Thanksgiving in America:

Time for family, turkey and shopping

Americans on Thursday celebrated Thanksgiving, one of the country's most important holidays and also a rare occasion for harried families to reunite and share an elaborate home-cooked meal.

An estimated 38.3 million head home for the occasion, taking to the skies, roads and train tracks on what is the busiest travel weekend of the year, according to the American Automobile Association.

"People think they are so busy during the year but Thanksgiving is a time when everyone gathers and it's all about the meal," said Leslie Reinhardt, proudly displaying the turkey she had waited 90 minutes in line to purchase at Washington's Eastern Market.

She said about 10 people would gather at her dinner table Thursday to eat the bird along with cranberry sauce and other traditional dishes such as mashed potatoes, corn and pumpkin pie.

Sharman Green, another shopper, said the holiday for her is all about dusting off her mother's old recipes for sweet potatoes and oyster turkey stuffing.

"I regularly cook but I especially like cooking for Thanksgiving," she said. "It's one of my favourite holidays and it's all about giving and sharing."

The Thanksgiving meal commemorates the feast savoured by pilgrims to give thanks for their first bountiful harvest in 1621.

No less than 265 million turkeys were raised in the United States in 2006, according to the US Census Bureau, and some 45 million were slated to end up on dinner tables Thursday.

One lucky turkey, however, is spared the chopping block each year by the president of the United States.

President George W. Bush followed through with the tradition on Wednesday by "pardoning" "Flyer", a bird that was to serve as the honorary grand marshal of the Thanksgiving Day Parade at Disneyland.

But no sooner will Americans have digested their Thanksgiving meal than many will rush to stores, as early as midnight Thursday, to indulge in a shopping frenzy that kicks off the Christmas holiday sales.

According to the National Retail Federation (NRF), some 137 million shoppers are expected in stores on Friday, traditionally known as "Black Friday", with many heading to the electronics or toy sections.

"Friday is not the biggest sales day during the year, (the Saturday before Christmas is), but it is the biggest day in terms of traffic," Ellen Davis, spokeswoman for the NRF, told AFP. "And for the first time this year many retailers will open earlier."

Some surveys, however, indicate that shoppers may be getting weary of standing hours in line for a bargain, and that many will instead stay cozy at home and shop on the web for online deals and free shipping.

"Instead of fighting for a parking space and waiting in long lines, many shoppers have turned to the Internet to help with at least some of their holiday shopping," said a statement by polling company Zogby International.

It said that just 14 percent of 9,095 people questioned in an opinion poll before the holiday said they planned to fight the crowds for post-Thanksgiving bargains this year.

AFP