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Thanksgiving
- a very American festival
An EFL / ESL text on American life

WITH AUDIO ►: Click to open/close audio

player then hit the ► play button

Thanksgiving is perhaps the most American of America's festivals. While many

countries have days when everyone eats a lot, only the Americans have a day on which
they celebrate having enough to eat. Perhaps this may seem rather superfluous in a
country whose inhabitants are today among the best-fed in the world; but to Americans,
Thanksgiving is a reminder that this was not always the case.

The last weeks of the year are a festive time in most countries; but while Europeans just celebrate
Christmas and the New Year, Americans begin their festive season about a month earlier. The feast of
Thanksgiving, celebrated on the fourth Thursday in November, is second only in importance to
Christmas in the American calendar of feast days.
Thanksgiving is the oldest non-Indian tradition in the United States, and was first celebrated in the
year 1621. It was in this year that the men and women in Plymouth, one of the first New England
colonies, decided to establish a feast day to mark the end of the farming year.
As devout Protestants, they called their feast day "Thanksgiving", a day on which people could
celebrate and give thanks to God for the crops that they had managed to grow and harvest. This was
not in fact an original idea, but was based on the English "Harvest Festival", an old custom whereby
people gave thanks to God once the crops were all in.
In America however, a successful harvest was more significant than in England, for any failure to
bring in an adequate supply of crops could be fatal for a new colony, struggling to set itself up in an
alien continent. Several early North Americans colonies failed because the colonists were killed off by
disease or fighting, and others perished because they did not have time to prepare enough land and
grow enough food for their needs during the long cold winter months. The year 1621 was a particularly
bountiful one for the Plymouth colonists, so they "gave thanks" for their good fortunes.
In the years that followed, other colonies introduced their own Thanksgiving festivals, each one at first
choosing its own date, and many varying the date according to the state of the harvests. In 1789,
President George Washington gave an official Thanksgiving Day address in honor of the new
Constitution; and Thanksgiving Day, like Independence Day (July 4th) became one of America's great
days.
Nevertheless, at first the date was not fixed nationally; indeed, it was not until 1863 that President
Abraham Lincoln declared that Thanksgiving Day should be celebrated on the last Thursday of
November. Other presidents made similar proclamations, and the date of Thanksgiving tended to move
around until the year 1941, when Congress and the President jointly declared that it should henceforth
be fixed on the fourth Thursday of November. Since then, Thanksgiving Day has remained fixed.

THANKSGIVING RITES

Once a communal festival, where whole communities celebrated together, Thanksgiving is today the
great family festival; but apart from that, it has not changed greatly.
The heart of Thanksgiving is still the fruit of the land; and the
Thanksgiving feast is based, essentially, on the native American ENGLISH GRAMMAR for all
foods that allowed the early settlers to survive: turkey, corn, E-book, hardback, paperback
potatoes and squash. The user-friendly reference
The wild turkeys, large birds that lived in the forests of North grammar recommended by
America, were like a miracle for the early colonists who could trap English teaching magazines
them with ease; and turkey has always been the centerpiece of the worldwide
Thanksgiving feast. IATEFL Voices, EFL Magazine,
Potatoes were unknown to Europeans before the discovery of Open! magazine, English
North America, and it was Indians who taught the early colonists Australia... and more
how to grow them and eat them.
Maize, the great native North American cereal, is another
ingredient of the Thanksgiving meal, eaten in the form of sweet
corn.
Finally, for dessert, no Thanksgiving meal is complete without
"pumpkin pie", the traditional tart made from pumpkins, enormous
round orange types of squash.

WORDS:

devout: strict, pious - crops: plants that can be eaten - harvest : picking of fruit, or cutting of cereal
crops - custom: something done regularly - failure (n) : from the verb to fail, to not succeed - struggle:
fight - disease: sickness - bountiful: abundant - address: speech - henceforth: from that time onwards
- squash: vegetables such as courgettes (zucchini) and marrows.

Audio: note half a doozen small differences in expression between the written text and the recorded
text. Though different words are used, there is no difference in meaning.

