As Thanksgiving rolls around, you may be so busy with planning out the best Black
Friday deals, finding the biggest turkey, or day dreaming about pumpkin pie that the true
meaning of the holiday may slip your mind.
We forget that Thanksgiving is not just a long weekend off from school or the start of the
holiday season. It is not about the Macy’s parade in the morning or the football games in the
afternoon. Thanksgiving is a time to be full of thanks. You can be thankful for whatever you
want-just have gratitude.
Since childhood, we have learned that the first Thanksgiving was a feast where the
colonists and Native Americans ate turkey and bonded over all they were thankful for. “It turns
out those were just tall tales we learned in elementary school,” said “So, Why Do We Eat Turkey
on Thanksgiving?”, ”the pilgrims and natives probably stuffed themselves silly with venison, not
turkey”.
Then why is Thanksgiving always associated with eating turkey dinners and fixings of
stuffing, cranberry sauce, and gravy? William Bradford wrote that colonists would hunt wild
turkeys during the early years of the settlement. Since then, Turkey was selected for the
Thanksgiving feast. Stuffing was a traditional English dish which consists of bread crumbs,
vegetables, and spices were prepared on Thanksgiving. Today, people decided to change the
definition. Stuffing would be the bread mixture found inside the turkey and the original dish is
called dressing. Though it is uncertainty of which food was actually eaten at the first
Thanksgiving cranberries were most likely one of the foods. The early pilgrims named
cranberries due to their resemblance of a crane head. Cranberries picked up popularity during the
Civil War.
Thanksgiving was proclaimed a National Holiday by Abraham Lincoln during the Civil
War in 1863. Thanksgiving was originally supposed to be a holiday to celebrate and give thanks
to God for the blessings he has given us. But today, Thanksgiving has more of a focus on
spending time with family, eating delicious food, and getting a head start on Christmas shopping.
Although there are many traditions that have evolved since the first Thanksgiving we
need to keep the purpose in mind. Some of the best ways to show your gratitude are to verbally
say the things you are grateful for or do a small act of service for those you love. You can
propose that each person shares something that they are thankful for. If you want to do it
personally just make a list of things you want to express gratitude for. Perhaps we should be
thankful that we have a day just to be thankful.