On the fourth Thursday in November, in houses around the United States, families get together for a feast, or a large meal. Almost all families eat turkey and cranberry sauce for this meal, and have pumpkin pie for dessert. This feast is part of a very special day, the holiday of Thanksgiving. In 1620, the Pilgrims made a difficult trip across the ocean from England. They went to the New World in search of religious freedom. They landed in what is now Massachusetts. The Pilgrims’ first winter was very hard. Almost half the group died of cold, hunger, and disease. But the Native Americans of Massachusetts taught the Pilgrims to plant corn, to hunt, and to fish. When the next fall came, the Pilgrims had plenty of food. They were thankful and had a feast to give thanks. They invited the Native Americans to join them. This was the first Thanksgiving.

The Thanksgiving became a national holiday many years later because of a woman named Sarah Hale. For forty years Sarah Hale wrote to each president and asked for a holiday for Thanksgiving. At last she was successful. In 1863 President Lincoln declared Thanksgiving a holiday. How much is Thanksgiving today like the Pilgrims’ Thanksgiving? In many ways they are different. For example, historians think that the Pilgrims ate deer, not turkey. The idea of Thanksgiving, though, is very much the same: Thanksgiving is a day on which we celebrate and give thanks.

Vocabulary feast – uczta,

święto cranberry - żurawina

 Thanksgiving – Święto Dziękczynienia

The Pilgrims – pielgrzymi (tak nazwano ludzi, którzy przypłynęli do Ameryki statkiem w 1620r.)

religious freedom – swoboda religijna

 hunger - głód

disease - choroba

 fall (autumn) - jesień

plenty of - dużo

 successful – odnieść sukces

deer - jeleń