Thanksgiving Day USA – 4th Thursday in November

Thanksgiving is a national holiday celebrated on various dates in the United States, Canada, Grenada, Saint Lucia, and other countries. It began as a day of giving thanks for the blessing of the harvest and of the preceding year. 

Every fourth Thursday in November, people in the United States gather with family and loved ones. They eat a plentiful meal, watch football and parades, and then eat even more. Thanksgiving is one of the nation's most widely celebrated secular holidays.

The holiday's origins are thought to date back to 1621 near what is now Cape Cod, Massachusetts. English colonists called Pilgrims are said to have invited Wampanoag Indians to share a meal to celebrate their first harvest, which they had planted with the help of the Indians.

As dinnertime approaches, families gather in a dining room lit with candles and decorated in the season's colours of red, gold, orange and brown. Traditionally, the centrepiece of dinner is a roasted turkey. The turkey is usually served with sweet potatoes or yams and stuffing, which is a mixture of bread cubes, onions, celery and herbs that is stuffed into the turkey while it roasts. The highlight of Thanksgiving dinner is dessert. Most meals end with slices of fresh-baked apple or pumpkin pie topped with whipped cream or ice cream.

On Thanksgiving morning, many people wake up early to run in local races (often for charity) called turkey trots. Other folks watch a Thanksgiving parade in person or on television. The largest and most iconic parade is the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York City.

Football on Thanksgiving is as much a part of the holiday as the meal. Many families spend hours watching NFL (National Football League), college and even high school football games in person or on television. Traditionally, NFL teams in Dallas, Texas, and Detroit, Michigan, host games.

Thanksgiving is a grim time for turkeys in the United States. One of the country's funnier traditions is having the president of the United States pardon one turkey. The lucky bird's life is spared and it spends its final years at Mount Vernon, Virginia, the former estate of the nation's first president, George Washington.

Teachers prepared a project day for 1.D, 2.D, 3.D and project activities for 6.D, 8.B, and 8.D.