Things to Be Grateful For

Writer and self-described optimist William Arthur Ward once said, "Feeling gratitude and not expressing it is like wrapping a present and not giving it."

Every year we should thank life for what we have achieved through a hardworking year but also especially about all the blessings life has brought to us,we should never forget to thank all those people who have helped and supported us in all good and bad moments, especially to the friends we have gotten through the years.

It's never late for helping and say sorry to all those we love and in a way or other have gone away from us due to misunderstandings and fights, maybe we have hurt them and offering an apology would help to heal things.

It's very common to find those dearest ones into our own family, but if we don't give the first step for approaching them, they might never do it.

Thanksgiving day is the perfect day for counting our blessings and thank them...it is also a time for tradition and sharing with loved ones no matter if they live far away, family members and friends get together for celebrating and thank together for the blessings and good things that they have in life.

In this spirit of sharing,we never should forget those who have less than us and if we can, we should try helping them a little by donating money to charity organizations or perhaps just visiting someone alone...it is always great to see someone smiling to whom we can surprise with a gift.

There are many things to be grateful/thanked for, I especially can say, I thank for the friends I have and especially because many of them have stayed close to me when I was not feeling fine,when I was sad and I wasn't strong, they have always helped me during those bad times with their friendship and understanding,I am really thankful because they have never left me alone when I have needed them.

I am not really a religious person,I believe in God though,but for me He is a God of kindness and mercy,not one who should be feared,I don't see Him as a God full of wrath punishing people for their sins...In Mexico,we don't really celebrate Thanksgiving Day,but I celebrate it on my own every year,I got the custom from all those years I lived in USA and was able to celebrate it with people that had special meaning to my life...I wish Mexico had that tradition as well because it's about being thankful...well,every year I thank my God for showing me the people who are with me -close to me-,for all those wonderful friends I have met through the years,and especially I thank God for my life and for being a hardworking woman that despite being disabled has never stopped of doing what I have believed and what I have always wanted to do, never fearing for trying, nor fearing to live plenty, life is not for cowards nor for sleazy people, and most of them should realize that life goes away faster than we know, if we waste days one day we will find that we never lived.

I always live my life as if it were my last day on earth.

I especially feel thanked for the new gift recently discovered of 'being an artist' and be able to create and write...I have very special friends who helped me to discover my talent,thanks to these very close to my heart friends',thanks to their support I have became who I am now...I must say,I am not a great artist,but I work hard for trying to do something good and worthy, I have no words for expressing what all of you dearest friends mean for me and what all of you have helped me to learn lots of new things and I deeply thank all of you!...and if we talk about blessings and harvest...I love to see that I have harvested many amazing and talented friends!

For all of you,I wish just the best: Happy Thanksgiving!

Sandra Villanueva

The History and Origin of Thanksgiving Day

Since ancient times almost every culture in the world has held celebrations of thanks for a plentiful harvest. The American Thanksgiving holiday began as a feast of thanksgiving in the early days of the American colonies almost four hundred years ago.

In 1620,the Pilgrims,a religious group had begun to question the beliefs of the Church of England and they wanted to separate from it,they came in a boat filled with more than one hundred people sailing across the Atlantic Ocean to settle in the New World.The Pilgrims settled in what is now the state of Massachusetts.

Their first winter in the New World was very difficult...one of the reasons was that they had arrived too late to grow many crops, and without fresh food, half the colony had gotten sick and died from diseases. The next spring the Iroquois Indians taught them how to grow corn (maize),this was a new kind of food for the colonists. They showed them other crops to grow in the unfamiliar soil and how to hunt and fish as well.

In the autumn of 1621, bountiful crops of corn,beans and pumpkins were harvested by them... The colonists realized they had much to be thankful for,so a feast was planned. They invited the local Indian chief and 90 Indians. The Indians brought deer to roast with the turkeys and other wild game offered by the colonists. The colonists had learned how to cook cranberries,different kinds of corn and squashdishes from the Indians...they had even brought popcorn to this first Thanksgiving...since the first thanksgiving the foods served and eaten by the Pilgrims and Indians have become traditional in most tables throughout the United States:

Turkey, corn (or maize), pumpkins and cranberry sauce are symbols which represent the first Thanksgiving. Now all of these symbols are drawn on holiday decorations and greeting cards.

The use of corn meant the survival of the colonies. "Indian corn" as a table or door decoration represents the harvest and the fall season.

Sweet-sour cranberry sauce, or cranberry jelly, was on the first Thanksgiving table and is still served today. The cranberry is a small, sour berry. It grows mostly in Massachusetts and New England states. The Indians used the fruit to treat infections. They used the juice to dye their rugs and blankets. They taught the colonists how to cook the berries with sweetener and water tomake a sauce. The Indians called it "ibimi" which means "bitter berry." When the colonists saw it, they named it "crane-berry" because the flowers of the berry bent the stalk over, and it resembled thelong-necked bird called a crane.

During the following years, many of the original colonists celebrated the autumn harvest with a feast of thanks,making this a tradition.

After the United States became an independent country,the Congress recommended one yearly day of thanksgiving for the whole nation to celebrate,being George Washington the one who suggested the date: November 26 as Thanksgiving Day.
Years later,in 1863, at the end of a long and bloody civil war, Abraham Lincoln asked all Americans to set aside the last Thursday in November as a day of thanksgiving*.

*1939 President Franklin D. Roosevelt set it one week earlier because he wanted to help business by lengthening the shopping period before christmas.The Congress ruled that after 1941 the 4th Thursday in November would be a federal holiday proclaimed by the President each year.

Sandra Villanueva