The United States is preparing to experience one of the most heartfelt holidays of the year, namely the Thanksgiving Day (Thanksgiving Day in English), which falls this year Thursday 25 November. As we have learned above all from American films and TV series, many overseas families will gather in a convivial way around a table, consuming food at will, including the inevitable course. turkey based. Seen from our perspective, this tradition is reminiscent of Christmas lunches and dinners, with which Thanksgiving actually shares its Christian origin. The similarities end here, however, as the stars and stripes party actually has to do with the protestant movement and the colonial history of the country.
STAND BY Turkey, why is it eaten on Thanksgiving Day?
Where does Thanksgiving come from
History books tell that in 1620 a group of Pilgrims made up of over center people boarded the galeone Mayflower with the intent of forever abandoning England, where they were persecuted for having embraced Puritanism, the most uncompromising wing of Calvinist Protestantism. At the end of a grueling journey they reached the New World and founded the Plymouth village on the coast of present-day Massachusetts. During the first winter many settlers died due to food shortages: to avoid the worst was only the help offered by local Native American tribes, who taught them how to cultivate the land and which animals to raise.
Thus it was that in 1621 the Pilgrim Fathers they threw a party to thank God for their good fortune and their first successes in agriculture, also inviting the natives with whom they had by now formed a friendly relationship. The celebrations lasted three days and were characterized by generous banquets, which among the various delicacies included dishes based on deer, fish, shellfish, but above all the Turkey e the pumpkin, two essential dishes even in today’s menus. In 1623 the custom was repeated under the blessing of Governor Bradford, officially taking the name of Thanksgiving Day. With the passage of time, Thanksgiving spread a little throughout the United States, until it was proclaimed a national holiday on November 26, 1789 by the will of George Washington, first president of the United States of America.
When we celebrate
In 1863, while the civil war was in progress, Abraham Lincoln decided that Thanksgiving was to be scheduled the last Thursday of each November. The choice remained unchanged until Franklin D. Roosevelt, in 1939, pushed to anticipate the celebrations by a week, with the aim of encouraging retail sales, in crisis due to the Great Depression. The move was not particularly appreciated by public opinion and was renamed by its detractors ‘Franksgiving’, also because on balance it turned out to be a half a fiasco. In 1941, Roosevelt himself made amends and signed documents to bring back Thanksgiving Day where it was previously placed, that is the fourth (or alternatively the last) Thursday in November.
Thanksgiving today
By now, Thanksgiving has lost almost all of its religious significance, but in the United States it remains a solemn occasion, which is celebrated with patriotic events (the speech of the president in office is inevitable) and above all at home together with loved ones. The great binges with which friends and relatives are welcomed have the absolute protagonist stuffed turkey, served regularly with the celebra cranberry sauce (the American cranberry). The menu then includes the cream of pumpkin, baked sweet potatoes, corn bread, grilled corn on the cob and desserts such as pumpkin pie (pumpkin pie) and the classic apple pie (apple pie), although the menu may vary depending on the areas. On a commercial level, Thanksgiving Day also leads the way Black Friday, the day of great discounts that falls on the following Friday, inaugurating the Christmas shopping season.
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