12. National Holiday
12. National Holiday
Thanksgiving Day is always celebrated on the fourth Thursday of November. It is the most traditional of American holidays. The first Thanksgiving was held in Massachusetts in 1621. After a year of great hardship, the Pilgrim colonists wanted to give thanks to God for their first harvest. They invited their Indian friends to join them in a big feast. Today the holiday is still celebrated as a day for giving thanks. It is a day of family reunion and it is customary to invite friends to share the meal. In some large cities, there are carnival parades for children. In other cities, there are important football games that are played on Thanksgiving Day.
In my family, we always go to my grandmother's house on Thanksgiving Day. All my aunts, uncles, cousins, nephews, and nieces gather for a family homecoming. We always invite some friends to join us. Everyone is glad to see everyone else and there is a very busy exchange of gossip. The women soon disappear into the kitchen to help my grandmother prepare the dinner. The men, meanwhile, settle down to watch a football game on television or to discuss business or politics. If the weather permits, some of the more athletic men go outside to play ball with the children. At about four o'clock we all sit down to dinner. My grandfather gives thanks for the blessings we have received and then he starts to carve the turkey. We always have the traditional dinner of stuffed turkey, cranberry sauce, apple cider, sweet potatoes, chestnuts, and pumpkin pie. After dinner, no one can move and we all sit around and talk, play word games, or tell jokes until it is time to go home. It is always difficult to leave because Thanksgiving Day is one of the few days of the year when the entire family gets together.
