2008 Woodie Awards
Thanksgiving Traditions
Samantha Marsh
Issue date: 11/13/06 Section: Life & Times
- Page 1 of 1
On the fourth Thursday of every November Americans celebrate Thanksgiving with turkey, parades, and football. Families come together over tables laden with mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce, pies and more to give thanks and, depending on the family, bicker uncontrollably. But for many Thanksgiving is about more than food and family reunions.
There are also commercialized Thanksgiving traditions like the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, where watching the parade on T.V. is a well-respected pastime on Thanksgiving Day. On that note, Thanksgiving itself was created as a national holiday partly for commercial reasons.
President Abraham transformed a traditional celebration of the end of the harvest into a national holiday known as Thanksgiving Day to be celebrated on the last Thursday of November.
President Franklin D. Roosevelt attempted to move Thanksgiving back a week during the Great Depression. The official Christmas shopping season couldn't start until after Thanksgiving and FDR thought that giving the merchants an extra week of holiday shopping would increase profits and lessen financial hardship.
Not all states agreed so Thanksgiving as we know it, celebrated on the fourth Thursday of November, was passed by the U.S. congress in 1941 as a compromise.
The fourth Thursday of November is sometimes the last Thursday and sometimes the next to last. Today, the day after Thanksgiving is known as Black Friday because it is the busiest shopping day of the year.
Despite the national holiday's origins many people also take the opportunity to find Thanksgiving traditions that are perhaps a bit more meaningful. Thanksgiving is an opportunity to provide for those in the community who are in need. Encouraged to be grateful for what we have been given, many are as a result inspired to give back.
Of all the traditions associated with this holiday, thanksgiving drives are by far one of the most common. Countless schools, churches, and other community organizations collect food items to create Thanksgiving Day dinner baskets. Members of the community donate such items in the weeks prior to Thanksgiving. Then these different organizations divide the food into different baskets and deliver them to needy families in the area.
Non-profit organizations like the Destiny Foundation in central Florida often sponsor such drives along with countless area high schools. In addition colleges like the University of Central Florida and University of Florida also run similar Thanksgiving Basket Drives.
Giving such baskets to families who cannot afford traditional Thanksgiving meals not only fulfills a community need; it also includes these families in the holiday spirit and gives them something to be thankful for.
Opportunities to become involved in these drives abound, whether it is donating canned goods or helping with actually putting the baskets together and delivering them. But no matter what Thanksgiving traditions you choose to make a part of your holiday, have a Happy Thanksgiving.
There are also commercialized Thanksgiving traditions like the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, where watching the parade on T.V. is a well-respected pastime on Thanksgiving Day. On that note, Thanksgiving itself was created as a national holiday partly for commercial reasons.
President Abraham transformed a traditional celebration of the end of the harvest into a national holiday known as Thanksgiving Day to be celebrated on the last Thursday of November.
President Franklin D. Roosevelt attempted to move Thanksgiving back a week during the Great Depression. The official Christmas shopping season couldn't start until after Thanksgiving and FDR thought that giving the merchants an extra week of holiday shopping would increase profits and lessen financial hardship.
Not all states agreed so Thanksgiving as we know it, celebrated on the fourth Thursday of November, was passed by the U.S. congress in 1941 as a compromise.
The fourth Thursday of November is sometimes the last Thursday and sometimes the next to last. Today, the day after Thanksgiving is known as Black Friday because it is the busiest shopping day of the year.
Despite the national holiday's origins many people also take the opportunity to find Thanksgiving traditions that are perhaps a bit more meaningful. Thanksgiving is an opportunity to provide for those in the community who are in need. Encouraged to be grateful for what we have been given, many are as a result inspired to give back.
Of all the traditions associated with this holiday, thanksgiving drives are by far one of the most common. Countless schools, churches, and other community organizations collect food items to create Thanksgiving Day dinner baskets. Members of the community donate such items in the weeks prior to Thanksgiving. Then these different organizations divide the food into different baskets and deliver them to needy families in the area.
Non-profit organizations like the Destiny Foundation in central Florida often sponsor such drives along with countless area high schools. In addition colleges like the University of Central Florida and University of Florida also run similar Thanksgiving Basket Drives.
Giving such baskets to families who cannot afford traditional Thanksgiving meals not only fulfills a community need; it also includes these families in the holiday spirit and gives them something to be thankful for.
Opportunities to become involved in these drives abound, whether it is donating canned goods or helping with actually putting the baskets together and delivering them. But no matter what Thanksgiving traditions you choose to make a part of your holiday, have a Happy Thanksgiving.
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