Home For the holidays
When it comes to giving thanks for what you appreciate there is no better time than thanksgiving, what better way to celebrate than with family, food, and friends. Every year millions of people all across the country come together for a very special reason. This day is when you are to give thanks for all that you have been blessed with, and food is a big part of this day. Without mention this dinner usually includes succulent Turkey, cranberry sauce, spiced stuffing, and very creamy mashed potatoes with gravy. There is nothing like the rising chatter of your family members, or the sweet aroma that billows from behind the kitchen door each time it is opened to let you know you’re home for the holidays.
When you come from a family of Jamaicans you’re going to know how to party, holidays are the times when you look forward to rejoicing and catching up with kinfolk. My older cousins from New Jersey seem to always have energy enough to fill a ball room. Each and every conversation seems to be as exciting and bright as the one prior; it’s surprising they have time to have dinner with the family. My mother and most of the females often rejoice with each other while cooking or preparing the dinner, old hymns gleefully fill the air, reminding them of the isle they have left behind. When my sister and her husband bring my nieces & nephew to visit it’s always a sight for sore eyes, there presence often remind me of when they were born, so innocent, delicate, and precious, like a real white Christmas.
Over the years the location of where we have our thanksgiving has changed drastically. As our family becomes larger and more united we have to find more space to accommodate the guests around this holiday. I can remember a couple of more important times when thanksgiving was extra special. In 1999 me and my most immediate family traveled all the way back to Jamaica to visit my mother’s mother and too spend the holiday with more than 3 generations of family. This was one of the most important times in my life because it gave me a chance to experience and interact with family I don’t see everyday. On a more recent note this year we spent dinner with my mom, and just my cousin.
Thanksgiving today is about cooking and sharing a beautiful meal with family and friends which is far from what the first Thanksgiving was like. The first Thanksgiving was held to celebrate the first successful harvest they reaped (Source 5, Source 3).The feast lasted three days and turkey was not one of the items on the menu. The Pilgrims ate native fruits, Jerusalem artichokes, turnips, cabbage, native birds, shellfish, and Venison (source 11). Other Items did not show up on the menu until after the 1900s. The first Thanksgiving was quite different from modern Thanksgiving in many ways but one thing that hasn't changed is taking the time to be thankful for all that we have and have been
During fall, the leaves fall, the temperature drops, and people sit around a table and say what they are thankful for. While we are consuming pounds of turkey and stuffing, the Pilgrims are to thank for the annual feast. Because the meaning of this holiday is to not stuff your face with endless amount of carbs, we should be reminded of how grateful we are for what we own. Thanksgiving was a very memorable time in U.S. history.
Thanksgiving is a holiday that began hundreds of years ago. It was a celebration of many different things. One of the most important reasons for the celebration was thankfulness that many of the Pilgrims survived the first year of their new lives in America. Today, however, Thanksgiving seems to have a very different meaning to people. Their main focus is not being thankful for the things they have, but wanting more.
American culture is made up of a number of different influences one of them being holidays. On of those esteemed holidays is Thanksgiving, which was made a national holiday in 1863 by President Abraham Lincoln (History.com Staff). It was made a holiday at the time in order to bring the nation together during a time of pain and suffering. In this day and age, it is meant for families to come together and give thanks for what they have over a large meal, which is surrounded by football games, family recipes, and shopping. Thanksgiving, a ritual Americans have done for generations is a classic example of American civil religion. Because it brings together what it means to be an American, but at the same time ignores the history of some American
Thanksgiving is the time to eat and be merry. Never mind about your diet. No? Actually, you can still eat and be merry on Thanksgiving without ditching your diet.
Being part of an eight-child family, I enjoy Thanksgiving with 30+ members and, although several have come and gone, it seems a new face takes their place with a marriage or the birth of a child, ever perpetuating the life circle that is my family. Last Thanksgiving, we lost one member to death but gained another through birth and one more through marriage, decreasing the room in the kitchen by one and adding one more high chair to the table downstairs.
When the great holiday of Thanksgiving comes to mind, most people think of becoming total gluttons and gorging themselves with a seemingly unending amount of food. Others might think of the time spent with family and friends. The whole basis of the holiday is family togetherness, fellowship, and thankfulness for blessings received during the previous year.
