Thanksgiving

HAPPY THANKSGIVING, EVERYBODY!!!

Today, on the 4th Thursday of November, Americans are celebrating Thanksgiving. To Austrians, this is not a very well known holiday, so I decided to briefly tell you about its history.

HISTORY

The first Thanksgiving Day was celebrated in 1621.  In 1620, the Pilgrims, a group of people who had left England mainly for religious reasons, had come to America on the Mayflower. Initially, they had intended to sail to the Colony of Virginia, where they had already obtained permission to settle. However, they were put off course and anchored in today’s Massachusetts. There, they founded the Colony of Plymouth.

Unfortunately, the Pilgrims did not have an easy start in this new land where they hoped to find freedom and a new, prosperous life. About half of the settlers died within the first winter. The other half would probably have died as well if it had not been for the local Native Americans, who gave them food and taught them how to hunt, fish and grow food.

So let’s fast forward to 1621. In honor of their fist successful harvest, the pilgrims invited the Native Americans to share a meal. This meal probably consisted of birds, seafood, fruits, grains and vegetables, but the key elements of todays Thanksgiving Day meal (e.g. turkey, pumpkin pie, mashed potatoes) were missing.

After this feast Thanksgiving was not celebrated for a long time. In 1777, after winning a battle in the Revolutionary War, George Washington announced November 26^th a “holiday of sincere humble and thanks”.  Especially the American Puritans liked this idea of a holiday on which people give thanks to God for all kinds of blessings. However, the date on which Thanksgiving Day was celebrated varied from state to state.

In 1827 Sarah Josepha Hale (the author of “Mary Had a Little Lamb”) started a campaign, promoting a nationwide Thanksgiving holiday. In 1863, in the midst of the Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln realized the unifying potential of such a holiday and declared Thanksgiving Day a national holiday on the 4^th Thursday of November.

NOW

Parades
Nowadays, Thanksgiving is an extremely popular holiday in the US. Some famous traditions that have developed throughout the past centuries are the Thanksgiving Day football games and the Thanksgiving Day parades. The most popular parade is probably “Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade" in New York City. It involves fleets and giant balloons and is even broadcast on TV and radio. 

Turkey Pardon

Another tradition I found particularly interesting is the Presidential Turkey Pardon. President Kennedy was the first to keep a turkey he was given for Thanksgiving Day, instead of having it cooked. President Bush senior officially started the tradition of pardoning a turkey and sending it to a farm where it can live happily ever after. Yesterday, president Obama pardoned the turkey Popcorn:

 Family

Apart from traditions and entertainment, Thanksgiving Day is most of all about FAMILY. People reconnect with their loved ones and share a celebratory meal with them. Thanksgiving is one of the busiest travel holidays, since people drive home to visit their families. The meal are enormous and consists of the staples roast turkey, stuffing, cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes and pumpkin pie.

Saying "Thank You"

From my point of view, the concept of Thanksgiving Day is great. I think we all have so much to be thankful for and especially in today’s hectic world, we often forget about this. We rush through our daily lives and keep complaining about the stress, our problems and everything that goes wrong in our society. But since today is Thanksgiving Day, I would say we should – to coin a phrase – count our blessings.

In 2011 Austria was ranked 19^th in the world for its Human Development Index. Most people in Austria are wealthier than most people in the world. We should be thankful for having a safe place to live, not having to worry about how to provide food for the next day, having the freedom to travel and basically do whatever we want to do. We have the chance to life our dreams, work for our goals and to actively pursue what makes us happy. We have access to good education, which is the first step to a wealthy future life. We are healthy and have access to good healthcare. 

And what I am thankful for the most are the people I love. I am blessed to have met so many great people and I do not know what I would do without my family and friends.

In my view, consciously thinking of these blessings and giving thanks for our lives is what Thanksgiving Day is all about. Or - as President Obama mentioned in his speech - 

"We have more to be thankful for than we can ever say 

and more to be hopeful for than we can ever imagine!" 

So once again, HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!