The Christmas Tree, an article that explains its legend, origin and tradition, with some enlightening merry quotes to enrich the great value of the Christmas period.

Snowflakes felt so awesome in winter season. There is a main figure in Christmas known as Santa Claus. And the main theme of Christmas is jingle bell, a very famous tune known all other the world. People use this tune a lot all over the Christmas event, and it feels so good like something very positive that will bring peace and happiness in our lives.

Moving between the legs of tables and of chairs, rising or falling, grasping at kisses and toys, advancing boldly, sudden to take alarm, retreating to the corner of arm and knee, eager to be reassured, taking pleasure in the fragrant brilliance of the Christmas tree.
T. S. Eliot

It is curious to what a degree one may become attached to a fine tree, especially when it is placed where trees are rare.
Christian Nestell Bovee

The Christmas tree is the dot on the i.
Frank Taylor

The trees that bud and blossom forth, Throughout the world from south to north, Are tokens that a life will bloom When manhood’s passed beyond the tomb.
T. Augustus Forbes Leith

Three things are needed to make a Christmas tree: ornaments, the tree and faith in the future.
Armenian proverb

I stone got crazy when I saw somebody run down them strings with a bottleneck. My eyes lit up like a Christmas tree and I said that I had to learn.
Muddy Waters

My beer-drenched soul is sadder than all the dead Christmas trees in the world.
Charles Bukowski

He who has not Christmas in his heart will never find it under a tree.
Roy L. Smith

It’s not what’s under the Christmas tree that matters, it’s who’s around it.
Charlie Brown

A Christian should resemble a fruit tree with real fruit, not a Christmas tree with decorations tied on.
John Stott

The best of all gifts around any Christmas tree: the presence of a happy family all wrapped up in each other.
Burton Hillis

I grew up with a Christmas tree, I’m going to stay with a Christmas tree.
Thomas Menino

The perfect Christmas tree, all Christmas trees are perfect.
Charles N. Barnard

Some Christmas tree ornaments do more than glitter and glow, they represent a gift of love given a long time ago.
Tom Baker

The Christmas tree is beautiful only when it is finished and when the lights can be turned on, the crib is not, the crib is beautiful when you do it or even when you think about it.
Luciano De Crescenzo

Taking down the Christmas tree makes it feel official: time to get back to joyless and cynical.
Greg Fitzsimmons

I never thought it was such a bad little tree. It’s not bad at all, really. Maybe it just needs a little love.
Linus Van Pelt

What will we find under the Christmas tree this year? Oh my God, I think the roots!
Carl William Brown

Glittering tinsel, lights, glass balls, and candy canes dangle from pine trees.
Richelle E. Goodrich

The best Christmas trees come very close to exceeding nature.
Andy Rooney

There is new life in the soil for every man. There is healing in the trees for tired minds and for our overburdened spirits, there is strength in the hills, if only we will lift up our eyes. Remember that nature is your great restorer.
Calvin Coolidge

The earth reminded us of a Christmas tree ornament hanging in the blackness of space. As we got farther and farther away it diminished in size. Finally it shrank to the size of a marble, the most beautiful marble you can imagine.
James Irwin

Christmas tree stands are the work of the devil and they want you dead.
Bill Bryson

Look at a tree, a flower, a plant. Let your awareness rest upon it. How still they are, how deeply rooted in Being. Allow nature to teach you stillness.
Eckhart Tolle

He that planteth a tree is the servant of God, He provideth a kindness for many generations, And faces that he hath not seen shall bless him.
Henry Van Dyke

Now I’m an old Christmas tree, the roots of which have died. They just come along and while the little needles fall off me replace them with medallions.
Orson Welles

Never worry about the size of your Christmas tree. In the eyes of children, they are all 25 feet tall.
Larry Wilde

They’ve got plastic Christmas trees now. They’re hard to tell from the real aluminum ones.
Milton Berle

I was only kicking down the Christmas tree to get the star on top.
Ray Bradbury

I don’t know what I believe. I guess that makes me a christmas tree agnostic.
Stephanie Perkins

Only look what is still on the ugly old Christmas tree!” said he, trampling on the branches, so that they all cracked beneath his feet. And the Tree beheld all the beauty of the flowers, and the freshness in the garden; he beheld himself, and wished he had remained in his dark corner in the loft; he thought of his first youth in the woods, of the merry Christmas Eve, and of the little Mice who had listened with so much pleasure to the story of Klumpy-Dumpy.
Hans Christian Andersen

A Christmas tree, the perfect gift for a guy. The plant is already dead.
Jay Leno

The Christmas tree, twinkling with lights, had a mountain of gifts piled up beneath it, like offerings to the great god of excess.
Tess Gerritsen

A dog looking at a lit Christmas tree thinks: they finally put the light in the toilet.
Romano Bertola

Christmas trees don’t grow on trees; they need rainbows, lumberjacks, and Leprechauns on unicorns playing jock jams on glockenspiels.
Ryan Ross

Make your plate look like a Christmas tree, I tell people, mostly green with splashes of other bright colors.
Victoria Moran

There’s no experience quite like cutting your own live Christmas tree out of your neighbor’s yard.
Dan Florence

The smell of pine needles, spruce and the smell of a Christmas tree, those to me, are the scents of the holidays.
Blake Lively

Christmas is a very enjoyable event ever. It is a great feast for everyone. Kids, adults and grandparents. Everyone enjoy this occasion very much. Parents give presents to their children and this brings happiness in their hearts. An enormous amount of joy comes through this period which is a real gem for us. Therefore how could we avoid talking of one of the main symbol of this religious celebration, which is certainly the Christmas Tree, so let’s read about its fascinating history.

The Christmas tree today is a common custom to most of us. There are many interesting connections to ancient traditions such as Egyptian and Roman customs, early Christian practices, and Victorian nostalgia. However, most scholars point to Germany as being the origin of the Christmas tree.

Long before the advent of Christianity, plants and trees that remained green all year had a special meaning for people in the winter. Just as people today decorate their homes during the festive season with pine, spruce, and fir trees, ancient peoples hung evergreen boughs over their doors and windows. In many countries it was believed that evergreens would keep away witches, ghosts, evil spirits, and illness.

In the Northern hemisphere, the shortest day and longest night of the year falls on December 21 or December 22 and is called the winter solstice. Many ancient people believed that the sun was a god and that winter came every year because the sun god had become sick and weak. They celebrated the solstice because it meant that at last the sun god would begin to get well. Evergreen boughs reminded them of all the green plants that would grow again when the sun god was strong and summer would return.

The ancient Egyptians worshipped a god called Ra, who had the head of a hawk and wore the sun as a blazing disk in his crown. At the solstice, when Ra began to recover from his illness, the Egyptians filled their homes with green palm rushes, which symbolized for them the triumph of life over death.

Early Romans marked the solstice with a feast called Saturnalia in honor of Saturn, the god of agriculture. The Romans knew that the solstice meant that soon, farms and orchards would be green and fruitful. To mark the occasion, they decorated their homes and temples with evergreen boughs.

In Northern Europe the mysterious Druids, the priests of the ancient Celts, also decorated their temples with evergreen boughs as a symbol of everlasting life. The fierce Vikings in Scandinavia thought that evergreens were the special plant of the sun god, Balder.

One of the earliest stories relating back to Germany is about Saint Boniface. In 722, he encountered some pagans who were about to sacrifice a child at the base of a huge oak tree. He cut down the tree to prevent the sacrifice and a Fir tree grew up at the base of the oak. He then told everyone that this lovely evergreen, with its branches pointing to heaven, was a holy tree – the tree of the Christ child, and a symbol of His promise of eternal life.

Germany is credited with starting the Christmas tree tradition as we now know it in the 16th century when devout Christians brought decorated trees into their homes. Some built Christmas pyramids of wood and decorated them with evergreens and candles if wood was scarce. Another story tells that perhaps it was Martin Luther responsible for the origin of the Christmas tree.

This story says that one Christmas Eve, about the year 1500, he was walking through the snow-covered woods and was struck by the beauty of the snow glistened trees. Their branches, dusted with snow, shimmered in the moon light. When he got home, he set up a small fir tree and shared the story with his children. He decorated the Christmas tree with small candles, which he lighted in honor of Christ’s birth.

Another legend says that in the early 16th century, people in Germany combined two customs that had been practiced in different countries around the globe. The Paradise tree (a fir tree decorated with apples) represented the Tree of Knowledge in the Garden of Eden.

The Christmas Light, a small, pyramid-like frame, usually decorated with glass balls, tinsel and a candle on top, was a symbol of the birth of Christ as the Light of the World. Changing the tree’s apples to tinsel balls and cookies and combining this new tree with the light placed on top, the Germans created the tree that many of us know today.

In the 1840s and 50s, Queen Victoria and Prince Albert popularized the Christmas tree in England. Prince Albert decorated a tree and ever since that time, the English, because of their love for their Queen, copied her Christmas customs including the Christmas tree and ornaments. An engraving of the Royal Family celebrating Christmas at Windsor was published in 1848 and their German traditions were copied and adapted.

Another story about the origin of the Christmas tree says that late in the Middle Ages, Germans and Scandinavians placed evergreen trees inside their homes or just outside their doors to show their hope that spring would soon come.

