Search Challenge: A thousand years of Thanksgiving?


As you know, Thanksgiving has a long tradition in the United States. (See our earlier SearchResearch question on about traditional cranberry recipes from 2010.)

In the US, we've ritually celebrated Thanksgiving annually since 1621 when the Pilgrims first sat down to celebrate a more-or-less successful harvest. There were occasional "Thanksgiving" celebrations before that, but It's been an official holiday since 1863 when President Abraham Lincoln proclaimed a national day of "Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens."


But other countries have much longer-standing festivals of harvest celebrations.

So here's a search challenge question to contemplate this Thanksgiving season:


Can you find another country that has celebrated a annual Thanksgiving festival in November more-or-less continually for at least the past 1000 years? If so, what's the name of that festival?

As you know, we ritually consume turkey, cranberries, pumpkins, and potatoes. For extra credit:

What food is ritually consumed is this other country's long-lasting Thanksgiving celebration?

For triple credit:

What's the traditional reason that particular food is eaten?

When you send in your answer, let us know about how long it took you to find the answer and what your research process was. My answer will be posted tomorrow!

Search on... for a thousand years!

Wednesday Search Challenge (11/21/12): A thousand years of Thanksgiving? | SearchReSearch
