Valentine's Day and Thanksgiving Day

Valentine's Day

and

Thanksgiving Day

Camila Fernandes and Luiza Torres 8B

Sources:

https://www.britannica.com/topic/Valentines-Day

https://www.britannica.com/topic/Thanksgiving-Day

Book "Seasons and Celebrations"

https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/st-valentine-beheaded

Valentine's Day:

- Valentine's Day occurs in February 14th.

- It celebrates love and affection between lovers, friends and family.

- There are many legends about the origin of Valentine's day, according to one of them a bishop named Valentine desobeyed the orders of the emperor Cladius II , the emperor wasn't Christian, so he had prohibited and banned marriage, because he thought that roman men wouldn't join the army because of the love and the attachment to their loved ones. So Valentine kept realizing marriages in secret, and when the secret marriages were discovered, the bishop was sentenced to death and his sentence took place on February 14th. Another possibility is that Valentine, who worked for a church, helped a soldier that wanted to get married, and the emperor, who had prohibited marriage, said that he should die because of that, and sent him to prison. When he was there he fell in love with the daughter of a man who worked there. He would send her notes, and at the end of them he would sign "Your Valentine" . He died on February 14th. On February 15th was the winter festival, people used to ask gods to give them good fruits, vegetables, and strong animals. So because of Saint Valentine the date was changed from February 15th to 14 and renamed Saint Valentine's Day.

- Nowadays the date is celebrated by giving gifts for your loved ones, such as flowers, chocolate, teddy bears, cards, heart shaped balloons, jewelry, and others.

Thanksgiving Day:

- Thanksgiving is celebrated on the fourth Thursday of November mostly in the United States and in Canada.

- It celebrates the harvest and other blessings of the past year.

- North Americans believe that Thanksgiving first happened back in the XVII century, when the Pilgrims Fathers sailed from Plymouth to North America. When they got there, they met the Wampanoag tribe. The native Americans taught them to grow and cook many kinds of fruit and vegetables. It wasn't easy at the first Winter, and many people died because of the cold and the little amount of food that they had. In the Spring they finally could grow more food with the help of the Wampanoag tribe, and, in the Autumn of 1621, they finally celebrated their first harvest. They were thankful not only by the food, but also for their new life, home and helpers.

- Typically the Thanksgiving meal has turkey, the autumn vegetables, bread stuffing, cranberry sauce and pumpkin pie.