Most 19th-century Americans found Christmas trees an oddity. The first record of one being on display was in the 1830s by the German settlers of Pennsylvania, although trees had been a tradition in many German homes much earlier. The Pennsylvania German settlements had community trees as early as 1747. But, as late as the 1840s Christmas trees were seen as pagan symbols and not accepted by most Americans.

It is not surprising that, like many other festive Christmas customs, the tree was adopted so late in America. To the New England Puritans, Christmas was sacred. The pilgrims’s second governor, William Bradford, wrote that he tried hard to stamp out “pagan mockery” of the observance, penalizing any frivolity. The influential Oliver Cromwell preached against “the heathen traditions” of Christmas carols, decorated trees, and any joyful expression that desecrated “that sacred event.” In 1659, the General Court of Massachusetts enacted a law making any observance of December 25 (other than a church service) a penal offense; people were fined for hanging decorations. That stern solemnity continued until the 19th century, when the influx of German and Irish immigrants undermined the Puritan legacy.

The early 20th century saw Americans decorating their trees mainly with homemade ornaments, while the German-American sect continued to use apples, nuts, and marzipan cookies. Popcorn joined in after being dyed bright colors and interlaced with berries and nuts. Electricity brought about Christmas lights, making it possible for Christmas trees to glow for days on end. With this, Christmas trees began to appear in town squares across the country and having a Christmas tree in the home became an American tradition.

Research into customs of various cultures shows that greenery was often brought into homes at the time of the winter solstice. It symbolized life in the midst of death in many cultures. The Romans were known to deck their homes with evergreens during of Kalends of January 15. Living trees were also brought into homes during the old Germany feast of Yule, which originally was a two month feast beginning in November. The Yule tree was planted in a tub and brought into the home. But there is no evidence that the Christmas tree is a direct descendent of the Yule tree.

Evidence does point to the Paradise tree however. This story goes back to the 11th century religious plays. One of the most popular was the Paradise Play. The play depicted the story of the creation of Adam and Eve, their sin, and their banishment from Paradise. The only prop on the stage was the Paradise tree, a fir tree adorned with apples. The play would end with the promise of the coming Savior and His Incarnation. The people had grown so accustomed to the Paradise tree, that they began putting their own Paradise tree up in their homes on December 24.

Christmas trees have been sold commercially in the United States since about 1850. In 1979, the National Christmas Tree was not lighted except for the top ornament. This was done in honor of the American hostages in Iran. The tallest living Christmas tree is believed to be the 122-foot, 91-year-old Douglas fir in the town of Woodinville, Washington. The Rockefeller Center Christmas tree tradition began in 1933. Franklin Pierce, the 14th president, brought the Christmas tree tradition to the White House. In 1923, President Calvin Coolidge started the National Christmas Tree Lighting Ceremony now held every year on the White House lawn.

Since 1966, the National Christmas Tree Association has given a Christmas tree to the President and first family. Most Christmas trees are cut weeks before they get to a retail outlet. In 1912, the first community Christmas tree in the United States was erected in New York City. Christmas trees generally take six to eight years to mature. Christmas trees are grown in all 50 states including Hawaii and Alaska. 90 percent of all Christmas trees are grown on farms. More than 1,000,000 acres of land have been planted with Christmas trees. On average, over 2,000 Christmas trees are planted per acre.

You should never burn your Christmas tree in the fireplace. It can contribute to creosote buildup. Other types of trees such as cherry and hawthorns were used as Christmas trees in the past. Thomas Edison’s assistants came up with the idea of electric lights for Christmas trees. In 1963, the National Christmas Tree was not lit until December 22nd because of a national 30-day period of mourning following the assassination of President Kennedy. Teddy Roosevelt banned the Christmas tree from the White House for environmental reasons. On the contrary the 2020 Christmas Tree is an 18 ½ foot Fraser Fir from West Virginia. It will serve as a centerpiece for Christmas decorations in the Blue Room of the White House. The White House Christmas Tree must stand 18-19 feet tall and reach the ceiling of the Blue Room, where the chandelier is removed each holiday season to accommodate the tree.

And last but not least, if you want to choose the perfect Christmas tree visit the website of The American Christmas Tree Association (ACTA) which is a non-profit organization established to help families create holiday memories and build traditions by choosing the perfect Christmas tree. www.christmastreeassociation.org/

Instead if you need a good short story for your children about Christmas or the Christmas tree, you can find many of them at this link:
https://americanliterature.com/author/hans-christian-andersen/short-story/the-fir-tree

Top 10 Tallest Christmas Trees in The World

Read also our other posts on Christmas  ;

Christmas quotes ;

60 great Christmas quotes ;

Christmas tree origin and quotes ; 

Traditional Christmas Carols ;

Christmas jokes ;

Christmas markets in England ;

Christmas cracker jokes ;

Christmas food ;

Christmas thoughts ;

Christmas story ;

Christmas in Italy ;

Christmas holidays ;

Christmas songs ;

Christmas poems ;

An Essay on Christmas by Chesterton ;

Quotes by authors

Quotes by arguments

Thoughts and reflections

Essays with quotes

Entertainment

News and events

Christmas markets in America, the best fantastic Christmas markets in the U.S.A. including New York, Chicago, Arlington, Washington, Elkhart Lake, Philadelphia and many more.

Christmas markets have their roots in European history, but have also become incredibly popular in cities and towns across the U.S. Exploring these markets is a fun way to celebrate the season and stock up on holiday gifts and goodies without even having to travel abroad.

Families, couples, and groups of friends can all enjoy the sights, sounds, and smells of Christmas at these markets that are full of ornaments, Christmas trees, and warm winter wear. You can often find delicious gingersnaps, roasted chestnuts, mulled wine, and hot chocolate to entice your taste buds and keep you warm.

So this holiday season, unless you’re traveling to one of the famous Christmas Markets in Europe, consider visiting one of these festive markets to get in the spirit of Christmas. These cities also make excellent travel destinations in November and December to see how other cities celebrate the season.

Sausages are one of the top reasons that Chicago’s Christkindlmarket is one of the top Christmas markets in the country, and it’s been one of the longest-running Christmas markets in the U.S. There are plenty of other amazing German-inspired foods here, and many vendors that sell cuckoo clocks, table laces, ornaments, and woodworking masterpieces. One of the essential activities at this market is to get a glass of gluhwein in a themed cup that changes designs every year. For the kids, there’s a Kinder Club that organizes fun activities, like scavenger hunts. Admission to the festivities is free.

This is a unique Christmas market because it primarily celebrates the life and work of the great author, Charles Dickens. This fair will transform you back to London in Victorian times, as San Francisco takes on a whole new look. Expect to see lamp-lit lanes with pubs, shops, and restaurants that create Victorian London. Bring your top hat and dress in character because this is a festival to remember!

Make sure to catch some of the theater performances and entertainment provided by local actors. This market is typically open for five weekends between Thanksgiving and Christmas. Shops onsite sell jewelry, masks, journals, drinkware, ceramics, and unique toys for kids. Visit the five traditional pubs for food and drinks, make your own crafts, and even get your fortune told!

Leave it to a town named Bethlehem to throw an incredible Christmas market. This is a classic Christmas market that embraces old-world traditions and exudes authenticity. Here you’ll find glassblowers and other artisans creating holiday treasures for you to decorate your home or give as gifts. Favorite activities among families with kids include sitting on Santa’s lap and eating breakfast with Santa. This market runs on select days starting right after Thanksgiving.

Christmas in New York City is a truly magical time, and aside from Rockefeller Square and Central Park, the place to be to celebrate is the Union Square Holiday Market. This market draws about a million people per year and typically has over 150 vendors set up. You can find unique handmade wearables and jewelry here, as well as children’s toys and Christmas ornaments under the red and white striped tents. You can find some excellent handcrafted bowls, winter accessories, artwork, and candles here. Lots of the artisans sell certified organic and fair-trade goods, as well as ones that are recycled and made in New York. You can find a list of the vendors on the Urban Space NYC website.

Leavenworth is a German-themed town in Washington that has a wonderful Christmas market each year. This Christkindlmarkt is typically held in Front Street Park and Leavenworth Festhalle. For over two decades, this Bavarian-style annual Christmas tradition has been helping locals and visitors get in the holiday spirit over Thanksgiving weekend. There’s a lantern parade after the welcome ceremony. There’s lots of holiday music to enjoy here too, as well as a lantern-making workshop and children’s crafts at the Leavenworth Christkindlmarkt.

The city of Arlington is the place to be if you love crafts and Christmas. This Christkindl Market is one of the largest of its kind in the Southwest. The local Christkindl Market here is full of vendors that sell beautiful pieces of pottery, garments with alpaca wool, and Christmas decorations. There are lots of kid-themed activities here, including a puppet show petting zoo. The lantern parade is definitely worth watching too.

Another great place to celebrate Christmas is our nation’s capital, Washington, D.C. This is a favorite Christmas market among foodies because of the fresh donuts, ice cream, and holiday treats for sale under festive tents. Non-traditional and ethnic foods, like churros and empanadas, can also be found here to savor and enjoy. You’ll find this market near the Smithsonian American Art Museum and the National Portrait Gallery, so it’s an easy walk from these popular sightseeing spots. The market is located at 8th and F Streets and open daily, and lots of musical acts across all genres perform at the Market Stage.

