In this part I am sharing the festivities associated with Thanksgiving of America with a little bit of my analysis to it!!
Every November, the fourth Thursday is Thanksgiving Day and the weekend is made long by including the day earlier and the day after the holidays. It is clubbed with the weekends and almost a week is devoted to enjoying the festivities. The history of this day dates back to 1621 when the Wampanoag tribes welcomed the pilgrims of Europe. It marked the autumn harvest feast celebrated by the Wampanoag with the colonies. It was celebrated in individual colonies until 1863, when President Abraham Lincoln declared it a national celebration. Since then, it has symbolised reuniting, cooking and serving various foods of the season.
Thanksgiving though has its versions, from the Civil War and the great depression to the present-day celebrations. Like all festivals in all regions of America, the festival has lost much of its significance and has become synonymous with holidays. Turkey, still the staple of Thanksgiving, is also known for hot cinnamon apple cider, vegetable casseroles, baked sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce and pumpkin pie for dessert.
Historians have noted that Native Americans had a rich tradition of commemorating the fall harvest with feasting and merrymaking long before Europeans set foot on America’s shores. Paying tribute to the Almighty after harvest is seen in all cultures. The Greeks, Romans, Egyptians and Jews have variations of harvest-associated feasts. We also have several harvest festivals in India, depending on the season and crop nationwide, Pongal, Lohri, Baisakhi, Onam, Bihu, Nuakhai…to name a few. Not to forget “Puthari” of Kodavas the paddy harvest festival that come on the full moon day of the Kodava month of “Birchiyar” that fall in November-December.
Thanksgiving is much-awaited time of fun with family and food. Children look forward to the festivities as they meet their grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins. It is a lot of food, eating together, playing together and finding happiness in giving. In America, get together in a commonplace or go for a long holiday to an exotic location, are also on the “to-do” list. Immigrants have found family in friends of their host country and compensate for family living in far-off lands. The traditional meal is cooked with a lot of fun and frolic. Children take part in cooking and arranging the dining table for the feast. After the luxurious meal, playing games or taking long walks is fun to welcome the winter setting. Some families give food to the homeless or host a feast for the small community around their living space.
The underlying thread is expressing gratitude for the bounty of nature we relish yearlong. In addition, it is also a time to express our appreciation for the benevolence we receive from people around us. Such celebrations make us generous enough to give back to society for what we receive. In short, I felt it was enjoying the goodness and becoming selfless to do more work to serve others.
I had a chance to enjoy the company of friends from India settled in Chicago for Thanksgiving week. Visited Srimani family in Neperville, where she had invited her big group of friends to celebrate Thanksgiving It was fun cooking together, shopping, travelling and playing with a big ‘family’. I prepared mushroom curry in Kodava style and the famous Dalma of Odisha. Everyone liked it and shared the recipe, while I learnt pumpkin bread, pumpkin pie, sweet potato bake and butternut squash soup. As it was a vegetarian group, the Thanksgiving was minus the staple Turkey. Turkey is reserved for the next thanksgiving!!
But, this year, I was truly grateful for the bounty of my home and family, known places and known faces. The priviledge of being surrounded by my loved ones and being able to return to the place I grew up, thoughts hovering again and again with which I closed November in my living room in Mysore.