America’s Thanksgiving Holiday November 24, 2014

Staff member Tamila writes about a special holiday in the United States:

Thanksgiving is the most beloved holiday in the United States;  it is celebrated on the fourth Thursday of November.  This celebration has its historical roots in religious and cultural traditions and was originally recognized as a day of expressing  thanks for the blessings of the harvest and of hope for the coming year.  In many households today, Thanksgiving has lost much of its religious importance and has become a day for preparing and sharing a bountiful meal with family and friends.  One of the important attributes of Thanksgiving is a turkey.  According to legend, at the very first celebration in 1621, the colonists and the Native Americans (“Indians”) roasted and ate together four turkeys that had been hunted in a nearby forest.  Since then, turkey and Thanksgiving have become almost synonymous. Also, on the eve of Thanksgiving, many Americans engage in a lot of charity work: they supply meals for the homeless and help out those who have run into misfortune in their lives.  In newspapers, you can see a number of notices that read, for example, “if you donate $1.90, you give one hot meal to a homeless person; if you can donate $19, you supply 19 meals.”

This year, Thanksgiving means more than a holiday for PCTECH (New York English Academy).  On Wednesday, November 26, we will say goodbye to our location on 317 Madison Avenue.  Beginning in January 2015, our new location will be at 80 Maiden Lane, located in the financial district of downtown Manhattan.  Thus, this year’s Thanksgiving is for us a time of big changes, new experiences, and unforgettable memories that we will share with our students.  And this is part of what we are thankful for this year!

PC TECH: English Language School in New York City