The pattern of theThanksgiving celebration has never changed through the years. The big familydinner is planned months ahead. On the dinner table, people will find apples,oranges, chestnuts, walnuts and grapes. There will be plum pudding, mince pie,other varieties of food and cranberry juice and squash. The best and mostattractive among them are roast turkey and pumpkin pie. They have been the mosttraditional and favorite food on Thanksgiving Day throughout the years.

Everyone agrees thedinner must be built around roast turkey stuffed with a bread dressing toabsorb the tasty juices as it roasts. But as cooking varies with families andwith the regions where one lives, it is not easy to get a consensus on theprecise kind of stuffing for the royal bird.

Thanksgiving today is,in every sense, a national annual holiday on which Americans of all faiths andbackgrounds join in to express their thanks for the year' s bounty andreverently ask for continued blessings.