One particularly fun place to bring in the Christmas season is Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin. This market has traditionally been held at the Osthoff Resort and features a heated tent full of German crafts, apparel, nutcrackers, and gingerbread houses. You’ll also find gift ideas inspired by Russian and Czech traditions too. This market typically lasts for about 10 days in early December. Favorite foods to enjoy here include bratwursts, dumplings, potato pancakes, red cabbage, and apple strudels.

Helen is a German-themed town in northern Georgia, so it only makes sense that there would be a Christkindlmarket here! This is a very walkable town, and the winters here are usually mild and pleasant. There are several German restaurants in town outside the festival, as well as fun shops that are open year-round. At all times of the year, you’ll notice the German-themed architecture of the buildings in Helen and beautiful alpine scenery that you might not expect to find in Georgia.

This Christmas market is a great place to find Victorian antiques and local Colorado wines. In fact, this is a great market for adults because there’s an annual pub crawl that lets you sample local wines and German specialties. Get in the spirit of Christmas by taking a horse-drawn carriage ride and listening to carolers sing festive tunes. This market typically takes place on the first two weekends of December. Don’t miss the chance to take a tour of the Hamill House and the Hotel de Paris Museums. The Santa Lucia Children’s Procession is extra special as well.

There are dozens of vendors at Philadelphia’s Christmas Village, which sells lots of holiday gifts and delicious foods. Favorites foods of the festival include sausages and waffles. This market carries a very authentic German vibe and is also famous for its mulled wine. This market is located downtown at Love Park just west of City Hall. It runs from Thanksgiving through Christmas Eve and often has a “sneak peek” weekend before the official opening to get visitors excited for what’s to come.

Lovettsville may be one of the lesser-known towns on this list, but it also has a fun Christkindlmarkt worth visiting. Lovettsville is preserved by the Loudoun Valley German Society and just two miles south of the Potomac River between Maryland and Virginia. It was a German settlement town for nearly 100 years. Here you’ll find the traditional German foods and drinks, as well as live music and activities for the kids.

New York already starts gearing up for the holiday season in the fall. Christmas markets return to the city as early as October, setting the mood for the most magical time of the year. Here’s where to find the best Christmas markets in NYC.
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Is there a better way to get into the holiday spirit than grabbing a hot cup of cocoa and strolling through some of the best Christmas markets in New York? Booths with local crafts, savory treats, and hot specialty drinks are the most authentic environment to have a merry time and wrap up your gift shopping. Whether outdoor or indoor, New York is home to four major holiday markets and a good number of smaller winter bazaars.

Kicking off at the end of October, Bryant Park’s Winter Village opens the holiday market season in New York. Besides being the first to open, it’s also the longest-running, inviting visitors to explore their impressive array of booths all the way through New Year’s Day.

Debuting in 2002, Winter Village in Bryant Park is one of the most festive Christmas markets in NYC. The center of the city is a truly inspiring place to drink in the splendor of winter as you and your loved ones stroll down aisle after aisle of specialty vendors and themed attractions. Winter Village has lots to offer: an ice skating rink with free admission, holiday stands to offer seasonal bites, beverages to refuel, local crafts, jewelry, clothes, and many more cute baubles.

Union Square is proud to host over 25 years of holiday markets and this year will be no exception. The market’s layout was initially modeled after European Christmas markets and despite some changes since its original inception, the Union Square Holiday Market still mirrors its cousins across the Atlantic pretty closely. It is one of the largest Christmas markets in New York and a holiday tradition for any visitor.

At Union Square, you can browse through winding rows of stalls with live music playing in the background. A total of 100 red-and-wite-striped booths display their unique wares and artisanal foods at this Christmas market in NYC. The Union Square Market boats more than 150 registered vendors, both local and international, that are carefully selected. That’s not all, however. Union Square Holiday Market has grown significantly over the years and now also features a kid’s art studio and a warming station for the frostbitten among you. There’s no way you will leave this holiday market without a full belly and a happy smile.

Located at Central Park’s southwest corner, in close proximity to the iconic Wollmann ice skating rink, you will find Columbus Circle Holiday Market. What better way to end a perfect wintery stroll through Central Park than with one of the best holiday markets in NYC? This outdoor Christmas market will transport you to a quaint German village enthralled in the holiday spirit.

With about 100 booths, the European-style Columbus Circle Holiday Market belongs not only to the best but also to the largest holiday markets in NYC. What can you find at the famed circle during the holiday season? Hot mulled wine, handmade crafts, and one-of-a-kind ornaments make it the quintessential NYC shopping experience. Merry shopping!

If you find yourself in the area on a Monday, be sure to take advantage of free Broadway performances in the Shops at Columbus Circle thanks to Broadway Under The Stars! When temperatures plunge, those of you who are sensitive to the cold may consider spending their time at one of the indoor Christmas markets in NYC. Vanderbilt Hall at Grand Central boasts a large month-long indoor holiday market in New York that’s perfect for those who prefer to stay snuggled in warmth regardless of outdoor conditions.

At the Holiday Fair, vendors are carefully selected to guarantee only the best experience for their visitors. If you’re looking for gifts, you’ll find a wide selection of one-of-a-kind items. More than 1 million shoppers pass through the holiday fair each day. The iconic transport hub is a convenient location for a jolly extravaganza!

Inside the Oculus, you can find a whimsical pop-up holiday market called “The Market at Westfield World Trade Center” that will make your commute even more magical. A path leads you through a little winter village featuring over 20 specialty shops limited edition gifts, snacks and souvenirs. As if the Oculus wasn’t already one of the most beautiful photo ops in the city, a few more props were added to help you get the perfect Christmas card photo this year. The festive decorations include a clocktower, a chrome snowman, and a lush winter landscape.

The Underground market named “Turnstyle” features 39 eateries and several popups. For the holiday season, they added several seasonal shops, helping you to do some indoor gift shopping. It’s perfect for those who want to stay indoors. Compared to other holiday markets in New York, however, it feels less festive here. In total, there are seven entrances to the market. Just follow the signs that are posted generously throughout the underground. You don’t need to swipe your MetroCard to visit the Turnstile Holiday Market in NYC.

Staten Island’s Empire Outlet is celebrating its holiday market. Local merchants are offering their goods on the third floor of Empire Outlets. The market gives you another reason to ride the free Staten Island Ferry. Once you’ve arrived, you can visit the Christmas market, shop at the outlet and also stop by the Winter Lantern Festival at Snug Harbor, one of the best Christmas Lights in NYC, to fully round up your day on Staten Island.

During the holiday season, Grand Bazaar hosts a seasonal version of its iconic flea market. The curated market takes place on Sundays on Manhattan’s Upper West Side yearlong but pulls out all the stops during the holiday season. Anyone interested in furniture, vintage clothing, jewelry, and crafts will feel like they are in a Yuletide paradise here.

Each week, the bazaar features a variety of merchants on rotation, offering tchotchkes, antiques, and delicious local cuisine. Be sure to come hungry!

There are even more, smaller holiday markets in New York that you can explore during your trip. Even if you’re not interested in purchasing souvenirs or gifts, visiting a New York Christmas market transports you to a winter wonderland where you’ll experience a festive atmosphere and enjoy warm drinks among splendidly adorned walkways and parks. We’ve listed some more holiday markets in NYC for you here.

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Christmas markets in England ;

Christmas markets in Italy and Germany ;

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60 great Christmas quotes ;

Christmas tree origin and quotes ; 

Traditional Christmas Carols ;

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Christmas short stories ;

Christmas jokes ;

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Amusing Christmas stories ;

Christmas food ;

Christmas thoughts ;

Christmas story ;

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Thanksgiving’s Weirdest Secrets: a lighthearted short tour article through the holiday’s odd past and curiosities with some very humorous and brilliant quotes.

Thanksgiving … that is all about overeating. One of the main dishes is actually called ‘stuffing.’ Stuffing? What names did they turn down? ‘Cram-it-in?’ ‘Eat-till-you-can’t-breathe?
Jim Gaffigan

You know that just before that first Thanksgiving dinner there was one wise, old Native American woman saying, “Don’t feed them. If you feed them, they’ll never leave.”
Dylan Brody

Thanksgiving is an emotional holiday. People travel thousands of miles to be with people they only see once a year. And then discover once a year is way too much.
Johnny Carson

After all, the best part of a holiday is perhaps not so much to be resting yourself, as to see all the other fellows busy working.
Kenneth Grahame

Thanksgiving: when the people who are the most thankful are the ones who didn’t have to cook.
Melanie White

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving! It’s the day you forget about all the fighting and division in the world and just focus on all the fighting and division in your family.
Jimmy Fallon

I love Thanksgiving traditions: watching football, making pumpkin pie and saying the magic phrase that sends your aunt storming out of the dining room to sit in her car.
Stephen Colbert

Happiness is having a large, loving, caring, close-knit family in another city.
George Burns

Every November, Americans gather around the table to eat too much, argue too loudly, and pretend that the gravy wasn’t a last-minute miracle. But behind the mashed potatoes and polite small talk lies a treasure chest of wonderfully strange Thanksgiving facts – the kind you can pull out at the dinner table to avoid political debates and impress that cousin who thinks he knows everything.

