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（新大陆）. 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 Indians（美国纽

约州东北部易洛魁族印第安人）taught them how to

grow corn, a new food for the colonists. They

showed them other crops to grow in the unfamiliar

soil and how to hunt and fish.

In the autumn of 1621, bountiful crops of corn,

barley（大麦）, 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.

Thanksgiving is a time for tradition and sharing. Even

 if they live far away, family members gather for a

reunion at the house of an older relative. All give

thanks together for the good things that they have.

In this spirit of sharing, civic groups and charitable

organizations offer a traditional meal to those in need, particularly the homeless. On most tables throughout the

United States, foods eaten at the first thanksgiving

have become traditional.

Symbols of Thanksgiving

Turkey, corn, pumpkins and cranberry sauce（酸果曼沙司）

are symbols which represent the first Thanksgiving. Now

all of these symbols are drawn on holiday decorations

and greeting cards. The use of corn meant the survival

of the colonies. "Indian corn" as a table or door decoration represents the harvest and the fall season.

Sweet-sour cranberry sauce, or cranberry jelly, was on

the first Thanksgiving table and is still served today. The cranberry is a small, sour berry. It grows in bogs（沼泽）,

or muddy areas, in Massachusetts and other New England

states. The Indians used the fruit to treat infections.

They used the juice to dye their rugs and blankets.

They taught the colonists how to cook the berries with

sweetener（甜味佐料）and water to make a sauce. The

Indians called it "ibimi" which means "bitter berry."

When the colonists saw it, they named it "crane-berry"

because the flowers of the berry bent the stalk over,

and it resembled the long-necked bird called a crane.

The berries are still grown in New England.

In 1988, a Thanksgiving ceremony of a different kind

took place at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine.

More than four thousand people gathered on Thanksgiving

night. Among them were Native Americans representing

tribes from all over the country and descendants of

people whose ancestors had migrated to the New World.

The ceremony was a public acknowledgment of the Indians'

role in the first Thanksgiving 350 years ago.

Until recently most schoolchildren believed that the

Pilgrims cooked the entire Thanksgiving feast, and

offered it to the Indians. In fact, the feast was

planned to thank the Indians for teaching them how

to cook those foods. Without the Indians, the first

settlers would not have survived.