Canada’s celebration is a memory, but the Americans are looking forward to their Thanksgiving in just a week. Here on offer is a cornucopia of things in keeping with this American tradition.
While expressing gratitude for the harvest and counting one’s blessings are the historic messages behind the occasion, there are many other practices associated with the holiday today. First of course, are the ones most significantly tied to the origins of the event — food and family. Extended relatives gather together to enjoy a feast usually comprised of turkey with all the fixings, sweet potatoes and pumpkin pie.
Then there is the Thanksgiving Classic, in existence since the inception of the NFL in 1920. This is a series of football games played during the holiday. And of course, we couldn’t mention Thanksgiving traditions without touching on Black Friday, where bargain hunters fight off others of like mind to get a start on the Christmas list at some of the best pre-season sales.
Now just for fun, here are some interesting tidbits about the holiday:
• 102 pilgrims, took 66 days to cross the Atlantic in 1620 in the Mayflower. They arrived at Plymouth Rock, Massachusetts on Dec. 11.
• Fifty per cent of Americans put the stuffing inside the turkey
• 92% of Americans eat turkey on Thanksgiving
• About 280 million turkeys are sold annually for Thanksgiving which is about 7 billion pounds of turkey and about $3 billion dollars worth of sales
• About 20 per cent of all cranberries that are consumed in the US per year are eaten on Thanksgiving
And finally, if you’re looking for some wonderful Thanksgiving clipart collections, these links will take you there:
iCLIPART.com Thanksgiving Illustrations
Acclaim Images Thanksgiving Images