So grab a leftover sandwich (you know it’s better than the original meal) and take a stroll through the quirky side of Thanksgiving.

The First Thanksgiving: A Feast With Lobster? Seal? Swan?

Let’s start with the moment that inspired it all. The famous 1621 feast lasted three whole days, but the menu would shock any modern American. While today’s celebration revolves around turkey, stuffing, and regrettable food-related decisions, the Pilgrims and Wampanoag feasted on lobster, venison, and possibly swan.

One thing they definitely didn’t have? Forks. Those came later – so imagine cutting into a swan with a knife and spoon while maintaining dignity.

Turkeys: Loud, Proud, and Not Always Eaten

Speaking of turkey, it turns out our iconic bird has some quirks of its own. For instance, only the males “gobble.” Female turkeys prefer to “cackle,” perhaps because they’re too refined for such undignified vocalizations.

And yet despite their fame, many Americans don’t even eat turkey anymore. Whether due to taste, health choices, or vegan activism, more and more people are quietly replacing the bird with plant-based alternatives. But don’t worry – enough turkey is still consumed to total 704 million pounds every Thanksgiving.

If you ever feel sorry for the birds, remember at least one lucky turkey gets a presidential pardon. The tradition officially began in 1989, giving one turkey a VIP ticket to a long and peaceful retirement on a farm. Not a bad deal.

Thanksgiving’s Accidental Inventions and Chaotic Aftermaths

Some of the weirdest Thanksgiving stories didn’t happen at the feast – they happened afterwards.

• TV Dinners were invented because someone ordered too much turkey

A food company once massively overestimated demand and was left with thousands of pounds of frozen turkey. What did they do? Invented the TV dinner. American innovation at its finest.

• Plumbers consider Thanksgiving their Super Bowl

Clogged sinks. Blocked disposals. Toilets that surrender to the laws of physics.
The day after Thanksgiving is the busiest day of the year for plumbers. Enough said.

• Butterball runs a turkey hotline

Cooking a turkey shouldn’t require emergency intervention, yet Butterball receives over 100,000 calls every season from panicked cooks begging for rescue. Dry? Undercooked? Still frozen at noon? They’ve heard it all.

The Macy’s Parade Used to Include Tigers?

Today’s Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade floats are all giant cartoon balloons drifting cheerfully over Manhattan. But the first parade in 1924 was a little more
intense. Instead of balloons, Macy’s showcased live animals from the Central Park Zoo, including elephants, camels, and tigers.

Imagine taking your kids to see what you think will be a festive parade and suddenly meeting a tiger on 34th Street. A very different holiday vibe.

Holiday Geography, Astronauts, and Other Oddities

Four U.S. towns are named “Turkey.” Yes, really. Some diehard fans even travel to Turkey, Texas just to eat turkey in Turkey on Thanksgiving.

There was a Thanksgiving celebrated in space. Astronauts aboard the ISS enjoy turkey, cranberry sauce, and zero-gravity leftovers. They do skip the parade.

The Dallas Turkey Trot once set a world record for the largest gathering of people dressed as turkeys — nearly 600 runners wobbling through the streets in full feathered glory.

Thanksgiving Songs, Football, and Strange Traditions

• “Jingle Bells” was originally a Thanksgiving song

Written in 1857 as One Horse Open Sleigh, it was meant for Thanksgiving merriment. America liked it so much, we stole it for Christmas.

• Football has been part of Thanksgiving longer than the NFL

Yale and Princeton were already battling it out on Thanksgiving in the 1870s. Detroit has played a Thanksgiving game every year since 1934 – except during WWII, when even football had to take a break.

• On the Wednesday before Thanksgiving, Americans drink
a lot

“Drinksgiving,” as it has become known, is one of the busiest nights for bars. Maybe people need courage before reuniting with extended family.

A Final Thanksgiving Thought

Thanksgiving is a warm, cozy, slightly chaotic celebration with a long history of strange traditions: from lobster feasts to turkey pardons, from tiger parades to marathon plumbing emergencies. And that’s exactly what makes it charming.

So this year, when the conversation drifts toward politics, taxes, or your life choices, throw in one of these bizarre tidbits. Trust me – talking about gobbling turkeys and malfunctioning garbage disposals is much safer territory.

Happy Thanksgiving – and may your leftovers be glorious!

On Thanksgiving Day you can also read:

Thanksgiving and gratitude quotes

Thanksgiving Day traditions

Thanksgiving ideas and dinner recipes

Blak Friday Day and Cyber Monday

Giorno festivo del Ringraziamento

Quotes by authors

Quotes by arguments

Thoughts and reflections

Essays with quotes

Black Friday day falls every year on the first Friday after Thanksgiving, the day of Thanksgiving, a typical holiday in the United States and celebrated on the fourth Thursday of November. In 2025, Black Friday falls on November 28, the day in which all stores offer commercial bargains and discounts, not only on clothing and gift ideas, but also on many products for the home and kitchen. Since 1952, the day after Thanksgiving has traditionally been seen in the United States, together with Cyber Monday, as the start of the Christmas shopping season and related sales, even though the term “Black Friday” has only been widely used in the past decade.

Black Friday is a scam. You should be mad they overcharge you 364 days a year.
Unknown

You may have heard of Black Friday and Cyber Monday. There’s another day you might want to know about: Giving Tuesday. The idea is pretty straightforward. On the Tuesday after Thanksgiving, shoppers take a break from their gift-buying and donate what they can to charity.
Bill Gates

What do Black Friday shoppers and the Thanksgiving turkey have in common? They know what it’s like to be jammed into a small place and stuffed.
Humoropedia

Make sure the clothes you buy on Black Friday take into account how fat you got on Thanksgiving.
Unknown

We live in a consumer culture, and Black Friday is like the July 4th of that culture. It might be good not to live in this culture, but it terms of what we can do to make people safer at big sales, it seems more useful to try to avoid dangerous crowd conditions.
John Seabrook

Let’s spend Thanksgiving spilling food on our clothes, and Black Friday buying new ones.
Unknown

Black Friday sale. My house. You and I. All clothes will be 100% off.
Kappit

As reported in the Forbes “Entrepreneurs” column on December 3, 2013: “Cyber Monday, the online counterpart to Black Friday, has been gaining unprecedented popularity -to the point where Cyber Sales are continuing on throughout the week.” Peter Greenberg, Travel Editor for CBS News, further advises: “If you want a real deal on Black Friday, stay away from the mall. Black Friday and Cyber Monday are all part of Cyber Week.

Sorry shoppers on Black Friday will block and tackle better than your football team on Thanksgiving.
Unknown

I thought Black Friday was when everyone puts on blackface and steals children from Wal-Mart.
Stephen Colbert

Black Friday: Because only in America, people trample others for sales exactly one day after being thankful for what they already have.
Unknown

The National Retail Federation releases figures on the sales for each Thanksgiving weekend. The Federation’s definition of “Black Friday weekend” includes Thursday, Friday, Saturday and projected spending for Sunday. The survey estimates number of shoppers, not number of people.

The length of the shopping season is not the same across all years: the date for Black Friday varies between November 23 and 29, while Christmas Eve is fixed at December 24. 2012 had the longest shopping season since 2007.

My version of Black Friday is deleting all the people in my phone who sent me a “mass Thanksgiving text.”
Blake Griffin

For those of us in the financial world, Black Friday has a strong negative connotation, referring to a stock market catastrophe.
Mark Skousen

Black Friday, in reality, is a symptom of the plight that 30 years of Reaganomics has brought to working people in America. Right along with the frenzied rise of shoppers willing to fight each other at retail outlets across America, we’ve been steadily, for the last 30 years, watching the destruction of organized labor … of decent pay and wages and conditions for working people… We have Black Friday today because the wealthy elite have strangled their workers for 32 years, ever since Ronald Reagan’s election.
Thom Hartmann

Here’s hoping Black Friday doesn’t turn into Black and Blue Sunday.
SomeECards

Happy Thanksgiving to someone I’d have no problem stomping to death on Black Friday.
Unknown

Black Friday is an informal name for the day following Thanksgiving Day in the United States (the fourth Thursday of November), which has been regarded as the beginning of the country’s Christmas shopping season since 1952. It is a busy shopping day and is a holiday in some states. Many people have a day off work or choose to take a day from their amount of yearly leave on Black Friday. Some people use this occasion also to make trips to see family members or friends who live in other areas or to go on vacation. Others use it to start shopping for the Christmas season. Shopping for Christmas presents is also popular on Black Friday. Many stores have special offers, high discounts and lower their prices on many goods, such as toys, clothes, food and electronic gadgets and devices.

Black Friday is not a federal holiday, but is a public holiday in some states. It is not only the day after Thanksgiving Day but also the Friday before Cyber Monday. Many people take a day of their annual leave on the day after Thanksgiving Day. Many organizations also close for the Thanksgiving weekend. Public transit systems may run on their normal schedule or may have changes. Some stores extend their opening hours on Black Friday. There can also be congestion on roads to popular shopping destinations.

Black Friday is one of the busiest shopping days in the USA. The states which have official public holidays for state government employees on “The Day After Thanksgiving” include Arkansas, California, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Texas, West Virginia, and Wisconsin.