Copyright notice.
This resource is © copyright Linguapress 1996 - 2022. Originally published in Spectrum magazine.
This text may not be reproduced on other websites nor in printed form without written permission from
the publishers. Reproduction is authorised exclusively for personal use by students, or for use by
teachers with their classes.
Student interactive worksheet - Thanksgiving

1. Written expression: rephrase the following sentences in your own words, starting with the prompt
given: the text boxes will expand to take all the text you want to write.

1. Thanksgiving is second only in importance to Christmas in the American calendar of feast days.

Christmas is Write here ......

2. Any failure to bring in an adequate supply of crops could be fatal for a new colony.

A new colony Write here ......

3. Turkey has always been the centerpiece of the Thanksgiving feast.

Americans Write here ......

4. Potatoes were unknown to Europeans before the discovery of North America.

Until North America Write here ...... no-one Write here ...... .

2. Grammar - articles. Put back the articles - the definite article the or the indefinite article a/an - when
they are required in this extract from the text. If no article is possible, just leave the - marker

- last weeks of - year are - festive time in - most countries; but while -
Europeans just celebrate - Christmas and - _ New Year, Americans begin their festive season
about - month earlier. - feast of - Thanksgiving, celebrated on - fourth Thursday in
- November, is second only in - importance to - Christmas in - American calendar of
- feast days.
Thanksgiving is - oldest non-Indian tradition in - United States, and was first celebrated in
- year 1621. It was in this year that - men and women in Plymouth, one of - first New
England colonies, decided to establish - feast day to mark - end of - farming year.

For a full guide to the rules of article use, see Descriptive Grammar of English pages 98 - 112.. Now available as a
hardback, in paperback or as a Kindle e-book.

3. Question forming: Make up questions on the subject of Thanksgiving, beginning with the following
openings:
Since when Write here ......

When Write here ......

Who Write here ......

How many Write here ......

How often Write here ......

Where Write here ......

Why Write here ......

What sort of Write here ......

.

For teachers:

Lesson plan : for ways to use texts like this in class, see the model lesson plan information page.

Saving student-filled interactive exercises.

If you want students to do the interactive exercises and then send you their work, here are some
solutions.
► Writing exercises: When a student has done the exercise/s, he or she just has to select the whole
exercise, including their answers, and paste it into a new Word or Libreoffice document (.doc, .docx,
.odt) and save.
Alternatively, text can be selected and pasted into an email, or any external document that accepts html,
even a Facebook post.
► MCQs: The answers selected from dropdown box options cannot be directly selected and pasted into
another document. However they can be saved as a screenshot and pasted into another document
(.doc, .docx, .odt) or email or app as an image.

Articles cloze exercise

There are 24 blanks that students may need to fill in with an article. In most cases only one answer is
possible; but in two cases two options are grammatically possible. The meanings are obviously not quite
the same, but it is important not to penalise students for proposing an answer that could, both logically
and grammatically, be right. Here is the text with the alternative acceptable wording added in red. ( Ø) =
no article.

The last weeks of the (a) year are a festive time in most countries; but while Europeans just
celebrate Christmas and the New Year, Americans begin their festive season about a month earlier.
The feast of Thanksgiving, celebrated on the fourth Thursday in November, is second only in
importance to Christmas in the American calendar of feast days.
Thanksgiving is the oldest non-Indian tradition in the United States, and was first celebrated in
the year 1621. It was in this year that the ( Ø) men and women in Plymouth, one of the first New
England colonies, decided to establish a feast day to mark the end of the farming year.

Question forming:
When students have made up their questions, divide them into pairs and have them answer each other's
questions. Depending on the type of group or class, this can be either an oral or a written activity.Then
have them swap questions with a friend, and answer each other's questions.

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Advanced level English resource

Level - Advanced
CEFR LEVEL : C1
IELTS Level : 7 - 8

Flesch-Kincaid scores
Reading ease level:
45 - Difficult
Grade level: 14

Discover America
its past, its present, its future.
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First published in Spectrum, the advanced level English newsmagazine.

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