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Monday, 20 November 2017

MEANING OF THANKSGIVING BY FIONA CUMMINGS


Most of my friends on Facebook are from America, and almost 80 thousand views of my blog page are from people from America. An yet I know nothing about Thanksgiving. Shameful. So, I decided to do some research and this is what I learned.

 

Thanksgiving is celebrated on the forth Thursday of every November.

Thanksgiving has been celebrated on and off since 1789

Since 1863, it’s been celebrated as a holiday.

 

American tradition is to eat a feast of turkey sometimes roasted and stuffed and sometimes deep fried. In 2015, 45 million turkeys were consumed on Thanksgiving Day.

(Not sure the turkeys would have been very thankful…)

 

1.05 billion has been spent in 2016 on the festive poultry.

Various vegetables like sweet potatoes sprouts and sweetcorn as well as pumpkin pie, is also eaten on Thanksgiving Day. What is pumpkin pie? I will put a link at the bottom of this blog.

 

Another favourite is green bean casserole. This was introduced in 1955 by the native Americans. Gosh, what is green bean casserole?

1 can of condensed cream of mushroom soup

2 cups of milk

1 teaspoon of soy sauce

Black pepper

Four cups of cooked cut green beans

1 and three quarter of cups of French onions

Stir everything in a casserole dish

Bake in oven  on 350 °F for 25 minutes until creamy and hot.

 

I would guess you cover it or it will go crispy, personally I would cook it for 25 minutes with the lid on then remove it for five minutes. I would guess you could add cheese towards the end and I am sure I read you can add bacon too?

I’m sure there are more sophisticated recipies out there, but that is roughly what I think is greenbean casserole, at least that is what it says it is on the internet. Haha.

 

Americans eat more food on Thanksgiving Day than any other day of the year.

 

It’s traditional to say Grace before the thanksgiving meal. I think this is really lovely. A time for reflection. I wish we had that in England.

 

It’s written that around the table each person has to say why they are grateful that year for something good in their lives. Again, wow, that is such a lovely thing to do. We take so much for granted in general. It would be lovely to start off with your children such a custom if I were to do this with my twenty year old Son now, he would think I had gone mad, sadly…

 

 In fairness my Son always says thank you for the meals he eats. Or what I cook for him. And I do try to see positives in his young negative life that can take over him sometimes. Then he realises he’s doing fine and has it good.

 

In New York they have the worlds largest parade too, to me this sounds rather spectacular but too modern for me.

 

For my American Bloggets, is Christmas really like we see on our movies? Oh, my idea of Christmas in America is so romantic. A boy takes his girlfriend to an outdoor ice rink were there is a huge lit up Christmas tree in the middle. People warm themselves with hot chocolate. They wear lovely hats and colourful coats. They always look healthy a glow I guess from the cold and fresh air? The Daddy brings home a freshly cut Christmas tree under one arm and a rocking horse he has been making in his workshop under the other arm. They then toast marshmallows on an open fire. Hahaha. How close is that to your Christmas? Oh, that is my dream of a Christmas. I guess the rocking horse will have to be for my Grandchildren now. and somehow, I can’t see Hub creating it… Though he would be able to carry it in at least?

 

Gosh, talking of Grandchildren, looking into the future, I wonder if I will be blessed with them? As we only have one child, we may be lucky to have one or two… I just can’t see that at the moment, I’m not old enough right?

 

So, whilst my American and other countries who celebrate Thanksgiving spend the next few days preparing that special day, I would like to wish you all a happy day and wonderful year to follow.

 


 

 


 

 

 

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