Wednesday, November 23, 2011

Happy Thanksgiving

HAPPY THANKSGIVING DAY!!!
 from Fran and Friends

What does thanksgiving mean to you? To me it means a special day spent with family and friends. A day to be extra thankful and show those I love what they mean to me. 

It means turkey and the trimmings, love, fun and just bliss. It also means unbuttoning our pants to make room for more...lol! Come on you know you have done it. What does it mean to you? 

Do you ever wonder where this holiday came from? Well...According to Wikipedia--"Thanksgiving Day is a holiday celebrated primarily in the United States and Canada. Thanksgiving is celebrated each year on the second Monday of October in Canada and on the fourth Thursday of November in the United States. In Canada, Thanksgiving falls on the same day as Columbus Day in the United States. Because of the longstanding traditions of the holiday, the celebration often extends to the weekend that falls closest to the day it is celebrated."

Wikipedia also suggests that---"its origins to a 1621 celebration at Plymouth in present-day Massachusetts. There is also evidence for an earlier celebration on the continent by Spanish explorers in Texas at San Elizario in 1598, as well as thanksgiving feasts in the Virginia Colony. The initial thanksgiving observance at Virginia in 1619 was prompted by the colonists' leaders on the anniversary of the settlement. The 1621 Plymouth feast and thanksgiving was prompted by a good harvest. In later years, the tradition was continued by civil leaders such as Governor Bradford who planned a thanksgiving celebration and fast in 1623. While initially, the Plymouth colony did not have enough food to feed half of the 102 colonists, the Wampanoag Native Americans helped the Pilgrims by providing seeds and teaching them to fish. The practice of holding an annual harvest festival like this did not become a regular affair in New England until the late 1660s.

"Many historians point out that the first thanksgiving celebration in the United States was held in Virginia, and not in Plymouth. Thanksgiving services were routine in what was to become the Commonwealth of Virginia as early as 1607.  A day of Thanksgiving was codified in the founding charter of Berkeley Hundred in Charles City County, Virginia in 1619."
Here is a wonderful audio link to a story for children from Scholastic. 
To all my friends and family---
HAPPY THANKSGIVINDAY!!!



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