Welcome to our series sharing Unique Holidays: December 23rd, 2022. I would like to ask you to check out the Holidays being celebrated today and let me know which holiday you most want to celebrate and why.
Evolution Day/ All Our Uncles are Monkeys Day– always observed on November 24th
Today is Evolution Day, this Holiday is for all Homo Sapiens and did you know it’s also called “All Our Uncles Are Monkeys Day“. “All Our Uncles Are Monkeys Day“ refers to the fact that our ancestors evolved from Apes. Now here is a fun holiday, if there ever was one. It is very appropriate that you go Ape as you celebrate this fun holiday.
Today is the anniversary of the publication of Charles Darwin’s book: On the Origin of Species in 1859. His controversial theory turned the world upside down, in his thinking of how we came to be which remains controversial to this day.
Monkey Sayings
- Well, I’ll be a monkey’s uncle!
- Monkey see monkey do.
- Hear no evil, see no evil, do no evil.
- No monkey business.
How to Celebrate Evolution Day
- Learn more about Evolution.
- Go Bananas and act like a Monkey.
- Learn about Apes and their related cousins.
- Binge watch the movie Planet of the Apes.
History and Origin of Evolution Day
We did not find who declared or created Origin of Evolution Day but let’s face it, our evolution is indeed a very important event to be celebrated.
We also did not find out when the Origin of Evolution Day was created. Perhaps, you can narrow it down to sometime between this year and 1859, when Darwin published his Theory of Evolution. I like to think we have been celebrating Origin of Evolution Day since the dawn of mankind.
Thanksgiving – Eat, drink, and be thankful, fourth Thursday
Tucked between the two monster-sized holidays of Halloween and Christmas is Thanksgiving, a monster of a holiday, too. However, Thanksgiving receives far less attention than it should. Thanksgiving is a very important holiday, especially in the busy lives of busy Americans. Thanksgiving traditions and history abound. It is a time to slow down, kick back and relax. On Thanksgiving, we pause to enjoy the four Fs: Family, Food, Fun, and Football. You should sit down today and watch a football game or or Two. If your not into Football then you should go to a movie. Most of all enjoy a huge feast, with Turkey as the main attraction. It’s also time for us to give thanks to our God, for the things he has bestowed upon us and upon this great nation. No nation in the world has more to be thankful for than us.
The history of Thanksgiving goes back to 1621 when the newly arrived Pilgrims sat down with Native American Indians to celebrate a bountiful harvest feast. At the time, their meager foothold in the new world was tenuous.
Thanksgiving Traditions and History
The first Thanksgiving was an uncertain time for the Pilgrims. Life for the early Settlers was difficult. Successful existence, and even survival in the New World, was not a sure thing. After the Fall harvest, the first Thanksgiving was celebrated between the Pilgrims and the Indians in 1621. That first feast was a three-day affair. The successful Fall harvest was a time for celebration. It assured the Pilgrims that they would have enough food to last through the long Winter in this strange new land.
The early Pilgrims were very religious. This was also a time of Prayer, thanking God for the good crop. The Pilgrims and the Indians created a huge feast, including a wide variety of Animals and Fowl, as well as Fruits and Vegetables from the bountiful Fall harvest. Undoubtedly, Turkeys were cooked during the first Thanksgiving feast, as they were plentiful. This early celebration was the start of today’s Thanksgiving holiday celebration. Like back then, today we celebrate with a huge feast. After the first Thanksgiving, the observance was sporadic and almost forgotten until 1789.
Did you know Potatoes were not part of the first Thanksgiving? Irish immigrants had not yet brought Potatoes to North America. Irish immigrants from Derry were the first to bring Potatoes to the New World. These immigrants settled in New Hampshire and planted the first crop. Other settlers came over on Spanish ships and brought Potatoes to Virginia and the Carolinas.
Thanksgiving is the first official U.S holiday
Thanksgiving history tells us that 168 years after the Pilgrims and the Indians celebrated the first Thanksgiving, the 13 Colonies won the Revolutionary War with Great Britain and became an independent Nation. The citizens of the fledgling, young United States of America had a lot to celebrate and be thankful for. At the request of both houses of the U.S. Congress, George Washington proclaimed the first official Thanksgiving Day as “a day of public Thanksgiving and Prayer”. The proclamation was made on October 3rd, 1789, declaring November 26th, 1789, as Thanksgiving Day. President Abraham Lincoln proclaimed Thanksgiving Day to be the last Thursday in November. Then in 1941, President Franklin D. Roosevelt and the U.S. Congress made Thanksgiving a national holiday and set the date for Thanksgiving Day as the fourth Thursday in November.
Today, most of us enjoy Turkey with “all the trimmings”. The “trimmings” include a wide variety of foods that are a tradition for your family. Those traditional foods often replicate the foods at the first Thanksgiving feast. While other food items are recipes from traditional, ethnic, or religious groups, or special food dishes that your family always serves at Thanksgiving dinner. Then after dinner, as if you haven’t already over-indulged, there’s a dessert tray filled with Apple and Pumpkin Pies, and Mince Meat Pies among other desserts.
American Thanksgiving traditions revolve around a huge and lavish meal, usually with Turkey as the centerpiece. For those who do not like Turkey, Roast or Prime Rib or Ham may replace the Turkey. As tradition has it in most families, a Prayer of thanks precedes the meal. In many homes, family members will each mention something they are thankful for.
Thank you,
Glenda, Charlie and David Cates