There are two popular theories as to why the day after Thanksgiving Day is called Black Friday. One theory suggests that the term originated in Philadelphia, where it was used to describe the heavy and disruptive pedestrian and vehicle traffic that would occur on the day after Thanksgiving. This usage dates to at least 1961. The wheels of vehicles in heavy traffic on the day left many black markings on the road surface, leading to the term Black Friday.

The other theory is that the term Black Friday More than twenty years later, as the phrase became more widespread, a popular explanation became that this day represented the point in the year when retailers begin to turn a profit and therefore it is related to an old way of recording business accounts. As a matter of fact losses were recorded in red ink and profits in black ink. Many businesses, particularly small businesses, started making profits prior to Christmas. Many hoped to start showing a profit, marked in black ink, on the day after Thanksgiving Day.

In the United Kingdom, on the contrary the term “Black Friday” originated within the Police and NHS to refer to the Friday before Christmas. It is the day when emergency services activate contingency plans to cope with the increase in workload due to many people going out drinking on the last Friday before Christmas. Contingencies can include setting up mobile field hospitals near City Centre nightspots.

The term has then been adopted outside those services to refer to the evening and night of the Friday immediately before Christmas, and would now be considered a mainstream term and not simply as jargon of the emergency services. The year 2014 marked the introduction of this event in Bolivia, Colombia, Denmark, Italy, Finland, France, Ireland, Lebanon, Nigeria, South Africa and Sweden.

In order to organize well your shopping you should research the Thanksgiving and Black Friday deals in advance, because you have to consider that the shops are very crowded in these days. Make an itinerary and a shopping plan: be sure to check when each store opens. This may determine the order of the stores that you visit. Best Buy, which typically draws a crowd that waits for the doors to open, will be open at 5 p.m. Thursday. You could also make a night or weekend out of it, or you can also create a map of your itinerary, planning where to park and so on.

Don’t forget about Santa: Santa will usually be available to take photos and meet children in the center atrium of most of the common hyper stores from this day, and every day until Dec. 24. Photo packages are also available for purchase. Bring your family: The adventure of Black Friday does not need to be rushed or stressful, and above all you must pay great attention and be careful, in fact despite frequent attempts to control the crowds of shoppers, minor injuries are common among the crowds, usually as a result of being pushed or thrown to the ground in small stampedes, while most injuries remain minor, serious injuries and even deliberate violence have taken place on some Black Fridays.

In 2008, a crowd of approximately 2,000 shoppers in Valley Stream, New York, waited outside for the 5:00am opening of the local Walmart. As opening time approached, the crowd grew anxious and when the doors were opened the crowd pushed forward, breaking the door down, a 34-year-old employee was trampled to death. The shoppers did not appear concerned with the victim’s fate, expressing refusal to halt their stampede when other employees attempted to intervene and help the injured employee, complaining that they had been waiting in the cold and were not willing to wait any longer.

Shoppers had begun assembling as early as 9:00 PM the evening before. Even when police arrived and attempted to render aid to the injured man, shoppers continued to pour in, shoving and pushing the officers as they made their way into the store. Several other people incurred minor injuries, including a pregnant woman who had to be taken to the hospital. The incident may be the first case of a death occurring during Black Friday sales; according to the National Retail Federation, “We are not aware of any other circumstances where a retail employee has died working on the day after Thanksgiving.”

Most major retailers open very early (and more recently during overnight hours) and offer promotional sales. Black Friday is not an official holiday, but California and some other states observe “The Day After Thanksgiving” as a holiday for state government employees, sometimes in lieu of another federal holiday such as Columbus Day. Many non-retail employees and schools have both Thanksgiving and the following Friday off, which, along with the following regular weekend, makes it a four-day weekend, thereby increasing the number of potential shoppers.

It has routinely been the busiest shopping day of the year since 2005, although news reports, which at that time were inaccurate, have described it as the busiest shopping day of the year for a much longer period of time. Similar stories resurface year upon year at this time, portraying hysteria and shortage of stock, creating a state of positive feedback.

Black Friday is a shopping day for a combination of reasons. As the first day after the last major holiday before Christmas, it marks the unofficial beginning of the Christmas shopping season. Additionally, many employers give their employees the day off as part of the Thanksgiving holiday weekend. In order to take advantage of this, virtually all retailers in the country, big and small, offer various sales including limited amounts of doorbuster/doorcrasher/doorsmasher items to entice traffic. Recent years have seen retailers extend beyond normal hours in order to maintain an edge or to simply keep up with the competition.

Such hours may include opening as early as 12:00 am or remaining open overnight on Thanksgiving Day and beginning sale prices at midnight. In 2010, Toys ‘R’ Us began their Black Friday sales at 10:00 pm on Thanksgiving Day and further upped the ante by offering free boxes of Crayola crayons and coloring books for as long as supplies lasted. Other retailers began Black Friday sales early Thanksgiving morning and ran them through as late as 11:00 pm Friday evening. Forever 21 went in the opposite direction, opening at normal hours on Friday, and running late sales until 2:00 am Saturday morning. Historically, it was common for Black Friday sales to extend throughout the following weekend. However, this practice has largely disappeared in recent years, perhaps because of an effort by retailers to create a greater sense of urgency.

In Canada the large population centers on Lake Ontario and the Lower Mainland in Canada have always attracted cross-border shopping into the US states, and as Black Friday became more popular in the US, Canadians often flocked to the US because of their lower prices and a stronger Canadian dollar. After 2001, many were traveling for the deals across the border. Starting in 2008 and 2009, due to the parity of the Canadian dollar compared with the American dollar, several major Canadian retailers ran Black Friday deals of their own to discourage shoppers from leaving Canada.

The year 2012 saw the biggest Black Friday to date in Canada, as Canadian retailers embraced it in an attempt to keep shoppers from travelling across the border. Before the advent of Black Friday in Canada, the most comparable holiday was Boxing Day in terms of retailer impact and consumerism. Black Fridays in the US seem to provide deeper or more extreme price cuts than Canadian retailers, even for the same international retailer. In recent years, Black Friday has been promoted in Australia too, so a lot of stores run Black Friday promotions both in-store and online retailers throughout the whole country.

Since the start of the 21st century, there have been attempts by great online commercial groups with origins in the United States such as Amazon to introduce a retail “Black Friday” everywhere and in 2013 Asda (a subsidiary of the American firm Walmart) announced its “Walmart’s Black Friday by ASDA” campaign promoting the American concept of a retail “Black Friday” in the UK and Europe as well. Some online and in-store companies have adopted the American-style Black Friday sale day, although others appear skeptical, with one 2013 comment piece in the trade publication Retail Week labelling it “simply an Americanism, which doesn’t translate very well.”

In 2014, more UK-based retailers adopted the Black Friday marketing scheme than ever. Among them were ao.com, very.co.uk, John Lewis and Argos, who all offered discounted prices to entice Christmas shoppers. During Black Friday sales in 2014, police forces were called to stores across Britain to deal with crowd control issues, assaults, threatening customers and traffic issues. Black Friday appears to be growing in popularity year on year in the UK and all through European countries where the sales are quickly increasing and mostly internet retailers have used the event as an occasion to attract new customers with discounts, but bricks and mortar stores have already begun to adapt the shopping event.

In Mexico and other South American countries like Brasil, Black Friday was the inspiration for the government and retailing industry to create an annual weekend of discounts and extended credit terms, El Buen Fin, meaning “the good weekend” in Spanish. El Buen Fin has been in existence since 2011 and takes place on November in the weekend prior to the Monday in which the Mexican Revolution holiday is pushed from its original date of November 20, as a result of the measure taken by the government of pushing certain holidays to the Monday of their week in order to avoid the workers and students to make a ”larger” weekend (for example, not attending in a Friday after a Thursday holiday, thus making a 4-day weekend).

On this weekend, major retailers extend their store hours and offer special promotions, including extended credit terms and price promotions. The popularity of Black Friday is also increasing in India. The reason for this is the growing number of e-commerce websites. The big e-commerce retailers in India are trying to emulate the concept of shopping festivals from the United States like Black Friday and Cyber Monday.

Some websites offer information about day-after-Thanksgiving specials up to a month in advance. The text listings of items and prices are usually accompanied by pictures of the actual ad circulars. These are either leaked by insiders or intentionally released by large retailers to give consumers insight and allow them time to plan.In recent years, some retailers (including Walmart, Target, OfficeMax, Big Lots, and Staples) have claimed that the advertisements they send in advance of Black Friday and the prices included in those advertisements are copyrighted and are trade secrets.

In South Africa, Austria and Switzerland, Black Friday Sale is a joint sales initiative by hundreds of online vendors – among them Zalando, Disney Store, Galeria Kaufhof and Sony. Over its first 24-hour run on November 28, 2013, more than 1.2 million people visited the site, making it the single largest online shopping event in German-speaking countries. There has been growing interest for black Friday in Poland as well.

