This is one of the most important holidays in the USA. Schools and universities were closed for 3 days Wed-Fri and businesses closed Thurs-Fri so a lovely long weekend. Thanksgiving is celebrated on the fourth Thursday of November. Everyone goes home for the holiday - I noticed a lot of students walking with their suitcase around Harvard Square and the T.
We were fortunate to be invited to a real American Thanksgiving at the Cohens - Athol's host family when he did his MBA at MIT in 1994, he has kept in touch with them all these years. It is amazing how much effort Americans put into this holiday - cooking the turkey since 8am, setting the table and cooking side dishes and desserts. The turkey was huge, I've never had turkey (except for coldmeat in SA) so this was a treat! There was mashed potatoe, green bean salad (made with mushroom soup and with fried onion rings on the top), steamed veggies, green salads, mashed pumpkin, stuffing (this is the stuffing that goes inside the turkey which is served seperately, made with bread and other things), gravy, and of course cranberry sauce - what a feast! For dessert, there was pecan pie, apple crumble and pumkin pie. Everything so so delicious, at the end of the evening I was stuffed :)
There were 14 of us in total. Jane even made us take part in their annual Thanksgiving Quiz which was great fun. There is usually a football game on Thanksgiving so all the men usually sit around and watch the TV.
Today Thanksgiving is celebrated to remind people of their blessings so that they are thankful for them. So yes I am extremely thankful and grateful for everything in my life - my wonderful and loving husband, my family and friends and for this amazing year in the US.
Looking back into history, Thanksgiving began because the Pilgrims were very thankful for their first harvest in 1621 and so celebrated for three days. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thanksgiving The food eaten is similar to that of the Native Americans, who had helped the pilgrims to cook and farm. There is however another side to this story, the Native Americans in turn celebrate the 'National Day of Mourning' http://www.pilgrimhall.org/daymourn.htm because the pilgrims took away their land and destroyed their tradtions. So very interesting, there are always two sides to every story!
On a brighter note, yesterday was 'Black Friday' which is to mark the first day of shopping for Christmas so all stores have massive sales over the long weekend. Time is just flying by, before we know it, it will be Christmas.
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