What's better for Thanksgiving? Thanksgiving is a traditional festival in the West. On Thanksgiving Day, people will hold many interesting activities. Do you know what traditional customs are on Thanksgiving? Let's get to know it with Sihai Xiaobian
1 eat turkey
Thanksgiving food is very traditional. Every Thanksgiving, Americans and Canadians must have fat and tender Turkey to eat. Turkey is the traditional main course of Thanksgiving. After Europe immigrated to America, they felt that the appearance of turkeys was very similar to Turkey's "black head red" clothing characteristics, so they called them "turkey". In 1947, President Truman's administration added a ceremony for the president to release turkeys. In fact, this traditional ceremony can be traced back to President Lincoln's administration. One day in 1863, Lincoln's son Ted suddenly broke into the cabinet chamber and asked for a pardon for a pet turkey named Jack. Because the turkey sent to the White House is about to become people's Thanksgiving dinner. On November 20, 2007, President Bush released two turkeys called 'may' and 'flower' at the annual Turkey release ceremony. Their names are linked together, which means the 'Mayflower' on which the pilgrims came to the new world.
2 deliver food
Since the 18th century, there has been a custom of sending a basket of food to poor people in the United States. At that time, a group of young women wanted to choose one day of the year to do charity. They thought that Thanksgiving was the most appropriate choice. So as soon as Thanksgiving Day arrived, they loaded a basket full of food and personally sent it to the poor family. It was rumored that many people soon began to do it like them.
3 set table
The arrangement of Thanksgiving table is also very special. Instead of putting flowers as usual, housewives put fruits and vegetables. A big pumpkin is often placed in the middle, surrounded by apples, corn and dried fruits. Sometimes people also empty out apples or pumpkins, fill them with shelled dried fruits or light candles. Usually, the hostess can let the guests into the living room after dinner, but she doesn't do so on Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving dinner is sweet. Everyone is willing to stay at the dinner table for a while. While eating, they happily recall the past until the last candle burns out.
4 play games
After Thanksgiving dinner, some families often do some traditional games, such as dancing and competitions. Some of them have been handed down to this day. Cranberry competition: a large bowl containing cranberries is placed on the ground. 4 to 10 competitors sit around and give each one a needle and thread. At the beginning of the game, they first put on needles and thread, and then strung the cranberries one by one. Once 3 minutes arrive, whoever strings the longest will win the prize. As for the slowest dressed man, they jokingly gave him a worst prize. Corn game: it is said that this is handed down to commemorate the five corn given to each immigrant in the case of food shortage. During the game, people hid five corn in the house, and everyone looked for it separately. The five people who found the corn participated in the game, and the others watched. At the beginning of the competition, five people quickly peeled the corn grains in a bowl. Whoever peeled them first won the prize. Then, people who did not participate in the competition gathered around the bowl to guess how many corn kernels there were. The closest prize was popcorn. Pumpkin race: the competitor pushes the pumpkin with a small spoon. The rule is never to touch the pumpkin with your hand. The one who reaches the end first wins the prize. The smaller the spoon used in the game, the more interesting the game is, which often makes everyone laugh.
5 Shopping
On Thanksgiving Day, New Yorkers poured into major shopping malls and supermarkets to start shopping ahead of time. On this day, American shopping malls will launch a large number of discounts and preferential activities to carry out the last large-scale promotion at the end of the year. Because American shopping malls generally record deficits with red pens and profits with black pens, and people's crazy rush buying this Friday after Thanksgiving has greatly increased the profits of shopping malls, it is called Black Friday by businessmen. Businesses expect to make the most profit this year through Christmas shopping starting on this day.