The counterpart of Black Friday in China is Singles’ Day or Guanggun Jie, literally: “Single Sticks’ Holiday” that is an entertainment festival famous among young Mainland Chinese people, to celebrate the fact that they are proud of being single. The date, November 11th (11/11), is chosen because the number “1” resembles an individual that is alone. This festival has become the largest offline and online shopping day in the world, with sales in Alibaba’s sites Tmall and Taobao at US$5.8 billion in 2013, US$9.3 billion in 2014, US$14.3 billion in 2015, US$17.8 billion in 2016, and over US$25.4 billion in 2017. JD.com also achieved a sales record of US$19.1 billion in 2017, while Lazada drums up US$123 million. During the festival, Alibaba set a world record for payment transactions, with its mobile wallet app Alipay processing 256,000 payment transactions per second, in 2017. A total of 1.48 billion transactions were processed by Alipay in the entire 24 hours, with delivery orders through Cainiao (Alibaba’s logistics affiliate) reaching close to 700 million, breaking 2016’s record.

Black friday is both the day after Thanksgiving and also the day before Cyber Monday. The term Cyber Monday, a neologism invented in 2005 by the National Retail Federation’s division Shop.org, refers to the Monday immediately following Black Friday based on a trend that retailers began to recognize in 2003 and 2004. Retailers noticed that many consumers, who were too busy to shop over the Thanksgiving weekend or did not find what they were looking for, shopped for bargains online that Monday from home or work. In 2010, Hitwise reported that: Thanksgiving weekend offered a strong start, especially as Black Friday sales continued to grow in popularity.

For the 2nd consecutive year, Black Friday was the highest day for retail traffic during the holiday season, followed by Thanksgiving and Cyber Monday. The highest year-over-year increases in visits took place on Cyber Monday and Black Friday with growth of 16% and 13%, respectively. In 2013, Cyber Monday online sales grew by 18% over the previous year, hitting a record $1.73 billion, with an average order value of $128. In 2014, Cyber Monday was the busiest day of the year with sales exceeding $2 billion in desktop online spending, up 17% from the previous year.

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Thanksgiving Day, history, quotes and typical food. In the United States it is celebrated on the fourth Thursday of November each year and marks the beginning of the holiday season.

Thanksgiving Day for the year 2025 is celebrated/observed on Thursday, November 27th.

Thanksgiving Day in the United States is celebrated on the fourth Thursday of November each year. Traditionally it is a time to give thanks for all the sacrifice and hard work done for the harvest. In modern times people take time off work (4 day weekend starting Thursday) and spend time with family and friends over a large feast held on Thanksgiving Day.

It has been an unchallengeable American doctrine that cranberry sauce, a pink goo with overtones of sugared tomatoes, is a delectable necessity of the Thanksgiving board and that turkey is uneatable without it. There are some things in every country that you must be born to endure; and another hundred years of general satisfaction with Americans and America could not reconcile this expatriate to cranberry sauce, peanut butter, and drum majorettes.
Alistair Cooke (1908-2004, British broadcaster, journalist)

It is when we stop thinking about what we don’t have or what we lack, and become grateful for who we are, that we can gain access to true unlimited inspiration.
Frank Arrigazzi

A lot of Thanksgiving days have been ruined by not carving the turkey in the kitchen.
Kin Hubbard (1868-1930, American humorist, journalist)

On Thanksgiving Day, all over America, families sit down to dinner at the same moment – half-time.
Author Unknown

Be thankful for what you have; you’ll end up having more. If you concentrate on what you don’t have, you will never, ever have enough.
Oprah Winfrey

Now is no time to think of what you do not have. Think of what you can do with what there is.
Ernest Hemingway

Thanksgiving marks the beginning of the holiday season, and represents food, family and moments of sharing and professing gratitude.
Sarah Moore

Our rural ancestors, with little blest, Patient of labour when the end was rest, Indulged the day that housed their annual grain, With feasts, and off’rings, and a thankful strain.
Alexander Pope

Thanksgiving is a time to give, a time to love, and a time to reflect on the things that matter most in life.
Danielle Duckery

I am grateful for what I am and have. My thanksgiving is perpetual.
Henry David Thoreau

Gratitude is not only the greatest of virtues, but the parent of all others.
Marcus Tullius Cicero

What we’re really talking about is a wonderful day set aside on the fourth Thursday of November when no one diets. I mean, why else would they call it Thanksgiving?
Erma Bombeck

Thanksgiving Day is an annual national holiday in the United States and Canada celebrating the harvest and other blessings of the past year. Similarly named festival holidays occur in Germany and Japan. Americans generally believe that their Thanksgiving is modeled on a 1621 harvest feast shared by the English colonists (Pilgrims) of Plymouth and the Wampanoag people.

The American holiday is particularly rich in legend and symbolism, and the traditional fare of the Thanksgiving meal typically includes turkey, bread stuffing, potatoes, cranberries, and pumpkin pie. With respect to vehicular travel, the holiday is often the busiest of the year, as family members gather with one another. Although Thanksgiving has historical roots in religious and cultural traditions, it has long been celebrated as a secular holiday as well.

In the English tradition, days of thanksgiving and special thanksgiving religious services became important during the English Reformation in the reign of Henry VIII and in reaction to the large number of religious holidays on the Catholic calendar. Before 1536 there were 95 Church holidays, plus 52 Sundays, when people were required to attend church and forego work and sometimes pay for expensive celebrations.

The 1536 reforms reduced the number of Church holidays to 27, but some Puritans wished to completely eliminate all Church holidays, including Christmas and Easter. The holidays were to be replaced by specially called Days of Fasting or Days of Thanksgiving, in response to events that the Puritans viewed as acts of special providence. Unexpected disasters or threats of judgement from on high called for Days of Fasting.

Special blessings, viewed as coming from God, called for Days of Thanksgiving. For example, Days of Fasting were called on account of drought in 1611, floods in 1613, and plagues in 1604 and 1622. Days of Thanksgiving were called following the victory over the Spanish Armada in 1588 and following the deliverance of Queen Anne in 1705. An unusual annual Day of Thanksgiving began in 1606 following the failure of the Gunpowder Plot in 1605 and developed into Guy Fawkes Day on November 5.

Plymouth’s Thanksgiving began with a few colonists going out “fowling,” possibly for turkeys but more probably for the easier prey of geese and ducks, since they “in one day killed as much as…served the company almost a week. The New England colonists were accustomed to regularly celebrating “Thanksgivings,” days of prayer thanking God for blessings such as military victory or the end of a drought. The U.S. Continental Congress proclaimed a national Thanksgiving upon the enactment of the Constitution, for example.

Yet, after 1798, the new U.S. Congress left Thanksgiving declarations to the states; some objected to the national government’s involvement in a religious observance, Southerners were slow to adopt a New England custom, and others took offense over the day’s being used to hold partisan speeches and parades. A national Thanksgiving Day seemed more like a lightning rod for controversy than a unifying force.

In the United States, the modern Thanksgiving holiday tradition is traced to a sparsely documented 1621 celebration at Plymouth in present-day Massachusetts, and also to a well recorded 1619 event in Virginia. The 1621 Plymouth feast and thanksgiving was prompted by a good harvest. Pilgrims and Puritans who began emigrating from England in the 1620s and 1630s carried the tradition of Days of Fasting and Days of Thanksgiving with them to New England. The 1619 arrival of 38 English settlers at Berkeley Hundred in Charles City County, Virginia, concluded with a religious celebration as dictated by the group’s charter from the London Company, which specifically required “that the day of our ships arrival at the place assigned … in the land of Virginia shall be yearly and perpetually kept holy as a day of thanksgiving to Almighty God.”

Thanksgiving Day did not become an official holiday until Northerners dominated the federal government. While sectional tensions prevailed in the mid-19th century, the editor of the popular magazine Godey’s Lady’s Book, Sarah Josepha Hale, campaigned for a national Thanksgiving Day to promote unity. She finally won the support of President Abraham Lincoln. On October 3, 1863, during the Civil War, Lincoln proclaimed a national day of thanksgiving to be celebrated on Thursday, November 26.

The holiday was annually proclaimed by every president thereafter, and the date chosen, with few exceptions, was the last Thursday in November. President Franklin D. Roosevelt, however, attempted to extend the Christmas shopping season, which generally begins with the Thanksgiving holiday, and to boost the economy by moving the date back a week, to the third week in November. But not all states complied, and, after a joint resolution of Congress in 1941, Roosevelt issued a proclamation in 1942 designating the fourth Thursday in November (which is not always the last Thursday) as Thanksgiving Day.

As the country became more urban and family members began to live farther apart, Thanksgiving became a time to gather together. The holiday moved away from its religious roots to allow immigrants of every background to participate in a common tradition. Thanksgiving Day football games, beginning with Yale versus Princeton in 1876, enabled fans to add some rowdiness to the holiday. In the late 1800s parades of costumed revelers became common.

In 1920 Gimbel’s department store in Philadelphia staged a parade of about 50 people with Santa Claus at the rear of the procession. Since 1924 the annual Macy’s parade in New York City has continued the tradition, with huge balloons since 1927. The holiday associated with Pilgrims and Native Americans has come to symbolize intercultural peace, America’s opportunity for newcomers, and the sanctity of home and family.

In Canada the origins of Thanksgiving are sometimes traced to the French settlers who came to New France in the 17th century, who celebrated their successful harvests. The French settlers in the area typically had feasts at the end of the harvest season and continued throughout the winter season, even sharing food with the indigenous peoples of the area. In 1879 Parliament established a national Thanksgiving Day on November 6; the date has varied over the years. Since 1957 Thanksgiving Day has been celebrated in Canada on the second Monday in October.

