Some history about thanksgiving!

[LadyDuff]

The other day a lady here on the forum asked if thanksgiving was celebrated in Canada. Since then I have started to think more about this holiday and how it is celebrated in the United States and Canada, and how you do it here in Sweden. As I am very interested in history I looked this up on the net and this is what I have found on Canadian Thanksgiving:

Thanksgiving in Canada:


1) Long ago, before the first Europeans arrived in North America, the farmers in Europe held celebrations at harvest time. To give thanks for their good fortune and the abundance of food, the farm workers filled a curved goat's horn with fruit and grain. This symbol was called a cornucopia or horn of plenty. When they came to Canada they brought this tradition with them.

2) In the year 1578, the English navigator Martin Frobisher held a formal ceremony, in what is now called Newfoundland, to give thanks for surviving the long journey. He was later knighted and had an inlet of the Atlantic Ocean in northern Canada named after him--Frobisher Bay. Other settlers arrived and continued these ceremonies.

3) The third came in the year 1621, in what is now the United States, when the Pilgrims celebrated their harvest in the New World. The Pilgrims were English colonists who had founded a permanent European settlement at Plymouth Massachusetts. By the 1750's, this joyous celebration was brought to Nova Scotia by American settlers from the south.

At the same time, French settlers, having crossed the ocean and arrived in Canada with explorer Samuel de Champlain, also held huge feasts of thanks. They even formed 'The Order of Good Cheer' and gladly shared their food with their Indian neighbours.

After the Seven Year's War ended in 1763, the citizens of Halifax held a special day of Thanksgiving.

The Americans who remained faithful to the government in England were known as Loyalists. At the time of the American revolution, they moved to canada and spread the Thanksgiving celebration to other parts of the country. many of the new English settlers from Great Britain were also used to having a harvest celebration in their churches every autumn.

Eventually in 1879, Parliament declared November 6th a day of Thanksgiving and a national holiday. Over the years many dates were used for Thanksgiving, the most popular was the 3rd Monday in October. After World War I, both Armistice Day and Thanksgiving were celebrated on the Monday of the week in which November 11th occurred. Ten years later, in 1931, the two days became separate holidays and Armistice Day was renamed Remembrance Day.

Finally, on January 31st, 1957, Parliament proclaimed...

"A Day of General Thanksgiving to Almighty God for the bountiful harvest with which Canada has been blessed ... to be observed on the 2nd Monday in October.

[LadyDuff]

Here is thanksgiving in the United States:


The United States celebrated Thanksgiving on Thursday. Traditionally American families gather for the Thanksgiving feast of Turkey, with all the trimmings. Another tradition is Macy's Thanksgiving parade in New York, now in its 73rd year.

They observe Thanksgiving in November, according to a law passed by President Abraham Lincoln in 1863.From the president, to U.S. soldiers overseas, to the homeless, millions of Americans shared a Thanksgiving Day tradition when they sat down for a turkey dinner.

[LadyDuff]

continues:

History

What does the word "thanksgiving" mean?
Thanksgiving is the expression of gratitude and the giving of thanks. Being thankful is a feeling and a showing of gratitude. To praise means to verbally express your admiration, to honor and to glorify with song. Being grateful is feeling and showing appreciation for the kindness and benefits that God has given YOU!

What are YOU thankful for this year?
Take time to count every blessing and to give thanks to the Lord for all He has done for YOU!

Thanksgiving Day, legal holiday in the U.S., first celebrated in early colonial times in New England. The actual origin, however, is probably the festivals that are traditional in many parts of the world Festivals and Feasts. After the first harvest was completed by the Plymouth colonists in 1621, Governor William Bradford proclaimed a day of thanksgiving and prayer, shared by all the colonists and neighboring Native Americans.

In 1623 a day of fasting and prayer during a period of drought was changed to one of thanksgiving because the rain came during the prayers. Gradually the custom prevailed in New England of annually celebrating thanksgiving after the harvest.

During the American Revolution a yearly day of national thanksgiving was suggested by the Continental Congress. In 1817 New York State adopted Thanksgiving Day as an annual custom, and by the middle of the 19th century many other states had done the same. In 1863 President Abraham Lincolnappointed a day of thanksgiving, and since then each president has issued a Thanksgiving Day proclamation, generally designating the fourth Thursday of November as a holiday. Thanksgiving is a statutory holiday in Canada, celebrated, since 1957, on the second Monday in October. Observance of the day began in 1879.

[LadyDuff]

Celebrations This Day

President Clinton shared his meal with the first family at Camp David, starting with pumpkin bisque, working through roast turkey and fixings and finishing off with pumpkin pie and ice cream.

