感恩節(Thanksgiving Day)的由來及習俗

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月的第四個星期四是感恩節。感恩節是美國人民獨創的一個古老節日，也是美國人閤家歡聚的節日，因此美國人提起感恩節總是倍感親切。

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.

感恩節的由來要一直追溯到美國曆史的發端。1620年，著名的“五月花”號船滿載不堪忍受英國國內宗教迫害的清教徒102人到達美洲。1620年和1621年之交的冬天，他們遇到了難以想象的困難，處在飢寒交迫之中，冬天過去時，活下來的移民只有50來人。這時，心地善良的印第安人給移民送來了生活必需品，還特地派人教他們怎樣狩獵、捕魚和種植玉米、南瓜。在印第安人的幫助下，移民們終於獲得了豐收，在歡慶豐收的日子，按照宗教傳統習俗，移民規定了感謝上帝的日子，並決定爲感謝印第安人的真誠幫助，邀請他們一同慶祝節日。

The European Origins of Thanksgiving

許多人認爲感恩節是北美的節日，但在更早之前的西歐社會，人們就已經舉辦豐收慶典，感謝富饒大自然給予的恩賜。當歐洲人移民到新大陸後，也帶來了這一傳統習俗。

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."

The Origin of Thanksgiving Day Parades

化妝遊行是感恩節一大習俗，最初是來自世界各地的移民們希望參與和慶祝節日、新家的一種方式。街上掛着各種大橫幅，人們穿着各種服飾聚集在一起唱歌跳舞、表演藝術手藝等。

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."

Thanksgiving History of Pardoning the National Turkey

每年一度的總統放生火雞儀式始於1947年杜魯門總統當政時期。被選中的火雞可以在農場裏自然地生老病死，隨心所欲地享受它的生活，沒選中的只能成爲白宮美味的晚餐了。

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."

那麼，在美國，人們過感恩節都有哪些風俗習慣呢？

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.

感恩節是每年一次，傳統意義上的感恩節，是指人們在臨近豐收時對上帝的感恩之情。

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

在美國，感恩節人們會想用一些特色食物，比如說，火雞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.

感恩節晚餐基本以土豆泥肉湯、番薯、酸果曼沙司，印第安玉米以及其他秋季時令蔬菜爲主，當然還有還有美味的南瓜餅。

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

美國的寒假就是在感恩節結束後開始的。橄欖球是美國人在感恩節慶祝活動的重要組成部分。

感恩節是一個表達感謝的節日，中國本來就是禮儀之邦，對於這一特殊的日子，同樣感同身受。也許你會希望用以下短信來向你的外國朋友們致以問候：

Thanksgiving wishes for you and your family.

向您和您的家人致以感恩節的問候。

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

感恩節是表達愛意的最好時刻，可以是愛情、友情、親情等等一切形式的愛。

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

家人團聚的節日裏，不能看到你，我會很難過。

Warm wishes at Thanks Giving Day.

在感恩節送上最衷心的祝福。

（版權有,未經允許請勿轉載）