Thanksgiving Day is a national holiday celebrated primarily in Canada and the United States as a day of giving thanks for the blessing of the harvest and of the preceding year.
It is celebrated on the second Monday of October in Canada and on the fourth Thursday of November in the United States.
Several other places around the world observe similar celebrations. Thanksgiving has its historical roots in religious and cultural traditions
and has long been celebrated in a secular manner as well.
| Vocabulary | Description |
|---|
| canoe | any of various small, primitive light boats |
| casserole | a baking dish of glass, pottery, etc., usually with a cover |
| centerpiece | |
| Colonists | |
| cranberry | |
| cranberry sauce | |
| giblets | the heart, liver, gizzard, and the like, of a fowl, often cooked separately. |
| gobble | to swallow or eat hastily or hungrily in large pieces; gulp. |
| gratitude | the quality or feeling of being grateful or thankful |
| gravy | the fat and juices that drip from cooking meat, often thickened, seasoned, flavored, etc., and used as a sauce for meat, potatoes, rice, etc. |
| Massachusetts | a state in the NE United States, on the Atlantic coast. |
| Massachusetts Bay Colony | |
| Massasoit | c1580–1661, North American Indian leader: sachem of the Wampanoag tribe; negotiator of peace treaty with the Pilgrims 1621 (father of King Philip). |
| Patuxet Indians | The Patuxet were an extinct Native American band of the Wampanoag tribal confederation. They lived primarily in and around modern-day Plymouth, Massachusetts. |
| Pilgrim | a person who journeys, especially a long distance, to some sacred place as an act of religious devotion |
| Plymouth | a seaport in SW Devonshire, in SW England, on the English Channel: naval base; the departing point of the Mayflower 1620. |
| Plymouth Rock | |
| settlers | |
| squash | |
| tom turkey | |
| tradition | |
| voyage | |
| wishbone | commonly refers to the furcula, a y-shaped bone in birds and some other animals. 1850-55, Americanism; wish + bone; so called from the custom of pulling the furcula of a cooked fowl apart until it breaks, the person holding the longer (sometimes shorter) piece being granted a wish |