感恩節是由兩個F開頭的字組成的：食物food和橄欖球football。從1876年、美國橄欖球聯盟開始舉辦首屆聯賽開始，在感恩節就有看橄欖球賽的傳統——幾乎和這項運動本身的歷史一樣長。
【感恩節簡介】
Thanksgiving Day is the most truly American of the national Holidays in the United States and is most closely connected with the earliest history of the country. In 1620, the settlers, or Pilgrims, they sailed to America on the May flower, seeking a place where they could have freedom of worship.
After a tempestuous two-month voyage they landed at in icy November, what is now Plymouth, Massachusetts. During their first winter, over half of the settlers died of starvation or epidemics. Those who survived began sowing in the first spring.
All summer long they waited for the harvests with great anxiety, knowing that their lives and the future existence of the colony depended on the coming harvest.
Finally the fields produced a yield rich beyond expectations. And therefore it was decided that a day of thanksgiving to the Lord be fixed.
Years later, President of the United States proclaimed the fourth Thursday of November as Thanksgiving Day every year. The celebration of Thanksgiving Day has been observed on that date until today.
The pattern of the Thanksgiving celebration has never changed through the years. The big family dinner is planned months ahead. On the dinner table, people will find apples, oranges, chestnuts, walnuts and grapes. There will be plum pudding, mince pie, other varieties of food and cranberry juice and squash.
The best and most attractive among them are roast turkey and pumpkin pie. They have been the most traditional and favorite food on Thanksgiving Day throughout the years.
Everyone agrees the dinner must be built around roast turkey stuffed with a bread dressing to absorb the tasty juices as it roasts. But as cooking varies with
families and with the regions where one lives, it is not easy to get a consensus on the precise kind of stuffing for the royal bird. Thanksgiving today is, in every sense, a national annual holiday on which Americans of all faiths and backgrounds join in to express their thanks for the year' s bounty and reverently ask for continued blessings.
【感恩節關鍵詞】
TV dinner (冰凍簡餐)
In 1953, someone at Swanson severely overestimated the amount of turkey Americans would consume that Thanksgiving.
With 260 tons of frozen birds to get rid of, a company salesman named Gerry Thomas ordered 5,000 aluminum trays, recruited an assembly line of women armed with spatulas and ice-cream scoops and began creating mini-feasts of turkey, corn-bread dressing, peas and sweet potatoes — creating the first-ever TV as later said he got the idea from neatly packaged airplane food.
1953年，在美國斯萬森的某公司嚴重錯誤地估計了美國人民在感恩節消耗火雞的數量。
面對賣不掉的260噸冰凍火雞，該公司的銷售員蓋瑞湯瑪斯定來5000個鋁質餐盒和一個生產線的婦女，幫忙把火雞肉切碎、分裝，再配上甜玉米、青豆和土豆——就此創造了全世界第一盒冰凍簡餐。湯瑪斯說他的靈感來源於飛機餐。
Football 橄欖球賽
Thanksgiving is ruled by two very powerful f-words: "food" and "football."
Nearly as old as the sport itself, the tradition of watching football on Thanksgiving began in 1876, when the newly formed American Intercollegiate Football Association held its first championship game.
Less than a decade later, more than 5,000 club, college and high school football teams held games on Thanksgiving, with match-ups between Princeton and Yale drawing more than 40,000 fans out from their dining rooms. 1934 marked the first NFL game held on Thanksgiving when the Detroit Lions took on the Chicago Bears.
The Lions have played on Thanksgiving ever since — except, of course, when the team was called away to serve during World War II.
感恩節是由兩個F開頭的'字組成的：食物food和橄欖球football。從1876年、美國橄欖球聯盟開始舉辦首屆聯賽開始，在感恩節就有看橄欖球賽的傳統——幾乎和這項運動本身的歷史一樣長。
其後不到十年的時間內，更有超過5000所俱樂部、大學和高中的橄欖球隊在這一天舉行比賽。
其中普林斯頓和耶魯的比賽更是吸引了超過4萬名球迷到場觀看。1934年，超級碗首次在伽嫩屆當天舉行比賽，那天是由底特律雄獅對陣芝加哥熊。雄獅隊自此每遇感恩節都有比賽——除了二戰期間隊員們服役才中斷過。
Franklin D. Roosevelt 福蘭克林·D·羅斯福
FDR learned the hard way not to mess with some traditions. In 1939, the President declared that Americans should celebrate the annual feast one week early, hoping the decision would spur retail sales during the Great Depression. But Americans did not react kindly to the New Deal meal.
Some took to the streets while others took to name-calling; the mayor of Atlantic City solved the controversy by declaring his residents would simply enjoy two meals — Thanksgiving and "Franksgiving."
After two years of squabbling (or gobbling, as it were), Congress adopted a resolution in 1941 setting the fourth Thursday of November as the legal holiday.
福蘭克林·羅斯福總統可是吃了點兒虧才學會有些傳統改不得。1939年，這位總統閣下宣佈美國應該提前一週過感恩節，希望此舉能夠刺激大蕭條中的美國經濟。
哪知美國人民不買他的賬：有的上街遊行抗議、有的玩起了文字遊戲。大西洋城的市長就宣稱，他家會過兩個節：“感恩節”和“福蘭克恩節”。
在經過整整兩年的爭論(或者根本就是鬥嘴)之後，國會終於妥協，在1941年將感恩節法定假日定在了11月的第四個星期四。
"Mary Had a Little Lamb" 瑪麗有隻小羊羔
The woman who wrote the classic nursery rhyme "Mary Had a Little Lamb" also played an integral role in making Thanksgiving a national holiday.
After a 17-year letter-writing campaign, magazine editor Sarah Josepha Hale finally convinced President Abraham Lincoln to issue an 1863 decree recognizing the historic tradition.
Sarah Josepha Hale，這位寫下傳世詩句《瑪麗有隻小羊羔》的女性在為感恩節爭取法定中也扮演了重要一角兒。
1863年，當時作為雜誌編輯的她在經過了長達17年的寫信呼籲之後，總統林肯終於頒發檔案承認了感恩節這一傳統假日。
Westminster Abbey 西敏寺
In 1942, London's Westminster Abbey held Thanksgiving services for U.S. troops stationed in England.
More than 3,500 soldiers filled the church's pews to sing America, the Beautiful and The Star-Spangled Banner — the first time in the church's 900-year history that a foreign army was invited to take over the grounds.
It was an ironic gesture given the holiday's origins as a festival for pilgrims fleeing religious tyranny in Britain.
1942年，為表彰美國軍隊保護英國，倫敦西敏寺為美國軍人舉行了感恩節宴會。當時有超過3500人到場，齊唱“美麗的美國和星條旗”——這是這座教堂900年來第一次邀請外國軍隊駐足。
諷刺的是，這個節日的緣由正是因為當年遷徙到美國的清教徒們在英國受到宗教迫害。
