Thanksgiving – texto y podcast sobre Acción de Gracias

¡Hola de nuevo!

Estamos a finales de noviembre, y en Estados Unidos, a estas alturas del año se celebra Acción de Gracias.

Así que hoy, un poco de cultura americana: tengo un nuevo texto y podcast sobre Acción de Gracias.

También debo mencionar que estoy haciendo promociones de Black Friday en todos los cursos online. Así que si quieres, pásate por la página de los cursos y entra el código FRIDAY al pagar para recibir un 50% de descuento.

Todo aquí: Cursos Online para aprender más inglés

(Si quieres, puedes llevarte más de uno, con el mismo descuento.)

Puedes escuchar el podcast aquí…

O bien en más sitios en Anchor.

Vocabulario después…

Texto en inglés: Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is one of the most important holidays of the whole year for people in the United States. It’s celebrated on the fourth Thursday of November every year.

This year, 2021, it’s on November 25th.

The tradition says that the first Thanksgiving was celebrated between Pilgrims and Native peoples in the Plymouth colony in 1621. The Pilgrims were a group of very religious people – Puritans – from England who had come to the New World to escape religious persecution.

Originally, the Pilgrims left England to go to Holland. But things didn’t go well there, either. So they decided to move to the new world.

They wanted to reach Virginia, and set off in the year 1620, in a ship called the Mayflower. Due to bad weather on the high seas, their ship ended up much further north, in what is now Massachussets.

After the first cold, difficult winter they met and befriended some the natives, who taught them how to fish for eels, helped them plant crops and generally survive in the new environment. The celebration in autumn was meant to thank God for the harvest and for the abundance of the New World… or at least, that’s what the traditional stories say.

What happened after that is a long story. And it’s pretty sad. But we can talk about that another day, maybe.

For a long time, Thanksgiving celebrations were local. The first national celebration in the US was declared by George Washington, our first President, in 1789.

Today, Americans celebrate Thanksgiving by eating a huge meal of turkey, mashed potatoes and pumpkin pie, among other things. Most people spend the day with their families, and use the day to give thanks for the good things in their lives.

Canadians also celebrate Thanksgiving, but they do it in October. Some common traditions, at least in the United States, are to watch the Thanksgiving Day Parade on TV, or to watch football – by which I mean American football.

I don’t watch a lot of football, but personally, I love Thanksgiving, even here in Spain. It’s a great excuse to get together with friends, eat good food, and drink a lot of Spanish wine. I’m very thankful for the life I have in Spain, and for all the good friends I’ve met here. And the celebration is a reminder of that.

The day after Thanksgiving is Black Friday, which marks the start of the “holiday shopping season”. Anyway, that’s all I’ve got for today…

Happy Thanksgiving, wherever you are!

Un poco de vocabulario en inglés sobre Acción de Gracias…

Aquí un poco de vocabulario del texto.

pilgrims = peregrinos

eels = anguilas

crops = cultivos

harvest = cosecha

mashed potatoes = patatas aplastadas

pumpkin pie = pie de calabaza

thankful = agradecido

En fin… Espero que te haya gustado la lección de hoy.

También tengo, en la otra página, algo sobre las palabras holiday vs vacation, y mucho más vocabulario para hablar de la comida en inglés.

Nada más por hoy. ¡Espero que pases una muy buena semana!

Buen aprendizaje,

Daniel.

P.D. Otra vez, lo de Black Friday: tengo promociones en todos los cursos online. Pásate por la página de los cursos y entra el código FRIDAY al pagar para recibir un 50% de descuento. ¡Disfruta!