Welcome to Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone! This is a holiday that is unique to America, because it celebrates a specific event in American history. Yes, other countries have their variations, but I'm gonna tell you about America's celebration of gratitude.
Here's how it all started: as virtually any American six-year-old can tell you, a group of people escaping religious persecution in England landed in Plymouth, Massachusettes in 1620. These people were Puritans, and are collectively referred to as Pilgrims. This new place where they chose to settle was cold, and many of the crops they brought with them wouldn't take hold in the foreign soil. That first winter was a hard one, and well over half of them died. Fortunately, local natives helped the new settlers find food that would grow, and they also helped them in hunting and fishing. After that first long, harsh winter, the remaining survivors had a feast of Thanksgiving; the feast celebrated their survival, their escape from persecution, and the help they received from the locals. The American Indians who helped them were invited to join in the feast, and records survive of the food they had: The main course was venison (five deer were brought by the natives), but there was also an abundance of seafood, corn, beans, and squash. Oh, and a few turkeys, but they weren't the focus of the meal the way they are today. Since the first Thanksgiving was celebrated after winter, it's likely it was celebrated in spring or early summer. As a holiday, the date of Thanksgiving was moved to November to coincide with the harvest, which is a more appropriate time to be celebrating the blessings the year has brought, and in holding with the harvest festivals that many immigrants had brought with them from their home countries in Europe.
Today, Thanksgiving is a celebration for families. It's uncommon to have Thanksgiving dinner just with the nuclear family unit; typically, aunts and uncles, cousins, siblings, and grandparents get together at one family member's home for dinner. In keeping with the traditions of celebrating the harvest and survival, the Thanksgiving celebration is a big meal. It makes sense for families to gather for this, because that way they can share in the responsibility of putting together such a large meal. Traditional dishes include turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, gravy, cranberries, and pumpkin pie. Each family has its own favorite side dishes, which likely include green bean casserole, squash, sweet potatoes, and corn as well as other family specialties. Some families also have ham, and in the American south you find a fascinating dish called tur-duc-hen, which is a de-boned stuffed chicken, inside a de-boned duck, inside a partially de-boned turkey. I've never had tur-duc-hen, but I'd be willing to give it a try.
Families get together and have one huge meal, and from my experience, the feast is usually between the usual hours of lunch and dinner. Many families eat at 2 or 3pm, and usually there's more than enough food to last for the rest of the day if anyone gets hungry again. In my family back in Tennessee, my sister makes the turkey and usually a couple other dishes, my sisters and brother bring the other side dishes, and my mother brings the pies. I don't bring anything, because I'm in New York and I haven't been home for Thanksgiving in 11 years :( Instead, I make the whole dinner for our family, which consists of myself, my husband, and my mother-in-law, and occasionally another guest or two.
Other Thanksgiving traditions include The Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, which is the largest parade in America. Floats line up along 42nd Avenue in New York City, and there are large balloons featuring popular cartoon characters. It sometimes takes 30 or more people to control these balloons and steer them down the parade route. At the end of the parade is Santa in his sleigh, and he leads the parade spectators to the front door of Macy's department store to usher in the start of the Christmas season. Another major tradition is football, which is usually played on Sunday, but there are always two games on Thanksgiving. One game features the Dallas Cowboys (who are usually a good team) and the Detroit Lions (who haven't had a winning season in over two decades, I think). In recent years, Thanksgiving has turned into a shopping day as well, with some shops kicking off the Black Friday sales early, but more on Black Friday later.
Basically, Thanksgiving can be summed up in four "Fs": food, family, floats (as in parade floats), and football.
Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to go take some squash out of the oven...