Unit Five thanksgiving

Festivals in the USA

Father’s day The Third Thur’s day The second Sunday in May. Valentine’s Day Febulary 14th. Easter day
Go to origin
turkey
Cran -berry
Cranberry
Origin of the Thanks giving Day
Thanksgiving is associated with the time when Europeans first came to North America. In 1620 the ship the Mayflower arrived, bringing about 150 people who today are usually called Pilgrims. They arrived at the beginning of a very hard winter and could not find enough to eat, so many of them died. But in the following summer. Native Americans showed them what foods were safe to eat, so that they could save food for the next winter. They held a big celebration to thank God and the Native Americans for the fact that they had survived. The celebrations often included Prayer and fasting and so were quite different to the modern holiday. In 1789 George Washington, the first president of the United States, proclaimed the first national Thanksgiving Day.

About Roots
Questions about the text





1. When and where did the writer write the three “thank-you” letters? 2. What made himas a cook extremely busy on the Thanksgiving Day? 3. What was the writer thinking about on the deck after the day’s hard work? 4. Why did he feel ashamed when he thought about the people that he weanted to express gratitude to? 5. who did he finally decide to write to? 6. what did his father do that left a lasting impression on the writer?
Go to
Who
do you intend to thank and why?
do you express your gratitude?
How

Quite often we take for granted the people who are nice to us, then we realize all too late that we have never expressed our appreciation. At other times, when we are away from the holiday rush, we are able to recall the true significance of a holiday - a time to say how much we value others. The author of this text did exactly that.


About the Auther
ALEX (PALMER) HALEY. Born in Ithaca, New York, U.S.A., 11 August, 1921. Attended Elizabeth City Teachers College, North Carolina, 193637. Served in the U.S. Coast Guard 1939-59, ship’s cook during World War II, and chief journalist. On retirement from the Coast Guard, became fulltime writer, contributing stories, articles, and interviews to Playboy, Harper’s, Atlantic, and Reader‘s Digest. He is author, Roots: The Saga of an American Family, 1976, which was adapted as television miniseries, 1977;
Unit Five
How to celebrate holidays
Text A
Writing Three Thank-you Letters
Before -reading

Festivals in the USA About the Thanks-giving Day Origin of the Thanksgiving Day
About the Thanks -giving Day
Thanksgiving is celebrated in the US on the fourth Thursday in November. For many Americans it is the most important holiday apart from Christmas. Schools, offices and most businesses close for Thanksgiving, and many people make the whole weekend a vacation. The writer O. Henry called it the one day that is purely American. The holiday is a time of family reunion.

He received the Pulitzer Prize, 1977. He died in Seattle, Washington, 10 February 1992. Alex Haley is best known for as the author of the novel Roots. The novels, loosely based on Haley's own family, presented an interpretation of the journey of African Americans from their homeland to the United States and their subsequent search for freedom and dignity. The novel was published in 1976, when the United States was celebrating it's bicentennial.
How much do you know



1. the history of Thanksgiving Day? 2. What are the traditional foods? 3. What do people do on this big day? Family get-together dinner 4. What do people do after the dinner? Watching Football, talking, and visiting. 4. What does Thanksgiving Day mean to people ? A time to give thanks for everything we have; things happened in the year
Special Food
Today people celebrate Thanksgiving to remember these early days. The most important part of the celebration is a traditional dinner with foods that come from North America. The meal includes Turkey , sweet potatoes (also called yams) and cranberries, which are made into a kind of sauce or jelly. The turkey is filled with stuffing or dressing, and many families have their own special recipe. Dessert is pumpkin made into a pie.
Pilgrim
The Pilgrims were the 102 English people who sailed to America on the Mayflower in 1620. Their group included 35 Puritans whose aim was to create a safe religious community in the New World. The Pilgrims probably landed at Plymouth Rock, and they established Plymouth colony.