許多人認為感恩節是北美的.節日，但在更早之前的西歐社會，人們就已經舉辦豐收慶典，感謝富饒大自然給予的恩賜。當歐洲人移民到新大陸後，也帶來了這一傳統習俗。下面就來了解一下吧!
【The European Origins of Thanksgiving】
While people think of Thanksgiving as a North American holiday, one that goes back to the time of the earlier European settlers in North America. The fact is that Thanksgiving’s roots actually go back much further.
Thanksgiving’s roots go actually across the Atlantic back into Europe which is where a lot of the harvest celebrations originated at least in terms of European Western society. You can find a lot of these harvest celebrations actually worldwide.
But, particularly around in Europe and just where you had like the cycles. And Europe definitely oscillates between warm and cold.
There are very strong definite seasons and you have the harvest period when you brought in all the crops that you had planted throughout the season, toiled over and you are getting ready to ride out the winter and then you have the harvest. Often times people would celebrate by having a feast during this time.
And, places like Northern France and England were no exception to this.
And, many of these groups would get together and there would be, I mean these feasts would last over a period of days not just one meal.
And as we start actually entering into a period of European migration to the new world a lot of these folks brought their customs with them.
【Symbols of Thanksgiving】
Turkey, corn, pumpkins and cranberry sauce(酸果曼沙司)are symbols which represent the first Thanksgiving. Now all of these symbols are drawn on holiday decorations and greeting cards.
The use of corn meant the survival of the colonies. Indian corn as a table or door decoration represents the harvest and the fall season.
Sweet-sour cranberry sauce, or cranberry jelly, was on the first Thanksgiving table and is still served today. The cranberry is a small, sour berry.
It grows in bogs(沼澤), or muddy areas, in Massachusetts and other New England states. The Indians used the fruit to treat infections. They used the juice to dye their rugs and blankets.
They taught the colonists how to cook the berries with sweetener(甜味佐料)and water to make a sauce. The Indians called it ibimi which means bitter berry.
When the colonists saw it, they named it crane-berry because the flowers of the berry bent the stalk over, and it resembled the long-necked bird called a crane. The berries are still grown in New England.
In 1988, a Thanksgiving ceremony of a different kind took place at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine. More than four thousand people gathered on Thanksgiving night.
Among them were Native Americans representing tribes from all over the country and descendants of people whose ancestors had migrated to the New World.
The ceremony was a public acknowledgment of the Indians’ role in the first Thanksgiving 350 years ago. Until recently most schoolchildren believed that the Pilgrims cooked the entire Thanksgiving feast, and offered it to the Indians.
In fact, the feast was planned to thank the Indians for teaching them how to cook those foods. Without the Indians, the first settlers would not have survived.
