Why I like Thanksgiving

[Jaga]

Since I came to America Thanksgiving is really one of my favorite holidays from many reasons:

first of all - this is a feast for everybody - for Christians, Muslims, non-religious so it does not cause any split like other holidays

Seconds - people feel obliged to invite strangers... for instance foreign graduate students and such - because this feast is about celebrating newcomers to your country and also celebrating the natives for being so nice and friendly to the newcomers!

Third - this is not really a commercial holicay except that people buy turkey and do food - really a very nice holiday. I wish we had it in Poland also!

[Jaga]

I wonder how many of our Polish friends know really a story of Thanksgiving! Maybe we need to find

here is a story of Thanksgiving:
wilstar.com/holidays/thankstr.htm
just a fragment:
The Pilgrims set ground at Plymouth Rock on December 11, 1620. Their first winter was devastating. At the beginning of the following fall, they had lost 46 of the original 102 who sailed on the Mayflower. But the harvest of 1621 was a bountiful one. And the remaining colonists decided to celebrate with a feast -- including 91 Indians who had helped the Pilgrims survive their first year. It is believed that the Pilgrims would not have made it through the year without the help of the natives. The feast was more of a traditional English harvest festival than a true "thanksgiving"

[Bob S]

Jaga. there is still a debate about whether that 1st Thanksgiving was held at Plymouth Rock, MA or Jamestowne, VA. It will go on, and on, and on, and on..............ad infinitum. LOL

[nancy]

No debate about that here in Plymouth, MA (the town one over from where I live). Not at the Rock though, that is a tourist myth regarding where the first footfall was.

[suzanne]

Jaga,
I love Thanksgiving for the same reasons as you do.

In we have very few holidays that truly everyone can celebrate together, since this is such a diverse nation, but I love the communality of Thanksgiving and how everyone comes together and sits down to pretty much the same exact meal. The inclusiveness is nice, too. When I was in college, it was too far and too expensive for me to go home for Thanksgiving, and twice I was invited to dinner with friends whose families lived locally, and I appreciated that gesture more than they will ever know. I also love that it is not really a commercialized holiday.

There is a lot of historical debate on what really happened at the first Thanksgiving, and a lot of the history, in the absence of facts, has been romanticized and turned into legends. For one thing, relations between the colonists and the native Americans were certainly not always so smooth. But the story of the natives helping the colonists survive, to whatever extent it may be true, is certainly a great tale for reminding people to reach out to and help others.

Nancy,
Actually, if I remember correctly, wasn't first footfall at Provincetown? Then later in that month, they sailed across the bay to Plymouth. I'm really stretching far back into my memories of US History from high school!


It's a pretty amazing story at any rate. I've been to Plimoth Plantation and saw the replica of the ship they sailed in, and I cannot imagine being packed into that tiny vessel to cross thousands of miles of rough, cold, North Atlantic ocean. I'm surprised any of them survived at all, considering how poorly trained, poorly equipped and poorly planned the whole expedition was.

[nancy]

Suzanne,

Yes, Provincetown was the place of first footfall (not that I was there then...)

Plimoth Plantation is a really interesting experience, isn't it? Once I admired a cute little house with a sod roof, and the pilgrim woman looked at me very scornfuly and said (in the proper accent of course) "Tisn't a house, tis the place we store our harvest" (i.e., root cellar)

Cannot trip the re-enactors into forgetten "when" they are.

The website: www.plimoth.org/

[leslie]

suzannem said:

I've been to Plimoth Plantation and saw the replica of the ship they sailed in, and I cannot imagine being packed into that tiny vessel to cross thousands of miles of rough, cold, North Atlantic ocean. I'm surprised any of them survived at all, considering how poorly trained, poorly equipped and poorly planned the whole expedition was.

Suzannem
I agree completely with you. I too have seen a full-size replica of the Mayflower - what a mere boat, hardly a ship, in which to cross the Atlantic. ........ But remember they were English!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Leslie

[suzanne]

Nancy,
Yes, it sure is impossible to make the Plimoth re-enactors step out of 17th c. behavior. When I was last there a few years ago, some Plimoth women were baking bread and a little boy told one of them that their little loaves looked like hamburger buns, and they just looked at him quizzically and he couldn't udnerstand they had no idea what he was talking about!

Leslie,
Yes, they were English , with a few Dutch thrown in amongst them. No Poles however, as far as I know.

[Bob S]

suzannem, nancy and leslie. I also think that the 1st Thanksgiving is very romanticized. I think that those immigrants were thankful that they survived the seasons and lived to see another day. The colonists at Roanoke Island completly disappeared and the only memorial was the word CROATAN carved in a tree.
Leslie. With all respect to the English, Elizabethan English is still used by the watermen of the Chesapeake Bay. They use this form of English to talk amongst themselves but American English is used if an outsider is present. ;D

[piwo]

Thanksgiving has always been my favorite holiday. As previously mentioned, it is relatively non-commercial, is all about gathering, sharing a good meal, being thankful for what you have with those you care the most about, and well, sharing a good meal! I never wanted to leave my mom's house (she had the extended "Pachucki" family Thanksgiving for almost 50 years) to go to in-laws. After my mom's heart attack, I took up the family tradition, and have been doing it ever since. Now I’m not expected to go anywhere on that day! Aside from the hosts, there are no expectations or preparations. Just show up in a good mood and be hungry. Mom still makes chrusciki (not traditional for thanksgiving of course, but our family just loves them), and for me, it is a magical day. Thanksgiving for 45 people is a challenge, but my favorite challenge of the year.

[rdywenur]

I can not believe that non of the guys even mentioned F-O-O-T-B-A-L-L !!!!

[Jaga]

rdywenur said:

I can not believe that non of the guys even mentioned F-O-O-T-B-A-L-L !!!!

Susan, Piwo,

thanks for telling me about your positive experience of Thansgiving.

Chris, ha ha - I watch football rarely, only when Dallas Cowboys were winning

[nancy]

"chrusciki (not traditional for thanksgiving of course, but our family just loves them)"

Piwo,

I am going to ask about this in the food & drink section

[Bob S]

rdywenur said:

[I can not believe that non of the guys even mentioned F-O-O-T-B-A-L-L !!!!

]

The Thanksgiving Day Parades yes, F O O T B A L L, no ;D

[kaima]

Thanksgiving for me has always been #2 behind Christmas. It lacks the commercialism Christmas suffers & is the great family holiday. When I worked in Germany I had contracts with the US and was able to buy turkeys and the fixings at the US commissary and three times I headed over to the Czech republic to celebrate with the Czech Aunt and family.

They took to the holiday like ducks to water and loved every minute and almost every morsel. The cranberry sauce was unknown to them until they tasted it, and then they knew what it was. The canned sweet potatoes in the first year I could only describe as "south American potatoes" and they were not at all popular. In following years I brought raw sweet potatoes and cooked them normally, and the family accepted the real thing as "real", but the candied "sweet potato" was not at all popular.

Corn bread was a great hit and totally unexpected. Pumpkin pie was the usual European disaster, but I served a sliver to each anyhow so they could have the "American" experience.

One of the best moments was when I was working to get the 15 # turkey in the oven (a 12 pounder is just right for European ovens; on the 15 pounder I had to cut off the legs and tuck them next to the bird). Oh, the best moment - when my aunt reached into her shelves and pulled out a full apron for me to wear as I cooked - I believe I may have been the first man to cook in that house since 1870!

It was all finished off with the full bellies and a really cut-throat game of pachizi. You would think their lives depended upon betraying, tricking and defeating their siblings!


Kai