Vocabulary
- What goes where?
- What does it represent?
| New Year in China | Thanksgiving in the USA |
| lotus seeds - male offspring | corn - survival |
| uncut noodles – long life | turkey - abundant meat |
| chicken - prosperity | pumpkin - versatile crop |
| holiday | meal | |
| Eastern | The Spring Festival | dumpling |
| The Lantern’s Day | ||
| The Mid-Autumn Day | moon cake crab |
|
| birthday | uncut noodles | |
| Western | Halloween | soup |
| Christmas | ||
| Thanksgiving | turkey |
lotus seed, ginkgo nut, black moss seaweed, dried beancurd (tofu), bamboo shoot, whole fish, whole chicken, uncut noodles;
chestnut, peanut, longan, lotus root, pumpkin pie, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce, corn on the cob;
beef steak, rate, medium rate, medium well, well-done;
Read the passage
Thanksgiving is celebrated in the United States on the fourth Thursday of November to gives thanks for a successful harvest. The first Thanksgiving was celebrated almost 400 years ago. Pilgrims thanked the Native Americans for their help during a long, cold winter. In keeping with the idea of celebrating a plentiful harvest, preparing and eating a large meal is a central part of most Thanksgiving celebrations today. Thanksgiving menus usually include many different foods. The meals are large, but the foods eaten at Thanksgiving are quite simple. They celebrate the country and traditional farming life. Corn was essential: the Pilgrims wouldn’t have survived if the Native Americans hadn’t taught them about this native crop, so corn is symbol of the survival of the colonies, as well as the harvest and the fall season. There is no official reason or declaration for the use of turkey. It just happened to be the most plentiful meat available at the time of the first Thanksgiving in 1621, starting the tradition. Cranberries were probably on the first Thanksgiving table. The American Indians taught the Pilgrims to make a cranberry sauce called “ibimi”, meaning bitter berry. When the colonists saw the berry,they re-named it “crane-berry”, because its flower resembled the long-necked bird called the crane. Both the regular and sweet potato were important crops because they were hardy enough to survive strong winters. Pumpkin is also a strong crop, as well as a versatile vegetable, which can be used in sweet of savory dishes.
Writing
- Write about your favorite holiday and how food makes it more interesting.
- Do you like the idea of food symbolizing so many different things in our holidays? Why of why not?