Thanksgiving is generally not celebrated in Australia. However, on the Australian external territory of Norfolk Island, Thanksgiving is celebrated on the last Wednesday of November, similar to the pre-World War II American observance on the last Thursday of the month. This means the Norfolk Island observance is the day before or six days after the United States’ observance. The holiday was brought to the island by visiting American whaling ships.

As millions in the US engage in the annual Thanksgiving day traditions of eating and shopping, it’s worth remembering that not everyone celebrates the event. Back in 2015 a group of Native Americans revealed how they feel about the holiday in a series of powerful videos. Among the words they used were “sadness”, “slaughter” and “lies”.

Asked about Columbus, people were invariably negative and dismissive. Most of the reactions were negative, with some referring to Thanksgiving as “a slaughter”, and most saying the term redskin was racist. Some of those who took part cursed or raised a finger in anger. One termed the explorer “the first terrorist in America”. “It always was weird to me to have that day off in celebration of somebody, like, we don’t have a day for Hitler, but it’s the same thing,” said one participant. Others said they were bewildered that he was even considered an important figure in history, given he “didn’t discover anything, and instead got lost”. “As indigenous people, we’ve been taught by our elders to give thanks every day,” she said. “We are a people who have survived genocide. People able to gather with our families is very important to us.”

The turkey is the symbol for Thanksgiving and Christmas dinner for American families. When the Pilgrim Fathers left Europe to settle in the colonies, they landed in Plymouth, Massachusetts in 1620 and found their new home there. Persecution in the old continent had been harsh, but neither the long journey on board of the Mayflower to cross the Atlantic Ocean, nor the cold winter helped the new settlers, whose life, at the beginning was more than a struggle.

Grateful to God, in spite of everything, they decided to praise Him on the last Thursday of November, establishing the Thanksgiving festivity. In America the day is celebrated with a rich dinner where stuffed turkey is the leading dish. What do we know about this big, strutting bird? Native to Central America, turkeys were prized in both Mayan and Aztec cultures and were an important source of food. The Spanish conquistadors who arrived in Mexico, quickly realized the value of the animals and shipped them back to Europe, where they were domesticated and raised in Italy, France and England by the 1500s. The Pilgrims brought them to New England, where they were crossed with the local eastern wild turkey population.

With 25% less fat than chicken breast and 75% less fat than lean beef or pork, white turkey meat is a natural choice for the health conscious person. A 3 ounce serving of turkey breast has 120 calories, 1 gram of fat, no saturated fat and 26 grams of protein. Add the skin or choose dark meat and both the calorie and fat count increase. Turkey is a good source of vitamin B and the minerals, iron and zinc. An estimated 95% of American families eat turkey at Thanksgiving while 50% serve it for Christmas dinner. Globally Israelis eat the most turkey: more than 28 pounds per person each year.

Black Friday is the day after Thanksgiving Day and the Friday before Cyber Monday in the United States. It is a busy shopping day and is a holiday in some states. Many people have a day off work or choose to take a day from their amount of yearly leave on Black Friday. Some people use this occasion also to make trips to see family members or friends who live in other areas or to go on vacation. Others use it to start shopping for the Christmas season. Shopping for Christmas presents is also popular on Black Friday. Many stores have special offers and lower their prices on some goods, such as toys. Black Friday is not a federal holiday, but is a public holiday in some states. Many people take a day of their annual leave on the day after Thanksgiving Day. Many organizations also close for the Thanksgiving weekend.

On Thanksgiving Day you can also read:

Thanksgiving and gratitude quotes

Thanksgiving’s Weirdest Secrets

Thanksgiving ideas and dinner recipes

Blak Friday Day and Cyber Monday

Giorno festivo del Ringraziamento

Quotes by authors

Quotes by arguments

Thoughts and reflections

Essays with quotes

Halloween death poems, dead spirits and departed souls with the passed away essence of our ancestors existing around the living by the World of English that is English-culture.com

Halloween for the year 2025 is celebrated/observed on Friday, October 31st.

What the dead had no speech for, when living, They can tell you, being dead: the communication Of the dead is tongued with fire beyond the language of the living.
T.S. Eliot, Four Quartets

No poet, no artist of any art, has his complete meaning alone. His significance, his appreciation is the appreciation of his relation to the dead poets and artists. You cannot value him alone; you must set him, for contrast and comparison, among the dead.
T. S. Eliot

Be silent in that solitude,
Which is not loneliness – for then
The spirits of the dead, who stood
In life before thee, are again
In death around thee, and their will
Shall overshadow thee; be still.

Edgar Allan Poe From “Spirits of the Dead

All Souls’ Night

You heap the logs and try to fill
The little room with words and cheer,
But silent feet are on the hill,
Across the window veiled eyes peer.
The hosts of lovers, young in death,
Go seeking down the world to-night,
Remembering faces, warmth and breath –
And they shall seek till it is light.
Then let the white-flaked logs burn low,
Lest those who drift before the storm
See gladness on our hearth and know
There is no flame can make them warm.

Hortense King Flexner

Petit mort pour rire – Poem by Tristan Corbiere

Va vite, léger peigneur de comètes !
Les herbes au vent seront tes cheveux ;
De ton œil béant jailliront les feux
Follets, prisonniers dans les pauvres têtes…

Les fleurs de tombeau qu’on nomme Amourettes
Foisonneront plein ton rire terreux…
Et les myosotis, ces fleurs d’oubliettes…

Ne fais pas le lourd : cercueils de poètes
Pour les croque-morts sont de simples jeux,
Boîtes à violon qui sonnent le creux…
Ils te croiront mort – Les bourgeois sont bêtes
Va vite, léger peigneur de comètes !

Tristan Corbiere

For Annie

Thank Heaven! the crisis,
The danger, is past,
And the lingering illness
Is over at last –
And the fever called “Living”
Is conquered at last.

Sadly, I know
I am shorn of my strength,
And no muscle I move
As I lie at full length –
But no matter! – I feel
I am better at length.

And I rest so composedly,
Now, in my bed,
That any beholder
Might fancy me dead –
Might start at beholding me,
Thinking me dead.

The moaning and groaning,
The sighing and sobbing,
Are quieted now,
With that horrible throbbing
At heart: – ah, that horrible,
Horrible throbbing!

The sickness – the nausea –
The pitiless pain –
Have ceased, with the fever
That maddened my brain –
With the fever called “Living”
That burned in my brain.

And oh! of all tortures
That torture the worst
Has abated – the terrible
Torture of thirst
For the naphthaline river
Of Passion accurst: –
I have drank of a water
That quenches all thirst: –

Of a water that flows,
With a lullaby sound,
From a spring but a very few
Feet under ground –
From a cavern not very far
Down under ground.

And ah! let it never
Be foolishly said
That my room it is gloomy
And narrow my bed;
For man never slept
In a different bed –
And, to sleep, you must slumber
In just such a bed.

My tantalized spirit
Here blandly reposes,
Forgetting, or never
Regretting, its roses –
Its old agitations
Of myrtles and roses:

For now, while so quietly
Lying, it fancies
A holier odor
About it, of pansies –
A rosemary odor,
Commingled with pansies –
With rue and the beautiful
Puritan pansies.

And so it lies happily,
Bathing in many
A dream of the truth
And the beauty of Annie –
Drowned in a bath
Of the tresses of Annie.

She tenderly kissed me,
She fondly caressed,
And then I fell gently
To sleep on her breast –
Deeply to sleep
From the heaven of her breast.

When the light was extinguished,
She covered me warm,
And she prayed to the angels
To keep me from harm –
To the queen of the angels
To shield me from harm.

And I lie so composedly,
Now, in my bed,
(Knowing her love)
That you fancy me dead –
And I rest so contentedly,
Now in my bed
(With her love at my breast).
That you fancy me dead –
That you shudder to look at me,
Thinking me dead:-

But my heart it is brighter
Than all of the many
Stars in the sky,
For it sparkles with Annie –
It glows with the light
Of the love of my Annie –
With the thought of the light
Of the eyes of my Annie.

Edgar Allan Poe

Annabel Lee

It was many and many a year ago,
In a kingdom by the sea,
That a maiden there lived whom you may know
By the name of Annabel Lee;
And this maiden she lived with no other thought
Than to love and be loved by me.

I was a child and she was a child,
In this kingdom by the sea,
But we loved with a love that was more than love –
I and my Annabel Lee –
With a love that the wingèd seraphs of Heaven
Coveted her and me.

And this was the reason that, long ago,
In this kingdom by the sea,
A wind blew out of a cloud, chilling
My beautiful Annabel Lee;
So that her highborn kinsmen came
And bore her away from me,
To shut her up in a sepulchre
In this kingdom by the sea.

The angels, not half so happy in Heaven,
Went envying her and me –
Yes! – that was the reason (as all men know,
In this kingdom by the sea)
That the wind came out of the cloud by night,
Chilling and killing my Annabel Lee.

