In 1621 the Plymouth colonists and Wampanoag tribe shared the autumn harvest feast known today as Thanksgiving.
Although the feast is considered the first Thanksgiving, it was actually, according to history.com, a long tradition of celebrating the harvest and giving thanks for successful crops. Today, millions of Americans have long since enjoyed the holiday as one filled with turkey, stuffing and pumpkin pie. Students at Texas A&M University-Commerce are preparing for their holiday season and the eating, sleeping, drinking and visiting that is sure to ensue.
Candace Carroll is a social work major who would like to start a new holiday tradition; actually starting Thanksgiving dinner on time.
“We’re always late. Once we do get together, a tradition we have is that everyone eats and gets sleepy, all the older people go into the den and play cards until one o’clock in the morning,” Carroll said.
Carroll gave a list of her family’s regular Thanksgiving dinner menu that included turkey, dressing, giblet ‘gravy, chittlins, cabbage, stuffing, strawberry cake, pecan pie and sweet potato pie.
“We eat almost every animal that walks on earth,” Carroll joked. “Just fry it, boil it or bake it.”
Even when email rules the day and some traditions are a thing of the past, students take time to celebrate their families’ own unique traditions that have been part of their holiday seasons for years.
Political science major Michael Patterson’s favorite thing about the Thanksgiving holiday is that everyone gets together and gives thanks for the things they have.
“Every year we get together with a bunch of friends and discuss politics, religion and have fun. We have turkey and all the rest.
There’s a huge fight in our family over canned cranberry sauce or fresh cranberry sauce. I don’t really care, I eat my turkey dry,” Patterson said. “I like thanksgiving, but what I am really excited about is my brother coming home for Christmas from the air force.”
Senior Vashoney Bailey is mixing her traditional holiday plans with something a little more exciting than usual, though her favorite part of Thanksgiving is spending time with her family.
“All my family comes down and we all eat and play cards or dominoes and we have a lot of fun. This year for thanksgiving we will have the traditional year but after that I’m going to Shreveport to gamble.” Bailey said.