[originaltext] The traditional American Thanksgiving Day celebration goes ba

The traditional American Thanksgiving Day celebration goes back to 1621. In that year a special feast was prepared in Massachusetts. The colonists who had settled there had left England because they felt denied of religious freedom. They came to the new land and faced difficulties in coming across the ocean. The ship which carried them was called the Mayflower. The North Atlantic was difficult to travel. There were bad storms. They were assisted in learning to live in the new land by the Indians who inhabited the region. The Puritans, as they were called, had much to be thankful for. Their religious practices were no longer a source of criticism by the government. They learned to adjust their farming habits to the climate and soil.  When they selected the fourth Thursday of November for their Thanksgiving celebration, they invited, their neighbors, the Indians, to join them in dinner and a prayer of gratitude for the new life. They recalled the group of 102 men, women and children who left England. They remembered their dead who did not live to see the shores of Massachusetts. They reflected on the 65 days’ journey which tested their strength.