Thanksgiving is a very important holiday in present-day American culture. People all throughout America take extra care to make this day a memorable and happy celebration. This tradition has been in the American lifestyle since 1621 when it first started. Even though this tradition has been altered and changed the significance and meaning remains the same. The first Thanksgiving was an important landmark and made a huge imprint in the American culture today.
Thanksgiving is a holiday in the United States, which is celebrated on the fourth Thursday of November every year. Although the way holidays are celebrated over time, thanksgiving has always been a holiday feast. However, Thanksgiving is more than just eating food together with your family. For instance, some families do charity work for the poor people and create a Thanksgiving dinner for them, other family’s watch sport in addition to the food that they eat together. One part that is common at almost every Thanksgiving dinner is the type of food that is served. Families in the United States have celebrated Thanksgiving for hundreds of years, but the way it is celebrated has slightly changed from the first Thanksgiving. To be able to explain
Thanksgiving is a national holiday that is celebrated in the United States. It is celebrated once a year on the fourth Thursday in November. This is a day that families gather together with one another, and in most homes a roast turkey is served with gravy and several other common dishes such as, mashed potatoes, baked potatoes, fresh corn, oyster stuffing, bread stuffing, cranberry stuffing, fruit, cranberry sauce, salad, rolls, corn bread, vegetables of all sorts, apple pie, cherry pie, pumpkin pie and many other things.
Turkey. Mashed potatoes. Ham. Stuffing. Gravy. Pumpkin Pie. Friends. Love. Joy. Family. Laughter. What do all of these things bring to mind? Thanksgiving Day. The tradition of Thanksgiving began in the early 1600s shortly after pilgrims’ ships landed on American soil. To celebrate their arrival and all of their successful harvests, they feasted merrily and gave thanks for a time of such great fortune. From that point on, American people made it a point to honor the holiday around the same time each year. Since those times, however, Thanksgiving traditions have changed significantly. Today, Americans are more focused on getting to their stores early as possible before the much anticipated Black Friday begins. Businesses have recognized this
Paper plates, plastic forks and a pot of spaghetti is not how I imagined my Thanksgiving holiday. It was not a house packed with chattering family members or a buffet filled with five different kinds of the same green bean casserole. Instead, my dad, mom and brother sat with me elbow to elbow at a round fold-out table in the center of our vacant house. I blankly stared at each member of my family and guided my fork back and forth across my plate, trying the hide my discontent, and wishing we were truly home. In that instance I could not list but two things I had to be thankful for.
A big part of Thanksgiving is a Thanksgiving feast. The feast usually consists of potatoes, corn, sweet potatoes, peas, gravy, stuffing, salads, buns and lots of other great food. The main part of the feast is usually the turkey. Other families might have ham, roast beef, duck or chicken. The dessert that is most likely to follow the feast is pumpkin pie. Other people may choose different desserts and food depending on their customs and beliefs for which they choose to give thanks. Let’s not forget the biggest and most important reason for this holiday – giving THANKS! People usually give thanks for everything they have. Their jobs, health, families or just being alive are just a few of the things that people give thanks for.
In our society we have many traditions. These traditions all have certain meanings behind them; however, many of those meanings tend to be lost or forgotten. The holiday of Thanksgiving was originally a celebration to commemorate the arrival of the pilgrims in the new world and their first interactions with the Native Americans. So then why is it still celebrated today? There is no actual purpose in today’s society to observe this custom. It has just continued to be observed because of past traditions. There is no logical reason to continue this fête, as it holds little or no value. With the passage of time the actual reasons have been lost or distorted, such as in the case of Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery.”
Thanksgiving celebration started with the landing of the Pilgrims in America in the year in 1621 after their first harvest. The Pilgrims also gave thanks to God for helping them through the struggles in the adaptation to the new environment and meeting the Native Americans who helped the Pilgrims with strategies for survival. Thanksgiving is one of the brightest times in America with a big feast, reunion of families, and most importantly, thanking others for their acts of altruism. In the painting of Norman Rockwell’s Freedom from Want, the family members are gathered around with big smiles. The title summons up the purpose of Thanksgiving, which is freeing oneself from desires by taking time to look around one’s surroundings. There are millions of reasons to give thanks each day, small or big. Giving back to others in need is one of the ways to increase “voluntary