[转帖]美国传统节日感恩节

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感恩节是一个很重要的美国传统节日。每年11月的第四个星期四，人们都会与家人、朋友欢聚一堂，下午3时左右吃传统的火鸡大餐。该节日最初主要是为了庆祝一年的丰收，与中国的中秋节有些相似。

这个美国传统节日始于1621年，美国成立以前。来源于美洲新大陆第一批移民为庆祝到达新大陆之后第一年的辛苦劳作获得的丰收而举行的盛大宴会。

1620年9月6日，一批不堪忍受国内宗教迫害的英国清教徒乘坐“五月花”号从英格兰德文郡普利茅斯出发，开始了到美洲新大陆的航行。这批清教徒大约有100人。

清教徒们在海上航行了66天，终于在当年的11月到达美洲新大陆。他们最初在当地印第安人废弃的一个玉米地z安顿下来，并把它命名为普利茅斯种植园。

1620年那个寒冷而漫长的冬天，他们在这块土地上费尽千辛万苦地劳作着，困难重重，还遭遇了一场灾难性的瘟疫，一半人在这场瘟疫中死去。到了1621年的春天，一个名叫Squanto的印第安英雄率其瓦帕浓部落开始主动帮助他们。部落里的人们教这些清教徒怎样耕种土地，怎样种植玉米、大豆、南瓜以及其他农作物。

1621年9月底，他们的辛勤劳作终于获得大丰收，清教徒们欢欣鼓舞。为了庆祝这第一次来之不易的大丰收，他们想要好好感谢一下上帝和当地的印第安人，便邀请Squanto及其瓦帕浓部落参加他们的庆祝盛宴。

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这第一次的丰收庆祝盛宴据说从三天一直延长到一个星期。对于清教徒们来说，这的确是一段享受高兴、愉悦、友谊的时间。他们和善良的当地印第安人一起准备了庆祝盛宴，在荒野中盖了房子，并为即将来临的漫长冬天储存了充足的食物。于是，在这块充满希望、憧憬和向往的新大陆上，清教徒们便成了第一代移民定居者。

从那以后的150多年里，感恩节便成为一个庆祝新大陆丰收的固定节日，在每年的10月或11月举行庆祝活动。

1777年，美国大陆会议第一次宣布感恩节为全国性节日。1789年10月3日，美国总统乔治·华盛顿号召美国人民把当年的11月26日(星期四)看作“一个感恩、祈祷的公开纪念日”。1941年，一项国会联合决议把感恩节定为全国性节日，时间定在每年11月的第四个星期四。

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Thanksgiving Day is a very important traditional holiday in America. On the fourth Thursday of each November, families and friends gather together for the occasion to celebrate with a traditional turkey dinner, usually in the mid-afternoon. Thanksgiving Day originated as a celebration of the year's harvest and is similar to the Mid-Autumn Festival in China.

This American tradition started in 1621 before the United States of America was established. It was a huge celebration for a hard-earned harvest in the first year after the first group of immigrants arriving in the New World.

On September 6, 1620, the Mayflower ship set sail from Plymouth, Devon, England, taking all the English Pilgrims to the New World. The English Pilgrims numbered about a hundred people, and left England to escape religious persecution.

The Pilgrims sailed sixty-six days, arrived in the New World in November of the same year. They first settled in a cornfield abandoned by Native Indians and named it Plymouth Plantation.

They worked on the land with much difficulty and were beset by a devastating plague in which half of the Pilgrim died in the long winter of 1620. In the spring of 1621，an Indian brave named Squanto and her Wampanoag tribe came to their help.The tribe taught the Pilgrims how to work the earth and plant corn，beans，pumpkins，squash and other crops.

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In late September 1621, the Pilgrims were pleased with their great harvest. To celebrate their first harvest, the Pilgrims wanted to thank God and the Native Indian. They invited Squanto and the entire Wampanoag tribe to celebrate together in a shared feast.

The first Thanksgiving dinner is said to have lasted from three days to one week.It was indeed a time of happiness, fellowship and rejoicing for the Pilgrims. They arranged a friendly treaty with the Native American Indians, built houses in the wilderness, and raised sufficient crops to feed themselves for the upcoming long winter. The Pilgrims had become the first generation of settlers in this new land holding so much promise.

Fromthen on, Thanksgiving became a holiday for celebrating the harvest in the New World, dates varied from October to November each year over the next 150 years.

The first National Thanksgiving was declared by the Continental Congress in 1777. On October 3, 1789, President George Washington declared that the people of the United States should observe "a day of public thanksgiving and prayer" on Thursday, 26 November. In 1941, a Congressional Joint Resolution set the fourth Thursday of November as a national holiday for Thanksgiving.