Murray, NEB- Everybody loves the end of the year holiday season. Some holidays are Dia de los Muertos, Veterans day, Kwanzaa, Christmas, Hanukkah, New Years, and Thanksgiving. We all celebrate the holidays in our own way. The Thanksgiving season is basically here and we are all thinking about it. The question is, why do we have these Thanksgiving traditions?

One of everybody’s favorite traditions is watching the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. This parade includes lots of floats, giant balloons, cheerleaders, clowns, marching bands, celebrities and Santa Claus. The parade started 97 years ago in 1924. Back then it was called Macy’s Christmas Parade. They had three floats, four bands, animals from the zoo and finally Santa. To this day, Santa Claus still ends the parade, but the amount of people in the parade has increased. This year there are supposed to be 15 giant balloons, 28 floats, 36 inflatables, 800 plus clowns, 10 bands and nine groups performing. According to Howstuffworks, the parade was started by employees who wanted to have a fun celebration during the roaring twenties. Macy’s still runs the parade and has employees who participate in it.

Another tradition, and some would argue is the most important part of the day, is Thanksgiving lunch or dinner. For many people this meal includes: turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes with gravy, green beans, corn, dinner rolls, cranberry sauce, and pumpkin pie. Roasted turkey became part of the meal because colonists hunted the wild turkeys during the fall season and that is when Thanksgiving was. We all love pumpkin pie as well, but it was not a part of Thanksgiving until the 1600s. The Thanksgiving meal is a great part of Thanksgiving that everyone enjoys.

Many people always enjoy sharing what they are thankful for on Thanksgiving. The whole point of the day is to be thankful for the harvest and what we have that season. Thus, the name Thanksgiving. People choose who says thanks first in different ways. One way is everyone picks a bean out of a bowl. The bowl gets passed around the room. When the bowl gets to you, place your bean in the bowl and say what you are thankful for.

Thanksgiving is a great holiday. There are many more traditions that are new and old. Maybe this year you can make new traditions for your family. Happy holidays!