This year, Thanksgiving falls on November 27th, so if you have not already started planning recipes and making travel plans, there is still plenty of time. Thanksgiving is the annual holiday that allows us a time to be especially thankful for all of our material possessions, as well as for our good fortune in other areas as well. Thanksgiving, which is generally thought to be the start of the holiday season, is usually celebrated with a large group of family or friends over a bountiful feast. The day originated almost four hundred years ago when the first settlers of the colony of Virginia and the Native Americans living in the area managed to achieve peace. Originally, though, Thanksgiving Days were commonplace, celebrated after any fortunate event happened, while unfortunate events called for a day of fasting. Eventually, the tradition of Thanksgiving would travel through generation to generation, becoming the cherished holiday as which it stands today.

Traditionally, the main focus of Thanksgiving Day is the big feast. Thanksgiving dinners are meant to somewhat resemble what the settlers at Plymouth, Massachusetts and the Native Americans enjoyed as part of their feast in 1621. The most important part of any Thanksgiving meal is the turkey, such that Thanksgiving Day is often referred to as “Turkey Day”. The most popular way to prepare the Thanksgiving turkey is to fill the bird with stuffing, usually seasoned with sage, and then roast the turkey. This stuffing is generally bread-based, with chopped celery, carrots, and onion added to the mix in order to create a flavorful center for the turkey. Nontraditional substitutes for turkey include goose, duck, and tofurkey, a vegetarian alternative to turkey consisting of tofu and an imitation turkey flavor. Some of the most common side dishes to go with the turkey are cranberry sauce, sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, ham, corn, green beans, green bean casserole, deviled eggs, peas and carrots, bread rolls – the list of tantalizing dishes goes on. For dessert, no Thanksgiving meal is complete without pie. The most common pies include apple pie, pumpkin pie, mincemeat pie, sweet potato pie, and pecan pie. There are plenty of regional variations in these dishes, so a Thanksgiving dinner in the South and one in the Pacific Northwest tend to be very different.

Another tradition that takes place before, after, or during the Thanksgiving feast is the process of giving thanks. Oftentimes, giving thanks is accomplished through saying grace before the meal, which allows every member of the family to reflect for a moment upon that which he or she is most grateful for. Other families save time at the end of the meal for each member of the family to select one thing that he or she is most grateful for. Various religious and spiritual organizations also hold programs and events during the day that let those who are religious to give their thanks to God for all of the wonderful things in their lives. United States presidents often declare what they are thankful for on the day of Thanksgiving: President George Washington is said to have been thankful for useful knowledge and civil liberty in his 1789 proclamation, and since then, the presidents have followed suit in one on way or another.

If one happens to be in New York City on Thanksgiving or has special plans to head to the Big Apple for Thanksgiving Day, one of the largest and most recognizable events is the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. The massive procession winds its way from the Upper West Side of Manhattan to Macy’s flagship store in Herald’s Square. Various parade floats, each one embracing a specific theme, provide great visual appeal for the thousands of spectators that come out to watch the parade unfold. Among the most popular traditional floats are those depicting famous cartoon characters and the Santa Claus float, which always ends the parade in order to signify that the holiday season has begun. Of course, the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade is not the only huge parade held on Thanksgiving: the residents of Chicago, Philadelphia, Plymouth, Houston, St. Louis, Detroit, Seattle, Houston, and many other cities throughout the United States have a parade to look forward to and perhaps be a part of.

For many men all over the country, nothing goes better with turkey and stuffing than a hefty slice of football. Professional football games are traditionally played on Thanksgiving Day, giving fans of the sport plenty to look forward to. This tradition is referred to as the Thanksgiving Classic and for several professional teams, Thanksgiving has meant hosting a game for the last several decades. The Detroit Lions have hosted a game every single Thanksgiving Day from 1934 onwards, with the exclusion of the years in which World War II occurred, while the Dallas Cowboys have managed a similar feat since 1966, only breaking their hold on the event for the St. Louis Cardinals in 1975 and 1977. Since 2006, three games are played on Thanksgiving Day; while Dallas and Detroit traditionally host two of them, the third host is not set. College football has a much more dramatic show on Thanksgiving Day since it marks the end of the regular season. The day usually also involves a final game against a historic rival for each school, such as the Lone Star Showdown between the Texas Longhorns and the Texas A&M Aggies.

On and around Thanksgiving Day, there is plenty of special programming on radio and television that attempts to capture the spirit of the season. Many of the parades around the country are aired for the rest of the country to enjoy the lavish floats and the larger-than-life proceedings, most popularly the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. Popular movies that have something to do with Thanksgiving, such as Miracle on 34th Street, are often aired on and around the day of Thanksgiving, as well as popular specials like A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving. Oprah is known to reveal Oprah’s Favorite Things right around Thanksgiving and Rush Limbaugh offers his unique view of the real Thanksgiving story in which the Plymouth settlers, upon switching from a form of communism to a free enterprise economy, prosper and have a reason to give thanks. Of course, sports programming is all but ubiquitous on Thanksgiving, with radio and television coverage on Westwood One and the Sports USA Radio Network. If you happen to have any downtime on Thanksgiving between all of the food and festivities, you can be sure that there will be something fun to watch on television.

All in all, Thanksgiving is a busy day for plenty of people across the United States as families come together to celebrate each others’ presence, as well as all of the good fortune they have been lucky enough to receive throughout the year. Thanksgiving is a day to put aside petty problems and other things that bring us down in order to appreciate the larger significance of life and the happiness that comes to us through the little things and the big things. Whether you celebrate Thanksgiving at home with your family or at a stadium cheering on a football game, Thanksgiving is a time to, like the name suggests, be thankful.