Thanksgiving: For many, this word conjures up happy images of big meals and relaxing with friends and relatives.

Georgia Gov. Roy Barnes spent his holiday at Turner Field, home of the Atlanta Braves, helping serve a free dinner to the hungry and homeless. He was the first governor to direct the event, usually held by civil rights activist Hosea Williams. There was food enough for as many as 35,000 people, organizers said.

Thanksgiving was just another day for a small U.S. Army contingent holed up in a charred hulk of an old hotel in Cernica, Kosovo.

About 800 people gathered Thursday at the ornate Washington National Cathedral for its first-ever interfaith Thanksgiving service to honor George Washington and his founding role in guaranteeing the nation's religious freedom.

Washington had proposed in his first year as president "a day of Public Thanksgiving and Prayer." More than 60 years later, President Abraham Lincoln proclaimed the last Thursday in November as a day of National Thanksgiving.

During the National Cathedral service, Herman Schwartz, a professor from the American University College of Law, recited Washington's 1790 letter to a Jewish group in Newport, Rhode Island, which said:

"Citizens of the United States of America have a right to applaud themselves for having given to mankind examples of an enlarged and liberal policy: A policy worthy of imitation. All possess alike liberty of conscience and immunities of citizenship ... The government of the United States ... gives bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance.

The service, which included two verses of the national anthem, was in part a celebration of Washington's ideal of the constitutional guarantee of separation of church and state.

Things to do for Thanksgiving

Here are some tips to consider while shopping for Thanksgiving

When heading to the supermarket, don't forget to bring along a reusable canvas or string bag for carrying out your groceries.

If possible, buy turkeys that are grown without the use of hormones and antibiotics.

Shop for items that use the least amount of packaging, and look for packaging that uses recycled and post-consumer content.

Whenever possible, purchase produce that is grown locally, since less energy is expended to transport it to your grocery store. Look for organic foods as well.

Though big Thanksgiving feasts can translate into a lot of cleaning up, don't be tempted by plastic utensils or paper plates, napkins and tablecloths. Not only is it much more festive to use your favorite plates, silverware, napkins and tablecloths, it also means that less waste ends up in the landfill.

Don't forget to recycle as much as you can when cleaning up over the long weekend, including glass, aluminum and plastic beverage containers, as well as tinfoil used in cooking.

Consider donating your leftovers to a shelter for those less fortunate.

If you plan to keep your leftovers, be sure to have plenty of reusable food containers on hand for after the meal. "Stock up on reusable food containers that can save resources all year long," said Sturcken.

Don't forget to add Thanksgiving food scraps to your compost pile. If you do not have a compost pile, now is as good a time as any to get started.

Thanksgiving is one of the busiest travel weekends of the year. "Considering the usual Thanksgiving traffic, public transportation may be the quickest way to get where you are going, while minimizing pollution," said Sturcken. "If you take the car, carpooling is the best way to go, and a good way to spend time with family and friends."

[LadyDuff]

A Thanksgiving Prayer
by William S. Burroughs

Thanks for the wild turkey and the passenger pigeons,
destined to be shit out through wholesome American guts.
Thanks for a continent to despoil and poison.
Thanks for Indians to provide a modicum of challenge and danger.
Thanks for vast herds of bison to kill and skin leaving the carcasses to rot.
Thanks for bounties on wolves and coyotes.
Thanks for the American dream, To vulgarize and to falsify until the bare lies shine through.
Thanks for the KKK.
For nigger-killin' lawmen, feelin' their notches.
For decent church-goin' women, with their mean, pinched, bitter, evil faces.
Thanks for "Kill a Queer for Christ" stickers.
Thanks for laboratory AIDS.
Thanks for Prohibition and the war against drugs.
Thanks for a country where nobody's allowed to mind the own business.
Thanks for a nation of finks.
Yes, thanks for all the memories-- all right let's see your arms!
You always were a headache and you always were a bore.
Thanks for the last and greatest betrayal of the last and greatest of human dreams.

[LadyDuff]

I havent found anything on Sweden and thanksgiving, but Im looking! Well, it is well past my bedtime, so I will leave that for later or perhaps our librarian Dawn can help me with this one!

Take care everyone!

[Cake Guru]

I love WS Burroughs!.

Just for the record, the first New World 'Thanksgiving' was actually in Virginia. This is the very first written record of a harvest feast that settlers held in conjunction with Native Americans.

BTW, do they still teach that Plymouth garbage in school, or have the Virginians finally got their due?