CNN news 2011-11-24
AZUZ: Some high school students in Texas showed their support for one teacher this weekend. Mr. Love had a rough week. He`d actually been bullied by a couple of students. So 50 or 60 others..
AZUZ (voice-over): . decided to, well, show him some him some love. They gathered outside his house Sunday evening and brought Mr. Love out so they could share their musical message.
GROUP (singing): All you need is love. All you need is love, love, love is all you need.
AZUZ (voice-over): The students planned this entirely on their own, a great way to show some appreciation and pick up someone`s spirits.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Today`s Shoutout goes out to Mr. Pechtl`s social studies classes at Scobey High School in Scobey, Montana. Who established Thanksgiving as a national U.S. holiday? You know what to do. Was it Ben Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln or Teddy Roosevelt? You`ve got three seconds, go.
President Lincoln`s Thanksgiving Day proclamation in 1863 established it as a national annual event. That`s your answer, and that`s your Shoutout.
AZUZ: President Lincoln might have made the first annual Thanksgiving proclamation. He would have been a little late celebrating the first Thanksgiving meal -- 242 years late. The tradition goes all the way back to 1621, when Pilgrims and Native Americans sat down to dine together and celebrate the harvest.
But the holiday has changed a little over the years. Feast your eyes on this.
AZUZ (voice-over): Oh, sure, it might have started with a cornucopia and a big feast, but not a turkey. There is no proof that turkey was on the first Thanksgiving table in 1621. The fact that it is today isn`t the only unexplained tradition of Thanksgiving.
First, take football. What would the Pilgrims and Native Americans say about this? They came together in a spirit of harmony. That`s not what the teams do. Then there`s shopping -- severe shopping, Black Friday shopping, with specials getting earlier and closer to Thanksgiving dinner every year. But why save room for dessert when you can save money on a 3D TV?
And what this has to do with giving thanks is as mysterious as stuffing. What is stuffing? For better or for weirder, this is just how we celebrate Thanksgiving. It`s just not the same without this stuff-ing.
And even if the turkey didn`t win a place at the founding feast, it did win a place in the heart of Founding Father Ben Franklin. He didn`t want the bald eagle to be our national symbol. He wanted the turkey. He said unlike the eagle, the turkey was a more respectable bird, a bird of courage -- sometimes too much courage.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No! God! Go away!
AZUZ: But just as turkey attacks are often pardoned -- or "tabled" -- heh, heh -- the president pardons one lucky turkey every year in a tradition dating back to 1989. Is this an unusual tradition for the Thanksgiving season? Maybe. But it`s not the only one. After all, at the end of dinner, we are what we eat.
AZUZ: Yeah, turkeys. We all have some pretty unusual Thanksgiving traditions.
AZUZ (voice-over): In Marice`s family, they go to the petting zoo the day before Thanksgiving to pet the turkeys in a show of appreciation.
Julia and her cousins reenact the first Thanksgiving, and Julia`s always the turkey.
Mikeal or Mikeal`s family makes turducken, a chicken stuffed into a duck stuffed into a turkey. It may sound disgusting, but it really tastes good.
Kirsten`s family watches Filipino soap operas. Every Thanksgiving, there is a marathon of soap operas.
Ally`s family heads to their cabin and cuts down Christmas trees. They get enough trees for half the neighborhood, deliver them, and then set up their own Christmas stuff.
At Ela`s house, they have a turkey that they always name Pablo. Then throughout dinner, her grandfather sings songs about Pablo that he made up while eating.
Madison and Brittain have a "Thanksgiving Bowl" in their back yard. They use ripped-up pieces of cloth and play flag football.
And Sarah says it shouldn`t matter if you have a wacky tradition. It only matters that you spend the holidays with people you love.
AZUZ: Well, that, my friends, will gobble up all our time for today. We are certainly thankful for all of you who watch CNN Student News. We`ll be back next Monday. Have a very happy Thanksgiving.