2. THANKSGIVING DAY
Thanksgiving Day is an annual national holiday in the United Statesand Canada
celebrating the harvest and other blessings of the past year. In the US Thanksgiving
is celebrated on the fourth Thursday of November while in Canada nearly one
month and a half earlier (second Monday of October). Thanksgiving has deep roots
in religious tradition, but nowadays it is primarily celebrated as a secular holiday.
Thanksgiving tradition began in early XVII century, but date and popularity varied
between states. First nation-wide Thanksgiving was proclaimed on November 26,
1789 by George Washington. The contemporary date of fourth Thursday of
November was set in 1941 by federal legislation
3.
4. THANKSGIVING DAY HISTORY
In 1620 a group of people left the south coast of England to live in
America.They arrived in November, and many of them died during that first
winter. The local tribe, the Wampanoag Indians, thaught these Europeans
how to plant corn and catch the local fish. As a result, the following autumn
the settlers had collected enough food to survive the winter. As a thank you,
the Europeans invited the native Americans to a feast wich lasted three days.
Unfortunately, this was one of the few examples where the Europeans
cooperated with the local people
5. MACY’S THANKSGIVING DAY PARADE
In the 1920s one of New York’s most famous departement stores
began a parade throught the streets of the city to celebrate
Thanksgiving. Employees of Macy’s wore fantastic costumes taking
lions and tigers through the street. Now the parade is famous for its
fifteen enormus balloons depicting favourite children’s characters
such as Kermit the Frog or Snoopy, Toothless the Dragon or
Paddington Bear
6.
7. WHAT TO EAT AT THANKSGIVING
At Thanksgiving day we can eat a squash soup,
roasted turkey, sweet potatoes, green beans and
carrots. Don’t forget the cranberry sauce and
traditional cornbread. End with apple pie or
pumpkin pie!
8.
9. BLACK FRIDAY AND CYBER MONDAY
Since the start of this century, the day after
Thanksgiving has marked the start of Christmas shopping with
stores reducing their prices sometimes by over 50%.
Many people have the day off work, shops open early and people
often queue for hours to get the best bergains.
Cyber Monday, the following Monday, is the day of online
bergains. These popular sales now happen in many countries across
the word. They’ve even travelled across the Atlantic to the UK and
other European countries. Billions of dollars are spent on Black
Friday and Cyber Monday.
