Thanksgiving traditions around the world

CENTERPIECE The turkey is the symbol of Thanksgiving —Photo courtesy of The Plaza

On the 24th of November, we celebrate the great American tradition of Thanksgiving.

This year, it’s tough. The ‘harvest’ that is to be celebrated is bleak, reduced by climate change, inflation, corruption or maybe even just plain idiocy.

But when you are running low on hope, fuel up on gratitude. It will miraculously move you forward. And the good news is, there is always an abundance of it, if you are willing to tap it.

So you may have to substitute the turkey with chicken this year. But forget the commercial, hormone-infused chicken. Go plant-based—have a banana, bread and beer! Thank God you and your loved ones are alive and pray for a better tomorrow.

That’s the true spirit of Thanksgiving.

The American tradition

In the United States, Thanksgiving started in November 1621 when newly arrived Pilgrims and Wampanoag Indians gathered at Plymouth for an autumn harvest celebration. It was a three-day celebration attended by Native Americans and over 50 colonists.

Giving thanks was inculcated in both cultures: the English prayed before and after meals; the natives had a culture of giving thanks as part of their daily life. For the feast, the natives celebrated the harvest while the colonists celebrated surviving their first year in New England, following a harsh winter and an epidemic that felled nearly half the original group. Venison and shellfish were reportedly on the menu although today, the American tradition is known for roast turkey with stuffing, cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes and pumpkin pie.

Certain countries also celebrate Thanksgiving as an offshoot of the U.S. tradition.

Puerto Rico, a U.S. territory in the late 19th century, continues to celebrate like Americans on the fourth Thursday of November. There is usually turkey—whether a roasted, seasoned pavochón or stuffed with mofongo (a mashed plantain dish)—although there is also Puerto Rican flair with food items like roast pork with more plaintains, rice and beans.

The city of Leiden in the Netherlands celebrates U.S. Thanksgiving because the Pilgrims who feasted with the Wampanoags in 1621 started as a group of English religious separatists who had fled King James’ persecution. Before heading to the New World, many of them had lived in Leiden.

In Liberia, American-style Thanksgiving is also celebrated because freed slaves from the U.S. returned in the early 1820s, bringing back the tradition. In the early 1880s, the government passed an act declaring the first Thursday of November as National Thanksgiving Day, although the celebrations don’t involve turkey but chicken and cassava.

In Norfolk Island, an Australian territory in the Pacific Ocean, American-style Thanksgiving is also celebrated, dating back to the mid-1890s because American trader Isaac Robinson had put on an American-style Thanksgiving service at the All Saints Church in Kingston. They continue to celebrate to this day, with fruits, vegetables and cornstalks to decorate the church and sing American hymns on the last Wednesday of November.

Other Harvest festivals

In the West Indian island of Grenada, Thanksgiving Day marks the anniversary of a joint Caribbean and U.S. military invasion of the island in 1983. Grenada’s deputy prime minister had executed the prime minister and seized power. The U.S. came to the rescue and restored order in a matter of weeks. Grateful locals invited the soldiers to dine with them and surprised them with turkey, cranberry and potatoes. Hence, this American-style Thanksgiving celebration was born in this part of the world.

In Germany, Erntedankfest, which translates to “harvest festival of thanks,” is a religious holiday on the first Sunday of October. The tradition includes carrying an Erntekrone or “harvest crown” of grains, fruit and flowers to the church in a solemn procession and then feasting on such hearty fare as die masthühnchen (fattened-up chickens) or der kapaun (castrated roosters).

In Malaysia, the indigenous Kadazan-Dusuns people hold the Kaamatan harvest festival, a two-day holiday in May that pays tribute to the goddess Huminodun or Ponompuan. Legend says she was sacrificed to save mortals from famine, which is why their lands remain forever fertile. They serve rice and rice wines. The festival ends with a Humabot ceremony that includes games and traditional dance and song performances.

Barbados celebrates with a Crop Over Festival that lasts up to three months! This is a 300-year old tradition that started with workers at sugarcane plantations. The festivities include singing, dancing, drinking competitions and a competition involving climbing up a greased pole.

Koreans celebrate Chuseok, the first day of the full harvest moon, wherein families meet and welcome the harvest season. Families come together the night before to prepare rice cakes and hold rituals to honor their ancestors on the day itself.

South India celebrates Pongal, a four-day harvest festival. Each day has a distinct ceremony, such as discarding unwanted belongings in a large fire on the first day, preparing a Pongal dish on the second day, drawing a traditional form of “kolam” on the third day and a ritual of women praying for their brothers’ prosperity on the fourth day. There are also different versions of harvest festivals celebrated all over India.

Thanksgiving in PH

As a former American colony, Thanksgiving is also celebrated here. One of the first local Thanksgiving dinners took place in Pasay City on Nov. 24, 1899, held for Company D of the 30th U.S. Volunteers. Observance of the holiday continued until the establishment of the Philippine Commonwealth under Former President Manuel L. Quezon in 1935, though later on affected by the arrival of Imperial Japanese forces in World War II. After the war, it went on as a special public holiday from 1944 to 1965. In 1972, the holiday was moved to Sept. 21 by Former President Ferdinand Marcos, coinciding with the proclamation of Martial Law until the EDSA Revolution of 1986. Today, it is no longer an official holiday but many celebrate it anyway.

I hope you do, too! And that you always have much to be thankful for.

Happy month of Thanksgiving!