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Show holiday history HILL TOP TIMES 14 Novmbr25, 1987 s Ancient Greeks celebrated nine-da- y harvest festival, Americans keep dinner warm One example is the English Mop Fair, celebrated home of at the harvest's end in Stratford-on-AvoWilliam Shakespeare. The festival began hundreds of years ago, when servants and farmhands were hired by the year. Landowners and workers alike went into town, landowners to hire new workers and workers to find new jobs. Shopkeepers in Stratford-on-Avoheld a fair for the crowd that poured into town, the name "Mop Fair" was inspired by the mops carried by women servants. Today, the festival features food, music, dancing and amusement rides. In southern Spain, natives and tourists alike join in the Fiesta de la Uva, or Festival of the Grapes, in the Jerez de la Frontera. Farmers and winemak-er- s celebrate the grape harvest with a thanksgiving service in the cathedral, followed by a parade, horse races and bullfights. Lively guitar music, singing and dancing are all part of the festival. Similar celebrations are held throughout southern Spain, but few are as well known as the one in Jerez de al Frontera. The people of Bern, Switzerland, celebrate the onion harvest every November. The celebration stems back to the early 1400s, when Bern was almost destroyed by fire and the people of nearby Fribourg helped rebuild the city. In appreciation, Bern opened its markets to the farmers of Fribourg to sell their big agricultural product, onions. Today, the onion celebration is still held in the Bern market square. Children dress up as onions, and onions are prepared in just about every method imaginable. By Donna Miles n, American Forces Information Service This Thanksgiving, as you sit down to a table laden with turkey and all the trimmings, you'll be sharing in one of the world's oldest traditions the harvest festival. Many Americans think of Thanksgiving, the day of thanks first celebrated by the Pilgrims at Plymouth Rock, as a uniquely American holiday. Yet America's Thanksgiving is similar to ancient as well as modern-dafestivals celebrated around the world in gratitude for a good growing season. The ancient Greeks celebrated a nine-da-y harvest festival in honor of Demeter, their goddess of agriculture. So important was this observance that armies would stop fighting to share in the n y mid-Septemb- celebration. In similar fashion, the Romans paid tribute to Ceres. Since biblical days, the Jews have celebrated the week-lonFeast of Tabernacles or Sukkot, in the fall to mark the end of the farming season. This festival, still celebrated today, is a time of feasting, partying and thanksgiving. Another Hebrew harvest festival, Shavot, the Feast of Weeks, is celebrated in spring. During the Middle Ages, the Anglo-Saxon- s celebrated the feast of Harvest Home when the last grain was loaded for storage. People from the village went into the fields to decorate the load with ribbons and flowers, dancing around it and singing songs of thanks. The celebration continued long after the last grain was stored away. In nearby Scotland, the harvest celebration was known as "kirn" and included special church services and a hearty feast. The Aztecs of Mexico observed their corn harvest with more ceremony than festivity. Each year, a young girl was beheaded in honor of Xilonen, the goddess of the new corn. The Pawnee Indians had a similar ritual. The Cherokees of the American Southwest, in contrast, observed the corn harvest with the festive green corn dance. Even with the industrialization of the Western world, harvest time continues as a cause for celebrag tion and thanksgiving. Germany's popular celebration of the barley and hops harvest, Oktoberfest, is usually held in late September when the first new beer of the season comes of age. The celebration, once confined to the city of Munich, has spread throughout West Germany. Many European harvest festivals take place on Nov. 11, Martinmas, in honor of St. Martin of Tours, patron saint of beggars. During medieval times, the wealthier people of Germany, France, Holland, England and the countries of central Europe offered a share of their harvest to the poor in honor of St. Martin. Today, St. Martin's Day is a cross between Thanksgiving and Halloween. Roast goose is traditonally served at the day's feasts. In some European towns, children dress as beggars and go door to door carrying lighted lanterns and er Borrowing from many of these celebrations, the Pilgrims introduced Thanksgiving to the fledgling American colonies. Since then, Thanksgiving and widely has become one of America's best-lovecelebrated holidays. Just as the people of American borrowed the concept of Thanksgiving from other countries, they have shared their special way of celebrating it around the world. Perhaps one of the most memorable examples of this took place in 1942 at Westminster Abbey in London. More than 3,500 American troops stationed in England during World War II jammed into the historic church for Thanksgiving Day services. The service was the first time anything but a Church of England service had been held at the Abbey's altar in nine centuries. BanAs American GIs sang The ner and America the Beautiful at Westminster Abbey, they demonstrated the one characteristic that has given Thanksgiving Day a special sigd Star-Spangle- "begging" for fruit, cake and candy. The people of Japan celebrate rice harvests at regional festivals held throughout the fall. The Skukaku-sa- i festivals feature parades, floats, and lanterns. Like the Japanese camp-fire- s Skukaku-sa- i festivals, many harvest celebrations are observed on a regional rather than a national basis. d nificance for Americans. Thanksgiving has meant more than just a celebration of the blessings of nature to the Pilgrims at Plymouth Rock, to World War II GIs at Westminster Abbey and to Americans celebrating it today, whether at home or overseas. It is a day of reflection on all that America has freedom as well as bounty and a time to give thanks, as a nation and a people. Turkey reigns on American Thanksgiving dinner fable Holiday bird is By Evelyn D. Harris American Forces Information Service enjamin Franklin thought the turkey should be our national bird. And although the eagle's strong and vigilant image earned it "top bird" status, on Thanksgiving, it's the turkey who reigns on dinner tables wherever Americans gather. Turkey, like other poultry, is tasty and nutritious. But like all high-protei- n food, it is especially vulnerable to that food can cause poisoning. Every million Americans two some year, suffer from food poisoning. Here are some hints from food safety experts to ensure that you and micro-organis- tasty and nutritious, but dinner preparations should be careful your loved ones are not included in that number. Preparing If you mix your stuffing a day ahead, premix only the dry ingredients and refrigerate them separately from the uncooked bird. That will keep any bacteria from entering the starchy dressing. Bacteria thrive in food' combinations. If you're going to use the same knife to cut the vegetables that you used for meat, first wash it thoroughly. The same goes for cuthigh-protei- high-carbohydra- n, te ting boards and all utensils. Cooking Stuff the bird loosely just before you're going to cook it. That way, the heat from the oven has a better chance to cook the stuffing all the way through. Check the stuffing with a meat thermometer after you take the bird out of the oven. Leave the thermometer in place for about five minutes for an accurate reading. To be fully cooked, the stuffing should reach 165 degrees Fahrenheit, the bird 185 degrees. Serving Serve the stuffing in a separate dish from the turkey. Don't leave the turkey and stuffing at room temperature longer than two hours. Even if you can't face clearing off the whole table right after eating, at least get the turkey, stuffing and any foods containing eggs or dairy products in the refrigerator promptly. Refrigerating If you don't want to debone the turkey right away, refrigerate the carcass. It is best to separate turkey into pieces, such as drumsticks, before refrigeration. But it will stay fresher if you don't slice it into very small pieces. The reason: You want it small enough to cool quickly, but not so small that it is exposed to air at room temperature for long. If you have large amounts of stuffing, divide them into smaller dishes. This speeds cooling. The key to food safety is to try to keep foods either hot (above 140 degrees) or cold (below 45 degrees). Minimizing the time food stays at room temperature increases safety. Freezing If you can't eat leftover turkey quickly, freeze it. Cooked dry turkey keeps a month in the freezer. Turkey in gravy keeps up to six months. Freezing dries foods out, but the gravy helps prevent this. |