The Thanksgiving holiday explained in eight points

November 23, 2021

Photo: John Moore / Getty Images

By: EFE 23 of November 2021

The Thanksgiving or Thanksgiving holiday, which is celebrated next Thursday, is one of the most important of the calendar in the United States, and although it has not been replicated in the rest of the world, some of its details, such as the Black Friday, they have already crossed its borders.

These are the eight main things that define this typically American holiday.

1. The origin

It is popular belief that its tradition dates back to the year 1621, when the first English settlers in North America gathered to celebrate their first harvest and give thanks to God. At that celebration in Plymouth, some Wampanoag Indians appeared who ate and drank with the settlers. But like all founding myths, very few of these things are true, and the holiday as it is now known dates more to the 19th century .

2. Festive

Thanksgiving was celebrated on different dates from fall depending on the states, and its proclamation as an American national holiday to be celebrated on the last Thursday of each November is due to Abraham Lincoln in 1863 . Although the proclamation was made during the Civil War and may have been a failure among the southern rebels, it soon became one of the holidays shared by all Americans.

Had a great day yesterday at Fort Bragg. @ FLOTUS ‘s Joining Forces initiative to support military families couldn’t be more personal or important to us – and we were proud to spend our Friendsgiving with service members and the families of the deployed. pic.twitter.com/xoiMMRFefF

– President Biden (@POTUS) November 23, 2021

3. Lay celebration

Unlike Christmas, the other great holiday followed in the United States as in Throughout the world of Christian culture, Thanksgiving has a transversal character to all the religions that are practiced in the country. The They celebrate Christians of all stripes, Jews, Muslims and even secular or atheists. There is no religious ceremony associated with the festival on that day.

4. Family reunions

Thanksgiving is the time of year par excellence for family reunions: in a country with high labor mobility, this is the date when children take airplanes and all kinds of transport to meet with their parents and siblings, and the traffic is very intense in the previous days at airports and train or bus stations to spend these four days together, since Friday usually becomes an informal holiday that joins the weekend.

Families usually also invite those who for professional or personal reasons are alone, so that they do not spend that important day alone.

Those who do not have a family to go to, get together among friends, in what has been called “Friendsgiving.”

5. A turkey on the table

It is almost mandatory for each family to eat, at the end of the afternoon , a roast turkey, accompanied by mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce and pumpkin pie. All supermarkets in the country offer turkeys for the occasion, and this year it is estimated that they will be killed 46 millions of animals.

In the week before the party, the country’s president “pardons” a turkey he presents in society in a televised act, and the lucky person is “baptized” with a name.

Some politicians of a more populist character give away dozens of turkeys among their voters at this party to ensure their loyalty.

6. Long day of American football

The football league (American) always schedules a day on Thanksgiving , and it is common for families to sit on the sofa to watch hours and hours of looping games while waiting for the turkey, or even after of the food.

7. Charitable acts

In recent years, charities have become popular on the occasion of the party, and there are people who dedicate a few hours of that day to accompany the most needy and serve hot meals in shelters where people live homeless.