◎供稿：Arthur

Almost every culture in the world has held celebrations of thanks for a plentiful harvest. The American Thanksgiving holiday began as a feast of thanksgiving in the early days of the American colonies almost four hundred years ago.

In 1620, a boat filled with more than one hundred people sailed across the Atlantic Ocean to settle in the New World. This religious group had begun to question the beliefs of the Church of England and they wanted to separate from it. The Pilgrims settled in what is now the state of Massachusetts. Their first winter in the New World was difficult. They had arrived too late to grow many crops, and without fresh food, half the colony died from disease. The following spring the Iroquois Indian staught them how to grow corn, a new food for the colonists; showed them other crops how to grow in the unfamiliar soil and how to hunt and fish.

In the autumn of 1621, bountiful crops of corn, barley, beans and pumpkins were harvested. The colonists had much to be thankful for, so a feast was planned. They invited the local Indian chief and 90 Indians. The Indians brought deer to roast with the turkeys and other wild game offered by the colonists. The colonists had learned how to cook cranberries and different kinds of corn and squash dishes from the Indians. To this first Thanksgiving, the Indians had even brought popcorn.

In following years, many of the original colonists celebrated the autumn harvest with a feast of thanks.

After the United States became an independent country, Congress recommended one yearly day of thanksgiving for the whole nation to celebrate. George Washington suggested the date November 26 as Thanksgiving Day. Then in 1863, at the end of a long and bloody civil war, Abraham Lincoln asked all Americans to set aside the last Thursday in November as a day of thanksgiving.

Thanksgiving falls on the fourth Thursday of November, a different date every year.The President must proclaim that date as the official celebration.

几乎世界上的每一种文化都为丰收而庆祝。美国感恩节假期始于大约四百年前美国殖民地早期的感恩节。

1620年，一艘载有100多人的船横渡大西洋来到新大陆定居。这个宗教团体在英国开始质疑教会的信仰，所以想与之分离。朝圣者在现在的马萨诸塞州定居。他们在新大陆的第一个冬天过得很艰难。他们来得太晚了，不能种更多的庄稼，没有新鲜食物，一半的人死于疾病。第二年春天，易洛魁族印第安人教他们如何种植玉米，这是殖民者的新食物，告诉他们如何在这陌生的大地种植其他作物，以及如何捕猎和捕鱼。

在1621秋季，他们收获了大量的玉米、大麦、豆类和南瓜。殖民者有很多值得感谢的事情，所以计划了一次宴会。他们邀请了当地印第安酋长和90名印第安人。印第安人把鹿和火鸡及殖民者提供的其他野生动物一起烤制。殖民者学会了如何烹调蔓越莓和不同种类的玉米和南瓜。在这第一次的感恩节，印第安人甚至带来了爆米花。

在接下来的几年里，许多原始殖民者用感恩的盛宴来庆祝秋收。

美国成为独立国家后，国会建议全国人民每年庆祝感恩节。乔治·华盛顿建议把11月26日的这天定为感恩节。1863年，在漫长而血腥的内战结束时，亚伯拉罕·林肯要求所有的美国人把11月的最后一个星期四作为感恩节。

感恩节是11月的第四个星期四，每年都有不同的日期。总统必须宣布这一日期为官方庆祝活动。

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感恩节(Thanksgiving Day)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。初时感恩节没有固定日期，由美国各州临时决定。直到美国独立后的1863年，林肯总统宣布感恩节为全国性节日。1941年，美国国会正式将每年11月第四个星期四定为“感恩节”。感恩节放假一天，但很多地方会将假期延长到星期天。

1879 年加拿大议会宣称11月6日是感恩节和全国性的假日。在随后的年代，感恩节的日期改变了多次，直到在1957 年1月31日，加拿大议会宣布每年10月的第二个星期一为感恩节。

除了美国、加拿大，世界上还有埃及、希腊等国家有自己独特的感恩节，但英国、法国等欧洲国家却与感恩节绝缘，也有学者倡议设立“中华感恩节”，以弘扬传统文化。