration includes a grand thanksgiving dinner with family and friends. Sharing a hearty plate of turkey, pumpkin pie, mashed potatoes, sweet corn and assorted fall vegetables are all ways of being thankful for the past year. Other highlights of the American traditions include parades through the streets of New York, Broadway shows and football matches.
On Thursday, November 23, our students from the 4th and 5th forms got acquainted for the first time with the customs and traditions of celebrating Thanksgiving. They were absolutely enthusiastic about the idea of sharing gratitude through pictures. They learned to be thankful for everything they have and that gratitude is the ability to experience life as a gift.
