Thanksgiving is a day of celebration, but unfortunately, most of us don’t have a clue about what it means. Celebrated every fourth Thursday of November, Thanksgiving is considered to be a national holiday in Canada, the United States and the Caribbean Islands. The day is dedicated to food and family. Legend has it that in 1620, a religious group of people had begun to question the Church of England. They were in desperate need to separate from it and practise their faith in a foreign land.
Almost a hundred of them sailed across the vast Atlantic Ocean in hopes of settling in the new world. They landed in the state of Massachusetts. However, their first winter there turned out to be a nightmare. Due to unfavourable weather, they were unable to grow many crops. With no fresh food available, they lost half their colony to diseases. It was only during spring that the Wampanoag Iroquois Indians came to their aid. They taught the pilgrims how to hunt, fish and grow maize.
For the pilgrims, things changed for the better in 1621. They were blessed with a good harvest. Crops like corn, beans, barley and pumpkin began to grow in plenty. The pilgrims were so grateful and thankful for this harvest that they decided to plan a little get together. They invited the local Iroquois chief and the members of his tribe to a feast! The Native Americans did not go empty-handed either. They brought roasted turkey, deer, fish, ducks, and vegetables. They also taught the colonists how to cook cranberries, corn and squash dishes in a different way. It was an intimate affair and till today, people consider Thanksgiving to be the feast of thanks.
Thanksgiving Quotes That Will Make You Feel Thankful For Everything You Have
You are blessed in so many ways! It’s important to be grateful to the universe for it.
1. “Let us remember that, as much has been given us, much will be expected from us, and that true homage comes from the heart as well as from the lips and shows itself in deeds.” – Theodore Roosevelt
2. “But see, in our open clearings, how golden the melons lie; Enrich them with sweets and spices, and give us the pumpkin-pie!” – Margaret Junkin Preston
3. “Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity. It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend. Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today and creates a vision for tomorrow.” – Melody Beattie
4. “Be thankful for what you have; you’ll end up having more. If you concentrate on what you don’t have, you will never, ever have enough.” – Oprah Winfrey
5. “Remember God’s bounty in the year. String the pearls of His favour. Hide the dark parts, except so far as they are breaking out in light! Give this one day to thanks, to joy, to gratitude!” – Henry Ward Beecher
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6. “Thanksgiving Day is a jewel, to set in the hearts of honest men; but be careful that you do not take the day, and leave out the gratitude.” – E.P. Powell
7. “Appreciation can change a day, even change a life. Your willingness to put it into words is all that is necessary.” – Margaret Cousins
8. “As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them.” – John Fitzgerald Kennedy
9. “Give thanks not just on Thanksgiving Day, but every day of your life. Appreciate and never take for granted all that you have.” – Catherine Pulsifer
10. “Thanksgiving is the holiday of peace, the celebration of work and the simple life… a true folk-festival that speaks the poetry of the turn of the seasons, the beauty of seedtime and harvest, the ripe product of the year — and the deep, deep connection of all these things with God.” – Ray Stannard Baker
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11. “What I love about Thanksgiving is that it’s purely about getting together with friends or family and enjoying food. It’s really for everybody, and it doesn’t matter where you’re from.” – Daniel Humm
12. “Reflect upon your present blessings, of which every man has plenty; not on your past misfortunes, of which all men have some.” – Charles Dickens
13. “Gratitude is the inward feeling of kindness received. Thankfulness is the natural impulse to express that feeling. Thanksgiving is the following of that impulse.” – Henry Van Dyke
14. “The more we express thanks, the more gratitude we feel. The more gratitude we feel, the more we express thanks. It’s circular, and it leads to a happier life.” – Steve Goodier
15. “Although Thanksgiving comes but once a year, every day should be a day of Thanks. Among all the challenges that we face as people with hearing loss, there are certainly brighter moments in every day – moments that deserve to be recorded in our Gratitude Journal.”– Monique Hammond
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16. “Thanksgiving Day is a good day to recommit our energies to giving thanks and just giving.” – Amy Grant
17. “You shouldn’t just give during Christmas and Thanksgiving you should be giving all the time.” – Alcurtis Turner
18. “Thanksgiving is one of my favourite days of the year because it reminds us to give thanks and to count our blessings. Suddenly, so many things become so little when we realize how blessed and lucky we are.” – Joyce Giraud
19. “A thankful heart is not only the greatest virtue but the parent of all the other virtues.”– Cicero
20. “Thanksgiving is so-called because we are all so thankful that it only comes once a year.”– P. J. O’Rourke
21. “If you want to turn your life around, try thankfulness. It will change your life mightily.” – Gerald Good
22. “I love Thanksgiving because it is a holiday centred around food and family, two things that are of utmost importance to me.” – Marcus Samuelsson
