One of my students wished me "Happy Thanksgiving!" I reminded her I was British. Thanksgiving is not celebrated here. I know it is a festival/holiday in the USA, but I'm not sure when it is. I think they eat turkey, but I'm not sure of that either! Presumably, as one of my students wished me Happy Thanksgiving it must be very soon. Here in England we have had religious 'thanksgiving' rites dating back thousands of years. Druids had various rites to celebrate the end of summer and the 'harvest' (in inverted commas as much of our history is pre-agriculture so there wasn't much 'harvesting' of crops going on). Various 'giving of thanks' type practices travelled with the early emigrants to the USA. And whilst they evolved there into a definite holiday - Thanksgiving , the religious ideas dwindled away here to almost nothing. We do not have a Thanksgiving day. On some Sundays in churches they have a Thanksgiving or Harvest festival. But this is for the religious people who go to church.

To get a good, full explanation, just search for it online. You can get the story. It's based on events in the early 1620's when the Native American people helped the English colonists survive. It's a holiday when families gather to share a meal and give thanks for good fortune in the past year.

It's probably my favorite holiday. As celebrated in the United States, it's pretty simple. Families simply get together and have a great big dinner and express thanks to God, although it is not usually a very religious occasion. The elements of the dinner are almost a cultural universal, although every family has its own variations. There is almost always a big turkey.