But our love it was stronger by far than the love
Of those who were older than we –
Of many far wiser than we –
And neither the angels in Heaven above
Nor the demons down under the sea
Can ever dissever my soul from the soul
Of the beautiful Annabel Lee;

For the moon never beams, without bringing me dreams
Of the beautiful Annabel Lee;
And the stars never rise, but I feel the bright eyes
Of the beautiful Annabel Lee;
And so, all the night-tide, I lie down by the side
Of my darling – my darling – my life and my bride,
In her sepulchre there by the sea –
In her tomb by the sounding sea.

Edgar Allan Poe

Halloween

Upon that night, when fairies light
On Cassilis Downans dance,
Or owre the lays, in splendid blaze,
On sprightly coursers prance;
Or for Colean the route is ta’en,
Beneath the moon’s pale beams;
There, up the cove, to stray and rove,
Among the rocks and streams
To sport that night.

Among the bonny winding banks,
Where Doon rins, wimplin’ clear,
Where Bruce ance ruled the martial ranks,
And shook his Carrick spear,
Some merry, friendly, country-folks,
Together did convene,
To burn their nits, and pou their stocks,
And haud their Halloween
Fu’ blithe that night.

The lasses feat, and cleanly neat,
Mair braw than when they’re fine;
Their faces blithe, fu’ sweetly kythe,
Hearts leal, and warm, and kin’;
The lads sae trig, wi’ wooer-babs,
Weel knotted on their garten,
Some unco blate, and some wi’ gabs,
Gar lasses’ hearts gang startin’
Whiles fast at night.

Then, first and foremost, through the kail,
Their stocks maun a’ be sought ance;
They steek their een, and graip and wale,
For muckle anes and straught anes.
Poor hav’rel Will fell aff the drift,
And wander’d through the bow-kail,
And pou’t, for want o’ better shift,
A runt was like a sow-tail,
Sae bow’t that night.

Then, staught or crooked, yird or nane,
They roar and cry a’ throu’ther;
The very wee things, todlin’, rin,
Wi’ stocks out owre their shouther;
And gif the custoc’s sweet or sour.
Wi’ joctelegs they taste them;
Syne cozily, aboon the door,
Wi cannie care, they’ve placed them
To lie that night.

The lasses staw frae ‘mang them a’
To pou their stalks of corn:
But Rab slips out, and jinks about,
Behint the muckle thorn:
He grippet Nelly hard and fast;
Loud skirl’d a’ the lasses;
But her tap-pickle maist was lost,
When kitlin’ in the fause-house
Wi’ him that night.

The auld guidwife’s well-hoordit nits,
Are round and round divided,
And monie lads’ and lasses’ fates
Are there that night decided:
Some kindle coothie, side by side,
And burn thegither trimly;
Some start awa, wi’ saucy pride,
And jump out-owre the chimlie
Fu’ high that night.

Jean slips in twa wi’ tentie ee;
Wha ‘twas she wadna tell;
But this is Jock, and this is me,
She says in to hersel:
He bleezed owre her, and she owre him,
As they wad never mair part;
Till, fuff! he started up the lum,
And Jean had e’en a sair heart
To see’t that night.

Poor Willie, wi’ his bow-kail runt,
Was brunt wi’ primsie Mallie;
And Mallie, nae doubt, took the drunt,
To be compared to Willie;
Mall’s nit lap out wi’ pridefu’ fling,
And her ain fit it brunt it;
While Willie lap, and swore by jing,
‘Twas just the way he wanted
To be that night.

Nell had the fause-house in her min’,
She pits hersel and Rob in;
In loving bleeze they sweetly join,
Till white in ase they’re sobbin’;
Nell’s heart was dancin’ at the view,
She whisper’d Rob to leuk for’t:
Rob, stowlins, prie’d her bonny mou’,
Fu’ cozie in the neuk for’t,
Unseen that night.

But Merran sat behint their backs,
Her thoughts on Andrew Bell;
She lea’es them gashin’ at their cracks,
And slips out by hersel:
She through the yard the nearest taks,
And to the kiln goes then,
And darklins graipit for the bauks,
And in the blue-clue throws then,
Right fear’t that night.

And aye she win’t, and aye she swat,
I wat she made nae jaukin’,
Till something held within the pat,
Guid Lord! but she was quakin’!
But whether ‘was the deil himsel,
Or whether ‘twas a bauk-en’,
Or whether it was Andrew Bell,
She didna wait on talkin’
To spier that night.

Wee Jennie to her grannie says,
“Will ye go wi’ me, grannie?
I’ll eat the apple at the glass
I gat frae Uncle Johnnie:”
She fuff’t her pipe wi’ sic a lunt,
In wrath she was sae vap’rin’,
She notice’t na, an aizle brunt
Her braw new worset apron
Out through that night.

“Ye little skelpie-limmer’s face!
I daur you try sic sportin’,
As seek the foul thief ony place,
For him to spae your fortune.
Nae doubt but ye may get a sight!
Great cause ye hae to fear it;
For mony a ane has gotten a fright,
And lived and died deleeret
On sic a night.

“Ae hairst afore the Sherramoor, —
I mind’t as weel’s yestreen,
I was a gilpey then, I’m sure
I wasna past fifteen;
The simmer had been cauld and wat,
And stuff was unco green;
And aye a rantin’ kirn we gat,
And just on Halloween
It fell that night.

“Our stibble-rig was Rab M’Graen,
A clever sturdy fallow:
His son gat Eppie Sim wi’ wean,
That lived in Achmacalla:
He gat hemp-seed, I mind it weel,
And he made unco light o’t;
But mony a day was by himsel,
He was sae sairly frighted
That very night.”

Then up gat fechtin’ Jamie Fleck,
And he swore by his conscience,
That he could saw hemp-seed a peck;
For it was a’ but nonsense.
The auld guidman raught down the pock,
And out a hanfu’ gied him;
Syne bade him slip frae ‘mang the folk,
Some time when nae ane see’d him,
And try’t that night.

He marches through amang the stacks,
Though he was something sturtin;
The graip he for a harrow taks.
And haurls it at his curpin;
And every now and then he says,
“Hemp-seed, I saw thee,
And her that is to be my lass,
Come after me, and draw thee
As fast this night.”

He whistled up Lord Lennox’ march
To keep his courage cheery;
Although his hair began to arch,
He was say fley’d and eerie:
Till presently he hears a squeak,
And then a grane and gruntle;
He by his shouther gae a keek,
And tumbled wi’ a wintle
Out-owre that night.

He roar’d a horrid murder-shout,
In dreadfu’ desperation!
And young and auld came runnin’ out
To hear the sad narration;
He swore ‘twas hilchin Jean M’Craw,
Or crouchie Merran Humphie,
Till, stop! she trotted through them
And wha was it but grumphie
Asteer that night!

Meg fain wad to the barn hae gaen,
To win three wechts o’ naething;
But for to meet the deil her lane,
She pat but little faith in:
She gies the herd a pickle nits,
And two red-cheekit apples,
To watch, while for the barn she sets,
In hopes to see Tam Kipples
That very nicht.

She turns the key wi cannie thraw,
And owre the threshold ventures;
But first on Sawnie gies a ca’
Syne bauldly in she enters:
A ratton rattled up the wa’,
And she cried, Lord, preserve her!
And ran through midden-hole and a’,
And pray’d wi’ zeal and fervour,
Fu’ fast that night;

They hoy’t out Will wi’ sair advice;
They hecht him some fine braw ane;
It chanced the stack he faddom’d thrice
Was timmer-propt for thrawin’;
He taks a swirlie, auld moss-oak,
For some black grousome carlin;
And loot a winze, and drew a stroke,
Till skin in blypes cam haurlin’
Aff’s nieves that night.

A wanton widow Leezie was,
As canty as a kittlin;
But, och! that night amang the shaws,
She got a fearfu’ settlin’!
She through the whins, and by the cairn,
And owre the hill gaed scrievin,
Whare three lairds’ lands met at a burn
To dip her left sark-sleeve in,
Was bent that night.

Whyles owre a linn the burnie plays,
As through the glen it wimpl’t;
Whyles round a rocky scaur it strays;
Whyles in a wiel it dimpl’t;
Whyles glitter’d to the nightly rays,
Wi’ bickering, dancing dazzle;
Whyles cookit underneath the braes,
Below the spreading hazel,
Unseen that night.

Among the brackens, on the brae,
Between her and the moon,
The deil, or else an outler quey,
Gat up and gae a croon:
Poor Leezie’s heart maist lap the hool!
Near lav’rock-height she jumpit;
but mist a fit, and in the pool
Out-owre the lugs she plumpit,
Wi’ a plunge that night.

In order, on the clean hearth-stane,
The luggies three are ranged,
And every time great care is ta’en’,
To see them duly changed:
Auld Uncle John, wha wedlock joys
Sin’ Mar’s year did desire,
Because he gat the toom dish thrice,
He heaved them on the fire
In wrath that night.

Wi’ merry sangs, and friendly cracks,
I wat they didna weary;
And unco tales, and funny jokes,
Their sports were cheap and cheery;
Till butter’d so’ns, wi’ fragrant lunt,
Set a’ their gabs a-steerin’;
Syne, wi’ a social glass o’ strunt,
They parted aff careerin’
Fu’ blythe that night.

Robert Burns, 1759 – 1796

Download the pdf file about Halloween History

Other poems on Halloween Here   www.poets.org/poetsorg/halloween-poems

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