Thanksgiving Day is one of the important traditional festivities in the United States. It gets celebrated on the fourth Thursday of November (in Canada, the second Monday of October). The origin of Thanksgiving goes back to the harvest festivals in Antiquity.
Ancient societies were all linked to the cycles of nature. These festivals were gratitude to the gods for harvests and benevolent winters. Villagers came together to bring the last loads of grain from the field and to share a joyous party. There was enough odor of idol worship and licentious behavior at the feast of the harvest.
The Saturnalia was the annual thanksgiving celebration celebrated by the Romans in December. It also included banqueting and drinking. Erntedank in Germany gets celebrated on the last Sunday of September or the first of October. As its name says, it is a celebration to thank the gods for the fruits of the harvest. There was a belief in the existence of the spirit of wheat. A doll got made with the last sheaf of wheat. This doll got raised and brought to the feasts with great ceremony.
Lughnasadh marks the beginning of the harvest season. It was a time of community gathering, fairs, horse races. People met with distant relatives and friends. Among the Irish this was a favorite time for marriages that usually lasted a year.
On the European continent, the Catholic Church adopted the ritual of harvesting. Today in North America, Thanksgiving is one of the most important festivities of the year. It represents a moment to share with family and friends. Attendees share a banquet in which the main course is usually stuffed baked turkey.
It gets accompanied with red cranberry sauce. Vegetables are also often served in various presentations. The mashed sweet potato and the pan of green beans are the most common. The desserts vary, but the favorite are pumpkin pie, apples and blueberry. Each diner usually collaborates at the banquet with a saucer.
The traditional main course for dinner is a large roasted turkey. This turkey gets accompanied with a filling made from corn bread and sage. It gets served with a jelly or cranberry sauce. The green bean casserole, sweet potato and mashed potato is very common. Pecan pie and apple pie are also popular.
Few celebrations carry such a revealing name as Thanksgiving. It is a holiday that for Americans is more than sacred even though it has little to do with religion. The myth of Thanksgiving does not work for many people in this country. The indigenous minority celebrates this as a day of mourning.
Thanksgiving has got erected in the American imaginary as an inescapable date. Family gatherings are almost more important than at Christmas. Thanksgiving in this country is much more than a harvest festival at home. It is a celebration of the mythology.
At the end of the harvest, West Sumatra farmers compete with their cows as they surf behind them on a wooden board. In Barbados, the parties, called Crop Over, have become basic in the cultural calendar.
In Japan, the autumn harvest gets preceded by Honen Matsuri, or the fertility festival. The Shinto priests bless a gigantic wooden phallus. They offer to the gods in exchange for a fruitful season.
The Moon Festival is one of the biggest celebrations in China and Vietnam. The festival has many customs. One of the most popular is the consumption of mooncakes filled with a variety of sweet pastes.
The festival of Chuseok is one of the most important in the Korean calendar (north and south). This three-day event coincides with the autumnal equinox. It is the time when many Koreans visit their families. It is also common to revive folk traditions, such as the tradition of dances called poongmul.Original link
Ancient societies were all linked to the cycles of nature. These festivals were gratitude to the gods for harvests and benevolent winters. Villagers came together to bring the last loads of grain from the field and to share a joyous party. There was enough odor of idol worship and licentious behavior at the feast of the harvest.
The Saturnalia was the annual thanksgiving celebration celebrated by the Romans in December. It also included banqueting and drinking. Erntedank in Germany gets celebrated on the last Sunday of September or the first of October. As its name says, it is a celebration to thank the gods for the fruits of the harvest. There was a belief in the existence of the spirit of wheat. A doll got made with the last sheaf of wheat. This doll got raised and brought to the feasts with great ceremony.
Lughnasadh marks the beginning of the harvest season. It was a time of community gathering, fairs, horse races. People met with distant relatives and friends. Among the Irish this was a favorite time for marriages that usually lasted a year.
On the European continent, the Catholic Church adopted the ritual of harvesting. Today in North America, Thanksgiving is one of the most important festivities of the year. It represents a moment to share with family and friends. Attendees share a banquet in which the main course is usually stuffed baked turkey.
It gets accompanied with red cranberry sauce. Vegetables are also often served in various presentations. The mashed sweet potato and the pan of green beans are the most common. The desserts vary, but the favorite are pumpkin pie, apples and blueberry. Each diner usually collaborates at the banquet with a saucer.
The traditional main course for dinner is a large roasted turkey. This turkey gets accompanied with a filling made from corn bread and sage. It gets served with a jelly or cranberry sauce. The green bean casserole, sweet potato and mashed potato is very common. Pecan pie and apple pie are also popular.
Few celebrations carry such a revealing name as Thanksgiving. It is a holiday that for Americans is more than sacred even though it has little to do with religion. The myth of Thanksgiving does not work for many people in this country. The indigenous minority celebrates this as a day of mourning.
Thanksgiving has got erected in the American imaginary as an inescapable date. Family gatherings are almost more important than at Christmas. Thanksgiving in this country is much more than a harvest festival at home. It is a celebration of the mythology.
At the end of the harvest, West Sumatra farmers compete with their cows as they surf behind them on a wooden board. In Barbados, the parties, called Crop Over, have become basic in the cultural calendar.
In Japan, the autumn harvest gets preceded by Honen Matsuri, or the fertility festival. The Shinto priests bless a gigantic wooden phallus. They offer to the gods in exchange for a fruitful season.
The Moon Festival is one of the biggest celebrations in China and Vietnam. The festival has many customs. One of the most popular is the consumption of mooncakes filled with a variety of sweet pastes.
The festival of Chuseok is one of the most important in the Korean calendar (north and south). This three-day event coincides with the autumnal equinox. It is the time when many Koreans visit their families. It is also common to revive folk traditions, such as the tradition of dances called poongmul.Original link
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