THANKSGIVING DAY

Last week, I was having a coffee in a buffet with some friends, who are students, when we read in a newspaper an article about Thanksgiving Day. One of them told us that he had heard many times in different media, to speak about it but he had no idea why American people celebrated that holiday.The others said the same. "You are always watching American series and films, since you were little children and don't you know anything about this National feast?". I told them. "I'll explain you a few things about it":

In the 17th century, the members of the English Separatist Church(a Puritan sect), had to leave their home and country to escape religious persecution. First they went to Holland but as they didn't like its way of life, they set off to America, by sea aboard the Mayflower. They arrived at Plymouth on December, 1.620.

The first year was terrible because the winter was devastating and a lot of them died, almost the half. But the next year was different and they had a good harvest. A group of natives helped them to survive in that place. The remaining colonists decided to celebrate it with a feast. It's believed that they invited the natives and the feast was more a traditional festival harvest than a true "thanksgiving". This feast lasted three days and they ate corn, berries, fish, lobster, deer and pumpkin.

The next year the colonists didn't repeat the feast but in 1.623 during a severe draught, they prayed for rain and during the next days it rained a lot. It's for that, Governor Bradfor proclaimed another day of Thanksgiving, inviting the natives. The following year when they celebrated again this feast would be in 1676. The governing council of Charlestown, Massachusetts, wanted to express thanks for the good fortune of their community. In this case, they didn't invite the Indians because the celebration was also the recognitionof the colonists' recent victory over the heathen natives. They proclaimed June, 29 as the Thanksgiving Day.
Later, in October of 1777, 13 colonies joined in a thanksgiving celebration to commemorate the victory over the British at Saratoga. But the first President of the U.S.A. who proclaimed a National day of Thanksgiving was G. Washington. It was in 1789. Although, no all the colonies wanted to celebrate this day. They thought the hardships of a few pilgrims didn't warrant a national holiday. In fact, later, President Thomas Jefferson didn't want to have a day of thanksgiving.

And finally, Sara J. Hale, a magazine editor, writing editorials and letters to different governors and presidents for more than 40 years, she achieved that President Lincoln, in 1863, proclaimed the last Thursday in November as a national day of Thanksgiving. This feast has contunied until now.

My friends were listening to me with attention. One of them told me if someone knew something about the meal of this day. I had only heard that the turkey was the most important ingredient and a few things more. But when I was beginning to tell them it, I saw how an American tourist woman entered the bar, asking for local information, with a plan in her hands . I thought, we can invite the American to our table and ask her about the thanksgiving meal and other things. I propose them and they accepted very glad. I don't know if the fact she was very attractive helped them to decide about it. The woman was very nice and accepted our proposal. She began telling us that the thanksgiving dinner was mainly a familiar meeting and it wasn't the same as twenty years ago, because our lifestyle was very fast and people didn't spend much time cooking. They preferred buying convenience foods in the supermarkets. She remembered in her childhood , her mother preparing and cooking the dinner from the day before. Nancy, our guest, continued telling us that the turkey was the main course in all the houses. They usually cooked it in the oven and served with cranberry sauce, gravy, mashed potatoes, some vegetables such as Brussel sprouts or corns, black olives and squash. The bacon was also important and it was included in a lot of recipes. As a dessert, the pumpkin, cooked in different ways like pies, cakes, etc. was an essential ingredient. Our American friend ended her talk, telling us that after dinner people usually watched a football match on T.V. and exchanged some gifts. Lately, it was very usual to send messages by the mobile phone between friends and mates.

We said goodbye to our guest,after helping her with some local information and being grateful for her help.

All of us could learn a little more about a special date for English culture.