由来

Thanksgiving Day is a harvest festival celebrated primarily in Canada and the United States. Traditionally, it is a time to give thanks for the harvest and express gratitude in general. While perhaps religious in origin, Thanksgiving is now primarily identified as a secular holiday.
11月的第四个星期四是感恩节。感恩节是美国人民独创的一个古老节日，也是美国人合家欢聚的节日，因此美国人提起感恩节总是倍感亲切。

感恩节历史

The date and location of the first Thanksgiving celebration is a topic of modest contention. The traditional "first Thanksgiving" is the celebration that occurred at the site of Plymouth Plantation, in 1621. The Plymouth celebration occurred early in the history of what would become one of the original thirteen colonies that became the United States. The celebration became an important part of the American myth by the 1800s.[citation needed] This Thanksgiving, modeled after celebrations that were commonplace in contemporary Europe, is generally regarded as America's first. Elementary school teacher Robyn Gioia has argued that the earliest attested "thanksgiving" celebration in what is now the United States was celebrated by the Spanish on September 8, 1565 in what is now Saint Augustine, Florida. Today, Thanksgiving is celebrated on the second Monday of October in Canada and on the fourth Thursday of November in the United States. Thanksgiving dinner is held on this day, usually as a gathering of family members and friends.

感恩节的由来要一直追溯到美国历史的发端。1620年，著名的“五月花”号船满载不堪忍受英国国内宗教迫害的清教徒102人到达美洲。1620年和1621年之交的冬天，他们遇到了难以想象的困难，处在饥寒交迫之中，冬天过去时，活下来的移民只有50来人。这时，心地善良的印第安人给移民送来了生活必需品，还特地派人教他们怎样狩猎、捕鱼和种植玉米、南瓜。在印第安人的帮助下，移民们终于获得了丰收，在欢庆丰收的日子，按照宗教传统习俗，移民规定了感谢上帝的日子，并决定为感谢印第安人的真诚帮助，邀请他们一同庆祝节日。

欧洲感恩节

The European Origins of Thanksgiving

许多人认为感恩节是北美的节日，但在更早之前的西欧社会，人们就已经举办丰收庆典，感谢富饶大自然给予的恩赐。当欧洲人移民到新大陆后，也带来了这一传统习俗。

Hello, I'm Matt Cail and on behalf of Expert Village I'm here today to tell you all about the history 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 oscillatesbetween 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, toiledover 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."

化妆游行

The Origin of Thanksgiving Day Parades

化妆游行是感恩节一大习俗，最初是来自世界各地的移民们希望参与和庆祝节日、新家的一种方式。街上挂着各种大横幅，人们穿着各种服饰聚集在一起唱歌跳舞、表演艺术手艺等。

Hello, I'm Matt Cail and on behalf of Expert Village, I'm here today to tell you all about the history of Thanksgiving.

Something else we associate with Thanksgiving are parades. You know, watching the big floats on TV, on the wires and all the people and bands performing. Watching all like the bigger than life displays, all that going through major cities in America. This actually had it's start back in the 1920's. It was at that time that Thanksgiving was going on and there were a lot of new immigrants to the country and the immigrants also wanted to kind of partakeand celebrate.

Many of them wanted to celebrate their new home, but also like bring over some traditions from the old world or other parts of the world they were from and some of these other parts of the world celebrated in the form of parades. People getting together and marching, dressing up, doing all sorts of things, so people would do this, they started organizing Thanksgiving Day parades where they would dress up in costumes, clowns, in uniform, there would be even dancing and other, like arts and crafts going all throughout, parading right through the city. And some of these bigger parades then started adding some floats. You started getting some radio and television coverage, more sponsorship, and it exploded, nowadays to where you have enormous parades on Thanksgiving Day which people across the entire country watch."

火鸡仪式

Thanksgiving History of Pardoning the National Turkey

每年一度的总统放生火鸡仪式始于1947年杜鲁门总统当政时期。被选中的火鸡可以在农场里自然地生老病死，随心所欲地享受它的生活，没选中的只能成为白宫美味的晚餐了。

Hello, I'm Matt Cail and on behalf of Expert Village, I'm here today to tell you all about the history of Thanksgiving.

Since Thanksgiving became a national holiday, there have been a number of traditions and associated events around it which have kind of popped up, cropped up over the years and decades. One of these is the pardoning of the national turkey.

Now some things are known about this, other things are not. Often times of course we see on television the president pardoning the turkey. This turkey has been allowed to live out a natural life until it's natural demiseon the farm, where it's happy and gets it's fill of eating and doing whatever basically it wants. It lives, it has a very very good life.

But what you don't know is that that is not the only turkey in the process. Generally there are three turkeys. This began in the 1940's to which these three turkeys are presented to the president and the president picks one for pardoning. What happens to the other two? The other two are prepared for the White House Thanksgiving dinner. Yes, that is right. The other two turkeys do not make it. They are found wanting but for definitely, good eating."

感恩节习俗

那么，在美国，人们过感恩节都有哪些风俗习惯呢？

Thanks’s giving is an annual one-day holiday to give thanks, traditionally to god, for the things one has at the close of the harvest season.

感恩节是每年一次，传统意义上的感恩节，是指人们在临近丰收时对上帝的感恩之情。

In the United States, certain kinds of food are traditionally served at thanksgiving meals. Turkeyis usually the featured item on any thanksgiving feast table.

在美国，感恩节人们会想用一些特色食物，比如说，火鸡就是最有代表性的食物。

Mashed potatoes with gravy, sweet potatoes, cranberry sauce, Indian corn, other fall vegetables, and pumpkin pie are commonly associated with thanksgiving dinner.

感恩节晚餐基本以土豆泥肉汤、番薯、酸果曼沙司，印第安玉米以及其他秋季时令蔬菜为主，当然还有还有美味的南瓜饼。

感恩节橄榄球

The American winter holiday season begins when thanksgiving ends. American football is often a major part of thanksgiving celebrations in the U.S.

美国的寒假就是在感恩节结束后开始的。橄榄球是美国人在感恩节庆祝活动的重要组成部分。

感恩节卡片

感恩节是一个表达感谢的节日，中国本来就是礼仪之邦，对于这一特殊的日子，同样感同身受。也许你会希望用以下短信来向你的外国朋友们致以问候：

Thanksgiving wishes for you and your family.

向您和您的家人致以感恩节的问候。

Thanksgiving is a time when I tell you that I love you.

感恩节是表达爱意的最好时刻，可以是爱情、友情、亲情等等一切形式的爱。

It will be sad not to see you during the holiday when families get together.

家人团聚的节日里，不能看到你，我会很难过。

Warm wishes at Thanks Giving Day.

在感恩节送上最衷心的祝福。

（可可英语版权有,未经允许请勿转载）