Gift a meaningful Thanksgiving present
a gift with special significance on Thanksgiving Day
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Because of its religious undertones and its indication of ‘achievement’, Thanksgiving is an occasion that allows us to gift something with a bit more inspiration than usual – a present that can actually mean something.
The Pilgrim Fathers never actually called themselves “Pilgrims” but they did enact the first “Thanksgiving” back in 1621. This event was a secular, three-day harvest festival held sometime between September and November. They dressed somberly and supposedly dined on wild turkey, venison, seafood, Indian cornmeal, stewed pumpkin, nuts and plums to offer thanks for their survival (the few that remained). On this occasion, there was no ham, no mashed potatoes, no corn on the cob, pumpkin pie or cranberry sauce.
Thanksgiving did not become a national holiday in America until President Lincoln declared it so in 1863. Turkey, of course, survives to this day as an essential ingredient of this tradition but the cornucopia (another symbol of Thanksgiving) was probably not in evidence in those early (and difficult) times of 17th Century America. But it is the cornucopia that, perhaps more than anything else, symbolises prosperity and well-being at the time of Thanks-giving. The cornucopia is steeped in the Greek mythology of centuries ago: Amalthea was a goat who raised Zeus on her breast milk. Her horn was accidentally broken by Zeus whilst they were playing together, and so Zeus, in remorse, gave her a new one which now had supernatural powers. Amalthea filled it with flowers and fruits and grain which gave the person who possessed it whatever he or she wished for. In modern depictions, the cornucopia is typically a hollow, horn-shaped wicker basket filled with various kinds of festive fruit and vegetables.
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Special Day gifts suitable for Thanksgiving Presents in our CENTRAL (Group) STORE