23. “If you are really thankful, what do you do? You share.” – W. Clement Stone
24. “Thanksgiving, after all, is a word of action.” – W.J. Cameron
25. A thought about Thanksgiving Day: Once, there was this day… this one day when… everyone realized they needed each other. ” – April Burns in Pieces of April
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26. “Thanksgiving reminds us that no matter what befalls us in life, we can take the charred remnants and we can reconstruct a life unimaginably richer than that from which the shards and pieces fell.” – Craig D. Lounsbrough
27. “To speak gratitude is courteous and pleasant, to enact gratitude is generous and noble, but to live gratitude is to touch Heaven.” – Johannes A. Gaertner
28. “Showing gratitude is one of the simplest yet most powerful things humans can do for each other.” – Randy Pausch
29. “Thanksgiving was never meant to be shut up in a single day.” – Robert Caspar Lintner
30. “No one has ever become poor by giving.” – Anne Frank
31. “An attitude of gratitude brings great things.” – Yogi Bhajan
32. “Be present in all things and thankful for all.” – Maya Angelou
33. “Thanksgiving is a joyous invitation to shower the world with love and gratitude.” – Amy Leigh Mercree
34. “Forever on Thanksgiving, the heart will find the pathway home.” – Wilbur D. Nesbit
35. “The more you practice the art of thankfulness, the more you have to be thankful for.” – Norman Vincent Peale
36. “What if today, we were just grateful for everything?” – Charlie Brown
37. “A moment of gratitude makes a difference in your attitude.” – Bruce Wilkinson
38. “It is not joy that makes us grateful; it is gratitude that makes us joyful.” – David Steindl-Rast
39. “Thanksgiving is the holiday that encompasses all others. All of them, from Martin Luther King Day to Arbor Day to Christmas to Valentine’s Day, are in one way or another about being thankful.” – Jonathan Safran Foer
40. “If a fellow isn’t thankful for what he’s got, he isn’t likely to be thankful for what he’s going to get.” – Frank A. Clark
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41. “We would worry less if we praised more. Thanksgiving is the enemy of discontent and dissatisfaction.” – H.A. Ironside
42. “I would rather be able to appreciate things I cannot have than to have things I am not able to appreciate.” – Elbert Hubbard
43. “If the only prayer you ever say in your entire life is thank you, it will be enough.” – Meister Eckhart
44. “The real gift of gratitude is that the more grateful you are, the more present you become.” – Robert Holden
45. “Acknowledging the good that you already have in your life is the foundation for all abundance.” – Eckhart Tolle
46. “Feeling gratitude and not expressing it is like wrapping a present and not giving it.” – William Arthur Ward
47. “Look at everything as though you were seeing it for the first or the last time, then your time on earth will be filled with glory.” – Betty Smith
48. “We tend to forget that happiness doesn’t come as a result of getting something we don’t have, but rather of recognizing and appreciating what we do have.” – Frederick Keonig
49. “Things turn out best for people who make the best of the way things turn out.” – John Wooden
50. “Gratitude is a quality similar to electricity: It must be produced and discharged and used up in order to exist at all.” – William Faulkner
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51. “When asked if my cup is half-full or half-empty my only response is that I am thankful I have a cup.” – William Faulkner
52. “We can only be said to be alive in those moments when our hearts are conscious of our treasures.” – Thorton Wilder
53. “Let us be grateful to people who make us happy; they are the charming gardeners who make our souls blossom.” – Marcel Proust
54. “Now is no time to think of what you do not have. Think of what you can do with what there is.” – Ernest Hemingway
55. “After a good dinner, one can forgive anybody, even one’s own relations.” – Oscar Wilde
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56. “If there’s one thing I’ve learned over the aeons, it’s that you can’t give up on your family, no matter how tempting they make it.”- Rick Riordan
57. “We should certainly count our blessings, but we should also make our blessings count.” – Neal A. Maxwell
58. “To give thanks in solitude is enough. Thanksgiving has wings and goes where it must go. Your prayer knows much more about it than you do.” – Victor Hugo
59. “Thanksgiving Day is a good day to recommit our energies to giving thanks and just giving.” – Amy Grant
60. “Thanksgiving just gets me all warm and tingly and all kinds of wonderful inside.” – Willard Scott
FAQs
What Are The Symbols of Thanksgiving?
Turkey is the most popular symbol used to describe Thanksgiving. You will also see corn, pumpkins and cranberry sauce symbols on holiday decorations, Instagram gifs and greeting cards.
Which Countries Celebrate Thanksgiving?
The United States, Canada, Australia, Granada, Liberia, Netherlands and Norfolk Island.
What Do People Do On Thanksgiving?
Apart from families getting together for a meal, some of them choose to volunteer, play football, take a short family vacay, play family games at night or even go watch a parade!
What Do People Eat On Thanksgiving?
Roasted turkey, sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce, pumpkin pie, candied yams and cornbread.
What Does Thanksgiving Mean?
It’s the day of gratitude. It’s a time when you count your blessings and celebrate the day with loved ones.
What are you going to be grateful for this Thanksgiving? I hope that you think about all the good things life has blessed you with. Happy Thanksgiving!
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